156 THE FARMER OF TO-MORROW 



it critically according to text-book methods, 

 they know something about that soil that the 

 curious farmer does not know. 



But he in turn has facts they desire. What 

 did he plant on this acre last year, the year be- 

 fore, ten years ago? Did wheat pay better 

 than rye ? Did corn pay better than potatoes ? 

 What of his rotations? Here we are getting 

 the testimony of the experiences of one man. 

 The experts go to his neighbor; to a man in 

 the next county who is plowing the same type 

 of soil ; to a man in the next state, or ten states 

 away. Here are hundreds of testimonials 

 which can be resolved into means and ex- 

 tremes, the tradition of the Old World farmer 

 rolled into a handy unit. We are not waiting 

 a hundred or a thousand years. When a soil 

 type has been examined thus in all of its de- 

 tails, the Bureau of Soils is able to say to the 

 farmer what type of farming is best suited to 

 his peculiar acre. 



And thus gradually (for the mass moves 

 slowly, especially when advice is printed in 

 books) we are coming to an intimate knowl- 

 edge of the individual acres, which will enable 

 the Farmer of To-morrow to increase the pro- 

 ductiveness of his land without a correspond- 



