Selecting the Farm 



49 



increase. Yet the land must respond — and easily — 

 by intensive farming. But first the wild lands of 

 all the continents shall have been inclosed as farms. 

 South America, the land-hunter's paradise, will 

 fill up with immigrants long before the twentieth 

 century shall have passed. But intensive farming 

 has already begun in our America. Com cannot 

 be raised on Broadway, yet Broadway must have 

 corn. Cities must be fed and the world henceforth 

 will ever be demanding a yet more varied, abund- 

 ant, and invigorating food supply. The essential 

 measure of farm values is htiman necessity. Hence, 

 in selecting the site for a farm, when the mind is 

 made up as to what sort of farmland is desired, 

 the would-be farmer may well pause and weigh 

 conditions. In order to do business one must go 

 where business is done. In order to farm success- 

 fully, profitably, satisfactorily, one must use land 

 best adapted to the sort of farming he affects. 

 Climate, location, associations, are the three factors 

 which properly determine the choice of the site. 

 Climate determines all; soil can be made; so too 

 railroads, highways, schools, churches, post-offices, 

 markets. Associations grow. In brief, given a 

 favorable climate and primacy of location, all 

 that remains to be done man can do. 



All the traditions declare that health lies in 

 farming, doubtless because no man can be a weak- 

 ling and a farmer. The hayfield is supposed to 

 restore lost health; when doctors fail, we take to a 

 farm and carters. This tradition of identity of 



