12 



Another point worth considering in the selection of a 

 crop, is the use that can be made of it providing it can- 

 not be readily sold. 



Articles of good keeping qualities will usually find a 

 market somewhere, but some of the most profitable kinds 

 of produce are perishable, and must be disposed of in 

 some Avay at once. 



It is a good point in any product that it is worth 

 something to feed to stock providing there is no sale for 

 it in the market. If, for instance, we raise turnips or 

 cabbages, and by reason of a large crop the price is so 

 reduced that they hardly pay for marketing, they are 

 worth what it costs to raise them to feed to cattle. If, 

 on the other hand, we happen to have a surplus of onions, 

 tomatoes, or cucumbers, we must encounter loss, because 

 these articles have little or no value, except as food for 

 man. Did time permit, many other points might be 

 mentioned, having a bearing on the selection of crops. 



But after all, nothing can be raised whicli will invari- 

 abty prove profitable, under the most excellent manage- 

 ment. The best rule seems to be to select a few special- 

 ties, and make their cultivation a study. It is poor pol- 

 icy to change continually from one thing to another, or 

 to attempt to produce many commodities at once. If 

 we decide to raise potatoes as a market crop, the fact 

 that potatoes are too cheap to pay well this year, is not 

 a good reason why we should not plant our usual breadth 

 of land in potatoes next spring. Those farmers who 

 thought they had discovered in the Early Rose, the phil- 

 osopher's stone wherewith to transmute the baser ele- 

 ments of the soil to gold, will have discovered their mis- 

 take, and next year will plant something else, perhaps 

 the Trophy Tomato or Norway Oats. 



