628 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



quality of the live-stock kept, and with the profits that come 

 from crops. Even with very profitable live-stock it nearly always 

 pays to have some cash crops. One should be very sure that he 

 is right before he allows the sale of cash crops to drop below a 

 fifth of his total sales. On the other hand, unless the returns 

 from live-stock are very poor or unless the amount of money is 

 very limited, it usually pays to get at least half of the income 

 from stock. 



Ordinarily there should be three or four important products 

 sold that is, three or four products, no one of which is neg- 

 lected because of the others. 



The highest excellence in one particular does not insure a 

 good income. No matter how good the cows and crops, if the 

 farm is too small the income is not likely to be large. With a 

 large farm and good crops, the returns will not be good if the 

 crops are fed to live-stock that brings poor returns. 



If a farmer is doing well in one of the above points but not 

 so well in some of the others, he is likely to get greater returns 

 for a given effort by strengthening the weak points rather than 

 by spending more effort on the thing that is already good. It is 

 better to have a well-balanced farm than to excel ever so much 

 in one particular and neglect other equally important points. 



Other points often prevent the profits from rising as high as 

 they might go if the entire business were well balanced. The 

 wrong kind of farming is sometimes followed. Inconvenient 

 buildings, a poorly-laid-out farm, or failure to plan the work 

 ahead may lose time. There may be too much or too little 

 equipment. Occasionally too much is invested in buildings or 

 too many horses are kept, or any one of many other factors 

 may be wrong. But in the great majority of cases, if the four 

 factors here emphasized are good the other mistakes made by 

 experienced farmers are not suflficient to prevent at least a fair 

 profit. When these four points are good, a mistake in having an 

 extra horse or in wasting some time will still leave a profitable 

 farm, although not so profitable as it might otherwise have been. 



Every farmer will do well to compare his farm with the aver- 

 ages for Tompkins, Jefferson, and Livingston counties (p. 626). 



