342 AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS 



phosphorus or of potassium to balance fertility, keeping nitrogen 

 always the limiting element, a better adjustment of crops to soil and 

 to locality, and the organization of more economic systems of farming, 

 with special attention to live stock, the distribution of labor, and the 

 investment of capital. All the advice given out by the University 

 of Illinois at this juncture is based upon this principle, because invest- 

 ments of this character, whether of labor or of capital, are certain to 

 increase the yield with relatively slight expense. Having done what 

 we can in this way, we may await with confidence the intensive stage, 

 the coming of which will be characterized by a permanent rise in 

 prices. 



The greatest hazard in farming is the season, against which 

 improved methods are only a partial protection. The farmer with 

 little or no capital must confine himself to practices that will pay 

 every year, while the man with considerable means is free to follow 

 those more expensive methods which pay best in the long run, even 

 though an adverse season now and then might show a loss. This lack 

 of capital cannot be remedied by short-time loans to the small farmer, 

 nor by loans of any kind to the farmer whose yields are limited by 

 bad cultivation or to the one incapable of managing his business upon 

 the more complex and, to him, more dangerous basis that will be at 

 once established when he attempts to increase his yield by a larger 

 use of capital. 



It is commonly said that not enough floating capital is invested 

 upon American farms, and it is doubtless true, but it must be remem- 

 bered, both in extending credit and in making loans, that the American 

 farmer has had little experience in handling capital. Manifestly, 

 therefore, when he borrows, both he and the lender must be satisfied 

 that the loan will be judiciously used, or it may result disastrously. 



The student of agriculture cannot fail to see the danger of over- 

 capitalization in attempts to secure abnormally high yields, a danger 

 which increases as the practice spreads, for although one man may 

 safely increase his yields without depressing the price, if all farmers 

 were to follow his example the price would drop and all would lose 

 money. Under this principle a few farmers will always be practicing 

 methods not practicable for the mass. 



This circular is issued, not as an argument for poor farming nor 

 for the continuance of old-time methods, but to point out that we 

 are not to step at once and blindly into expensive forms of intensive 

 agriculture. We should ascertain and practice those relatively in ex- 



