82 THE FARMER AND THE NEW DAY 



We shall also need to provide easy facilities by which 

 those who are partially disabled, either physically or 

 nervously, can be placed upon the land. It will not 

 do to arrange for these people under the expectation 

 that invalids can do farm work. But men who need 

 to be out of doors, and can do fairly active work or 

 men only partly disabled can farm small pieces of land 

 in many cases to advantage. This is destined to be a 

 part of a national policy for taking care of the con- 

 siderable current of men and women who would seek 

 the country if they knew the way. 



Game Farming. Just as there are soil specialties, 

 so there are animal specialties, growing of pets, of fur- 

 bearing animals, of game. In general, the state itself 

 or large land holding concerns can carry on these types 

 of farming to best advantage. In some portions of the 

 country, naturally wooded, and'in connection with the 

 forestry policy, game farming can be made a consider- 

 able factor both in the production of meat and in the 

 increase in value of animal products. A variation of 

 game farming is fish farming, that is, the use of fresh 

 lakes, ponds and streams for the production of fish. 

 We are just beginning the development of this field. 



The Soil as a Machine. The average American 

 thinks of the soil merely as a storehouse of plant food. 

 But in all older settled regions farmers discover that it 

 is desirable to make a highly intensive use of the soil, not 

 so much a reservoir of fertility as a container of fer- 

 tility. Commercial fertilizers are added to the soil 

 and furnish the major part of the plant food. Glass 

 farming is dependent upon this use of the soil; as are 

 also crops that are grown out of their normal season. 

 When an effort is made to get unusual yields of special 

 quality, the same principle is brought into operation. 



