TYPES OF FARMING 81) 



variation in acreage planted. Variations in the price of 

 potatoes from twenty-five cents to one dollar are common. 

 Cabbages vary from $2 to $60 per ton. Fresh vegetables 

 are exceedingly sensitive to any overproduction. Farmers 

 who are growing annual crops usually find it best to grow 

 about the same area year after year, regardless of prices. 

 The attempt to adjust the acreage to conditions is too 

 uncertain. If conditions call for the abandonment of a 

 crop in a community, as they sometimes do, one must 

 distinguish between this and temporary overproduction, 

 a distinction that is sometimes hard to make. 



Farmers who are on the marginal regions for the growth 

 of a product should be very careful about taking up the 

 enterprise when prices are abnormally high. Horses have 

 to be very high to make colt production pay where feed 

 is very high. When horses rise to an unusual price, it 

 may be that it would pay to raise them, but this is just 

 before the drop in prices is likely to occur. Instead of 

 starting to raise colts when horses are cheap, the farmers 

 of the Atlantic States usually start when the climax in 

 prices has been reached, and get a good supply of colts 

 on hand just as low prices come. 



Farmers who live in regions only fairly adapted to 

 apples, or hops, or oranges are not likely to be attracted 

 by these crops until prices are abnormally high; that is, 

 just before a drop is likely to occur. 



It is best for the city, as well as for the farmer, if pro- 

 duction can be so adjusted as to supply the market at a 

 fair price, and so avoid the violent shifts in price that so 

 frequently occur. The Crop Reporter is of much use in 

 this way. Much more good could be done if the long- 

 time enterprises were kept track of, such as colt produc- 

 tion, apple and orange planting, etc. Another difficulty 



