CHAPTER THREE 



5 



TILLAGE AND ROTATION OF CROPS AS RE- 

 GENERATORS 



AFTER taking over the whole of the Wilbur 

 farm lands, we had about one hundred and five 

 acres of what had been tillable ground, the 

 return from which was so unsatisfactory that 

 it seemed safe to risk trying some of the meth- 

 ods of tilling and cropping which were being 

 reported by experimenters as successful. Such 

 an affront to traditional custom would, in all 

 probability, have caused mutiny and desertion 

 had our help been really, truly bucolic; for the 

 ordinary farm man is so bigotedly devoted to 

 his forefather's blunders that, even when he 

 takes an intelligent interest in the world's 

 general progress, he scoffs at agricultural im- 

 provement, and cannot be depended upon to 

 give a new idea an honest trial. Fortunately 



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