20 How THE FARM PAYS. 



(Mr. C.) A farm suited for mixed farming is safer than when the 

 farm is devoted, as in some cases, to growing exclusively one crop 

 safer because you are not thus compelled to carry all your eggs in 

 one basket. If the season is wet and cold, the grass crop will respond 

 to it, although your corn crop may fail, and vice ver. a. Stock raising, in 

 connection with tillage, compels the raising of root and forage crops, 

 some of which will always prove profitable under proper management, 

 no matter how the seasons or the markets vary. It also has the ad- 

 vantage of allowing the farmer to keep the most of his hands during 

 the entire year. In the vicinity of towns or villages, summer board- 

 ing houses, or hotels, the growing of the finer vegetables or fruits, in 

 addition to the regular farm crops, will always prove profitable. A 

 single acre of fruit or vegetables, when sold direct to the consumer, 

 will often yield more profit thin an entire farm of one hundred acres, 

 But you, Mr. Henderson, who have had such ample experience in 

 these subjects, will append to this work brief and plain instructions 

 of how to do it. 



Q. You are aware of the fact, I suppose, Mr. Crozier, that it is cur- 

 rently believed in the Southern States, and probably in other parts 

 of the country, that lands are exhausted almost irreparably by the 

 continued growing of tobacco or other exhaustive crops on them. I 

 would like to hear what is your opinion on this matter. To give you 

 my own opinion in advance, I believe it is a fallacy to a great 

 extent. 



A. I should say that continual planting of one crop on the same soil 

 will impoverish it until it becomes worthless. 



Q. Do you mean permanently worthless ? 



A. No. 



Q. That is just the point I wish to make that the injury to the 

 land is only temporary. 



A. Yes; and by judicious cropping with grasses or clovers the land 

 may again be brought up to its former fertility. The reason for the 

 popular opinion in this matter, and which I believe has led to a great 

 deal of unnecessary loss, is that when such lands are first broken up, 

 they will produce good crops with very little or no manure, because 

 the plants have the roots of the grasses, leaves or other organic 

 matter to feed upon, but when this supply of plant food is exhausted, 

 without a corresponding amount of manure being again applied, the 

 land is robbed of nearly all the fertility which it had, in the first two 

 or three years after being broken. That I think is the true cause of 

 this wide-spread belief that has allowed thousands of acres of land to 

 lie waste. 



