ARGUMENTS FOR DIVERSIFIED FARMING 17 



from a wheat crop of one or two hundred acres. This 

 does not prove it a safe enterprise, however. It is always 

 hazardous; always more or less of a gamble. I am allud- 

 ing, of course, to non-irrigated lands. 



Within the range of my own experience and observa- 

 tion a farmer with 200 acres feels that he is doing well 

 when he clears $500 to $1,000 a year either from grain 

 or a dairy. How many can show this profit, either in 

 cash savings or substantial improvements? 



The man on such a tract of land who produces for 

 market 100 hogs, 20 beeves, 200 sheep, 500 chickens and 

 a variety of vegetables, with a small grain crop, will 

 double discount the exclusive wheat grower. Instead of 

 risking his year's time and his whole investment on one 

 product he divides his risks into eight or ten parts. There- 

 fore, if his grain is a failure he can stand the loss be- 

 cause he has various other interests to fall back on. If 

 he has bad luck with his hogs and chickens, he still has 

 an assured income from many other sources. ^. 



Another almost equally important point is the dis- ty 

 tribution of labor over the year. The extra labor re- 

 quired during seeding and harvest on a grain farm eats a 

 big hole in the ordinary profits. 



When one considers the teams and machinery involved, 

 together with the upkeep, it becomes doubtful whether 

 there is any actual profit in wheat raising. The invest- 

 ment in land, teams, machinery and labor is substantially 

 the same whether the yield is ten bushels or twenty. 



With the other principle established, the amount of 

 labor required is pretty much the same at one time of 

 the year as another. Nobody knows better than the 

 farmer how vexatious and costly the uncertainty of labor 

 has become. 



I claim without fear of successful contradiction that 

 the farmer who diversifies his products will accomplish 

 more on one hundred acres than a grain grower or milk 



