24 



THE PEOPLE OF THE FA KM 



bility of certain crops to particular soils and special 

 climatic conditions. During the past generations such 

 questions were not carefully considered, and so count- 

 less unwise beginnings in farming were made. These 

 attempts are now wisely being given up. Certain old hill- 

 side farms, covering in their total area thousands of acres, 

 can be devoted to forestry more profitably than to general 



BARN AT Mr. VERNON. 

 Washington was the most scientific farmer of his day. 



farming. Such farms are not really being "abandoned"; 

 they are merely being put to a more natural use. 



If the South were to stop growing cotton ; if the West 

 were to stop growing the sugar beet ; were the central 

 states to stop growing corn ; that is, were any great sec- 

 tion to fall off seriously in the crops especially adapted to 

 its soil and climate, then a note of alarm ought to be 

 sounded. But nothing of this sort has taken place. The 

 general result of the forces that are modifying the rate of 



