INTRODUCTION 3 



pies he may safely hold the property much 

 longer, for it takes many years to raise apple- 

 trees to the bearing age, and competition will 

 be delayed. 



There are plenty of individual opportunities 

 in farming as in everything else. The best 

 equipped will win out. One man succeeds where 

 another fails. If you want to farm, for heaven's 

 sake farm! Do not be discouraged by the ob- 

 stacles, for they make the fun. Seventy per 

 cent, of city business men fail at some period 

 of their lives, but comparatively few farmers 

 have a visit from the sheriff. Although many 

 city men who go back to the land live in dread 

 of such a visit they rarely go to their neighbors 

 for advice. They keep on with their " modern 

 methods ' ' instead of owning up that their neigh- 

 bors know more than they do. If it pays to 

 add two tons of fertilizer to the hay-field, the 

 farmer will do it. If it doesn 't pay, the farmer 

 will not do it. The city man will try it out if 

 he can figure out a profit, but the bets are even 

 that his figuring is wrong, that he has omitted 



