42 THE NEW BUSINESS OF FAEMING 



hundred bushels of potatoes, but I established a 

 market for my product at a higher price than 

 my neighbor could command. And I did it be- 

 cause of the confidence which the good yield 

 gave me. I became a salesman. I sold to the 

 best stores at a higher price and held a quantity 

 of potatoes for sale as "seed" at a price deter- 

 mined by the quantity produced per acre in my 

 field. 



My neighbor was the better farmer, but I was 

 the better salesman. We each won out in our 

 own specialty. 



Our section is not a potato region; neither 

 soil nor physical characteristics are adapted to 

 their economical cultivation, and so the cost 

 figures have no value save to illustrate a single 

 concrete instance of Yankee shrewdness vs. un- 

 digested "book learning.' ' 



The beginner is sure to overestimate the im- 

 portance of large returns per acre. He cannot 

 banish from his mind the image of the big crop 

 as a badge of success in agriculture. He will 

 point to the comparative per acre yield of pota- 

 toes in this country and Germany and conclude 



