52 THE NEW BUSINESS OF FARMING 



for forty-seven years, and I gazed at the steep 

 pastures. "Cows cannot pay on this place," 

 was my off-hand decision. I watched the old 

 man handle his apple crop. His trees were not 

 properly pruned ; the orchard was sprayed at, if 

 the fishing season did not interfere; the pick- 

 ing was done carelessly by rough, uninstructed 

 help ; and the sorting and packing was carried 

 out in a medieval way. "Hiram is wasting 

 money every year right here," was my instant 

 conclusion. To get rid of the cows and devote 

 the time to the orchard was the obvious pro- 

 cedure. I learned all that in four weeks. It 

 has taken me a good many years to unlearn it. 

 To-day I have a dairy — not Hiram's cows, how- 

 ever — and I am running a general farm in com- 

 bination with a carefully conducted orchard. 

 Now I am making up the money that I lost by 

 overthrowing, instead of improving upon, 

 Hiram's system of cropping. 



The odds are in favor of your neighbors ' 

 being right. The experts at the colleges have 

 the general principles down pat. Draw cards 

 from both sources, but do not believe that you 



