36 BULLETIN 648, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



supplying food to the value of from $75 to $100 per person than 

 those furnishing either more or less than that range. 



It would appear that the farmers who have produced the largest 

 supply of family food at home have not thereby, on these farms, 

 reduced the amount of food purchased. Rather, those who produced 

 the most also purchased the most, since it is seen that the percentage 

 of the total food bought is fairly constant. Those who produced the 

 most food lived much better than those who produced less. The ques- 

 tion of producing supplies at home seems, therefore, on these farms 

 at least, to be hot one of reducing the expense for purchased products, 

 but it is rather one of a better standard of living. 



CROPPING SYSTEMS. 



In any region where economic conditions have been fairly uniform 

 and operating over a considerable term of years, the type or types - 

 of agriculture tend to a stability of form that changes only in re- 

 sponse to changes in the economic forces. Wide departures from 

 practices that fit the economic factors at work are likely to lead 

 to financial disaster to those persisting in them. The result is the 

 automatic elimination of those continuing such wrong practices, and 

 the eventual disappearance of the latter from the farming of the 

 region. It will usually be found in an old established region that 

 the average practices more or less closely approximate the best 

 practice. 



The proper selection of farm enterprises is a large factor in deter- 

 mining the success of the business. Of equal importance is the com- 

 bining of these enterprises in the proportions that best fit the local 

 conditions. Such a combination will be one that most efficiently 

 employs the farm crew and equipment. Ordinarily, it will be one 

 that distributes the labor, both man and work-stock, rather evenly 

 throughout the year. But it is not to be assumed that under any 

 set of conditions there is only one type of farming that may be 

 safely followed, or that within the type there is not a certain range 

 of choice in the selection of enterprises to be adopted and in the 

 proportions in which these enterprises should be fitted together. In 

 an area like Brooks County especially, with a growing season extend- 

 ing nearly throughout the year, and with a long list of crops adapted 

 to the soil and climate, the choice is a rather wide one, largely de- 

 pendent upon the abilities and inclinations of the individual farmer. 



Much may be learned from a study of the average practices, and 

 more especially of the practices which long experience has shown to 

 be the ones best adapted to the region. This does not imply that 

 the average practices are necessarily the best that could be devised. 

 On the contrary, it will usually be found that they may be improved 

 upon in important respects. Nevertheless, a study of the returns 



