426 FARM MANAGEMENT 
perhaps also the planting of corn. With a greater diversity 
of crops he may adopt a system of rotation, devoting each 
field by turns to small grains and flax, corn and potatoes, 
hay and pasture, and other products. With diversification 
and a good scheme of rotation, the productiveness of the 
soil is kept at a high standard and agriculture may then be 
considered to be on a permanent basis. 
Extensive and Intensive Farming. — When land is very 
cheap it is the common practice to farm as large an area 
as can possibly be seeded and harvested and to reduce the 
amount of labor per acre to the minimum. The receipts 
per acre are small, but the total income is made satisfactory 
by the extensiveness of the operations. Generally there is 
no diversification, the work is done poorly, and the yield be- 
comes lighter from year to year. In old countries where 
land is scarce and high priced, a very different system usually 
prevails. The farms are very small, and they are fertilized 
and worked with the greatest care. Crops are raised which 
require a great deal of labor and their value per acre is rela- 
tively large. This is called intensive farming. Farmers 
often make more money from a small place under intensive 
methods of cultivation than others make by working many 
times as much land. Of course the Northwest is best adapted 
to fairly extensive farming operations, but the time has come 
when we should cease striving for the largest possible acreage ; 
more care should be taken to increase the yield by diversi- 
fication, fertilization, and better cultivation. The history 
of agriculture shows that as a farming country grows older’ 
there is a gradual change from the extreme type of extensive, 
single-crop farming to diversification and somewhat more 
intensive methods. The wise farmer adapts himself gradually 
to these changing conditions. 
