BALANCED FARMING 19 



country axe so large that hired men either are, or should be, 

 employed for the proper cultivation of the soil. With the in- 

 crease of general education, culture and convenience of the farm 

 homes it is becoming increasingly unpleasant to keep the sort 

 of hired man, in most places available, in the home and at the 

 table with the family. Their labor is desired, their society is 

 not. A cottage built on the farm at some distance from the 

 main buildings, where a hired man of steady habits, and family 

 anchor, may be given quarters, has been found helpful in secur- 

 ing better grade men and in keeping them; but to make this 

 profitable there must be ample employment at all times of the 

 year. The dairy herd furnishes such employment. 



Dairying on High-priced Lands. — It is not uncommon, even 

 in this country, for good land near large cities to be leased for 

 $20 to $40 per acre per year for truck gardening, or other in- 

 tensive purposes. In some portions of Europe, however, not- 

 ably in Holland and the Channel Islands, where land is seldom 

 sold, farms frequently rent at from $50 to $75 per acre per year 

 to be used for milk and butter production. The sale of high 

 quality butter permits high rentals to be paid. Butter is a con- 

 centrated product of both labor and material. Dairying requires 

 more labor than most other forms of livestock husbandry, yet 

 recompenses well if done intelligently. 



Balanced Farming. — The labor problem is difficult to solve 

 under the one-crop system of farming. It is natural that the 

 settlers of any new country should turn their attention to a few 

 crops for which the place is best adapted, but to cling too long 

 to the single crop has been shown to be unwise. Thus the north 

 central portion of the United States suffered because her farmers 

 clung too long to small-grain growing. Clover, cultivated crops 

 and livestock were needed, and are now being introduced. The 

 South, as a whole, has clung too long to the single crop, cotton. 

 The boll-weevil may be doing for the soiithem farmers what 

 the chinch bug did for the northern, forcing them to abandon 

 the single-crop system and adopt crop rotation and the keeping 

 of livestock. While in the West an insufficient number of cattle 

 is kept, there ai-e places in the East where too many are being 



