The Survival in Farming, 
257 
THE SURVIVAL IN FARMING. 
Two assertions have been frequently made in connectioii with 
the depression from which agriculture has been long suffering. 
One is that high farming does not pay when prices are low ; 
and the other is that small farmers have withstood the depres- 
sion better than large farmers. My object is to examine each 
of these statements, and to ascertain, as far as possible, what 
degree of truth, if any, there is in either or both of them. 
The first assertion, which will be first examined, has at 
present been given in its barest terms only. Those who make 
it usually imply, and frequently state, that high farming has 
been less remunerative, or more unremunerative, than low 
farming during the period of depression. Some have gone so 
far as to say that the better a man has farmed the more money 
he has lost ; while others have not hesitated to declare that the 
days of high farming are over, and that the cheap and exhaus- 
tive system which prevails in America and other new countries 
is the only type of farming which will survive in the future. 
In all questions in dispute a great deal depends upon defi- 
nitions. The reputation of high farming has suffered greatly 
through the extravagance and indiscretion of some of its votaries, 
so that it is important at the outset to state that high farming 
is not necessarily extravagant farming. It appears to me that 
the best definition of hiorh farminof is obedience to the old and 
wise injunction : '• Feed your_ land before it is hungry, and 
clean it before it is foul." Anyone who constantly and thoroughly 
carries out this direction must be a high farmer. It depends, 
however, upon the judgment which he displays in obeying the 
injunction whether he is a good high farmer or a bad high 
farmer. Those who have thrown the greatest discredit upon 
high farming have been men whose knowledge of the business 
they have adopted was in inverse proportion to the capital at 
their disposal. In feeding land before it is hungry it is neces- 
sary to successful results, not only that the land should be fed, 
but that it should be fed with the particular food which it 
requires, in such quantities as experience has proved to be 
desirable under difierent circumstances. The application of the 
wrong manures, or of extravagant quantities of the right 
manures, is likely not only not to yield a profit, but even to do 
more harm than good. Similarly, in cleaning land before it is 
foul, discretion as to methods and cost of labour is of the utmost 
importance. Large sums of money have been wasted upon 
