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Yon. LXXII., No. 4 
NEW YORK. NOVEMBER 29. 191 
WEEKLY 
A STUDY OF “ INTENSIVE FARMING/’ 
Can There be Too Much Education? 
With much interest have I read the different 
views presented by conservative fathers and pro¬ 
gressive sons in regard to new ways in farming. 
Farming is a business in which experience and a 
sufficient working capital are the most important 
if they seem profitable to him. because, due to his 
advanced age, it will not be possible for him to 
duplicate his accumulations if anything goes wrong. 
We must further not forget that not all new ideas 
in farming prove satisfactory. A good many do not 
come up to expectations, and are discarded after 
they have had a trial at the farm. 
I do not know to what extent the college educa- 
by those farmers 011 the invented capital is seldom 
higher than—if it is as high a?—that made by our 
farmers 011 our more extensively- managed farms. 
A farmer cannot materially increase the yield of 
his crops and. what is more difficult, maintain max¬ 
imum yields on soils that have been under cultiva¬ 
tion for hundreds of years, and some poor from the 
start, without great expense. Large quantities of 
actors. Though some farmers’ ways may not be 
finite up to date, and can be improved upon. I 
do not blame a father of advanced years and prob¬ 
ably limited means for going slowly in adopting new 
"ays, with which he is not familiar, and for the 
successful carrying out of which he may lack the 
necessary capital. We must also not overlook that 
'very man reaches an age when he will hesitate to 
invest his accumulations in new enterprises, even 
tion of our young men and the heralded intensive 
farming so often referred to in our agricultural 
papers, and by commissions sent to Europe to study 
farm practice there, influence young men fresh from 
college to be dissatisfied with their father's manage¬ 
ment of the farm. Though the yield obtained by 
European farmers is higher, sometimes twice as 
high as ours, the expenses—and these are never 
mentioned—are also higher. The percentage made 
manure and fertilizers, excellent soil cultivation, and 
a crop rotation in which every crop is placed where 
it will make the most of the applied manure, and 
will leave the soil in the best mechanical and chem¬ 
ical condition for the next crop, are absolutely 
necessary to accomplish this. Improved crops, which 
make better use of the increased fertility of the 
soil, and without harmful effects to their quality, 
have to take the place of the common crops. The 
