378 WISCONSIN STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY . 
I 
farm; others will chafe under such work, and will find their field 
in managing a large farm where, perhaps, less nicety is required. 
Low priced land makes comparatively poor farming a necessity. 
We cannot farm in Wisconsin as the English farmer must to suc¬ 
ceed at all. We cannot afford to expend $100 in underdraining 
an acre of land which will be worth but $30 when the work is 
done. We cannot afford to employ so large an amount of capital 
on cheap lands as is essential on high priced land. As our lands 
grow in value, necessarily we must more and more nearly ap¬ 
proach high farming. We cannot afford to grow even twenty 
bushels of wheat on land worth $200 per acre. 
As a rule, with many exceptions, but still so few comparatively 
as to make it almost universal, the Wisconsin farmer should not 
give exclusive attention to any one crop. General farming or 
mixed husbandry, in more than nine cases out of ten, will be 
found to be better than exclusive attention to any one specialty. 
The owners of cranberry marshes cannot be general farmers ; 
those who have no land fit for tillage cannot grow grain, but the 
general rule holds good. The reasons are many; too many to 
discuss in full. The general system enables the farmer to more 
economically make use of his own or hired labor; work can bet¬ 
ter be distributed throughout the year. It is, as a rule, better 
adapted to retaining or increasing the fertility of the soil, and it 
secures the farmer from the evils following the fluctuations in 
price in all specialties. With a good crop of tobacco or hops 
selling at 50 cents a pound, the specialty farmer can look with 
undisguised pity on his plodding neighbor; but if one of these 
-crops be his sole dependence and sell at three cents a pound, the 
plodding neighbor may be asked for the loan of enough money 
to buy the necessaries of life for a year. It seems paradoxical, 
but we cannot always afford to cultivate those crops alone which 
seem to pay the best. 
Nine farmers of each ten in Wisconsin should make it a part 
of their system to own and rear live stock of some kind, and 
many will do best to rear cattle, sheep, swine and poultry. We 
have learned that exclusive grain farming will not longer pay 
here. To restore the fertility of the soil; to enable us to market 
our products in a more compact shape, and for many other rea- 
