ANNUAL REPORT—INDUSTRIAL NEEDS. 
19 
deciding whether they will grow this crop or that, whether 
they will give their strength mainly to grain growing or stock- 
raising, and if to stock-raising whether it shall be to sheep¬ 
raising, cattle-breeding, or pork-raising—that before they set¬ 
tle any of these questions, they look the ground over in the 
light of reason and experience, and then adapt their course to 
the circumstances by which they must necessarily be affected. 
That a man living a thousand miles from any sufficient mar¬ 
ket, and with no means of transportation but wagons drawn by 
ox-teams, should devote his energies and means to the raising 
of potatoes or turnips; that a farmer having elevated lands 
and dry pastures, only fit for sheep-feeding should devote him¬ 
self wholly to the breeding and rearing of short-horn cattle; or 
that a man located within twenty minutes of New York or 
Philadelphia, and upon lands admirably adapted to the pro¬ 
duction of vegetables and small fruits, should sow every square 
yard of it to wheat and rye; this would strike any thinking - 
and intelligent man as the height of absurdity. And yet blun¬ 
ders equally senseless are made by not a few of our farmers 
in Wisconsin, and are persevered in from year to year. 
The earth is scarcely more versatile in its productiveness 
and suitableness to certain ends than the mind of man in its 
adaptability to the various pursuits of life. And yet few pa¬ 
rents are so stupid that the question never arises in their minds 
as to the special aptitudes of their children, when the time comes 
for giving them some sort of preparation for the occupation 
they are to follow. 
Few lands are so limited in the range of vegetation but that 
a variety of crops and stock may be profitably grown upon 
them. But there are limitations nevertheless, and they can¬ 
not safely be ignored. Why is it that so few of our farmers 
study them ? 
Our disregard of conditions is further manifested by the 
readiness and uniformity with which we all rush into a novel 
enterprise, or tarn our whole strength upon a single branch of 
business which, as we have already insisted, can only be made 
