3 o8 Wisconsin state agricultural soceity . 
only those animals which mature in one year and furnish an an¬ 
nual crop or profit, as the pig and the sheep, and only go into 
them the year after pork paid a good price and wool brought 60 
cents or upwards per pound. Groing into hogs or sheep under 
such circumstances, they of course pay large prices for the ani¬ 
mals to stock up with, especially the sheep. When prices go 
down, they sell off the flock at low prices, as soon as they can find 
buyers, quit breeding pigs, except for home use, and go back to 
wheat; thus, making a loss in the purchase, in the sale and in 
the return to wheat. This constant effort to grow the paying 
crops and breed those animals which are the most profitable, and 
assuming that those which paid the best last year are the crops 
and animals to produce that result, is very much in practice 
with many farmers, and is largely instrumental in causing the 
small profits and no profits, which some farmers realize year after 
year. 
The progressive and thinking farmer, the man who takes care 
of to day and provides for the future, has learned from the expe¬ 
rience of others, printed in boohs and the agricultural papers of the 
day , and his own practice of the knowledge so acquired. 
The true theory and practice of farming is to adopt a system or 
plan to run through a period of years, and follow it closely with¬ 
out regard to prices paid each year for the crops and stock grown ; 
and to pursue mixed farming, and grow largely the animals bred 
on the farm, making more of a specialty of some one kind. The 
teaching of the age to these men is, that farming cannot be success¬ 
fully and properly followed without systematic rotation, making it 
largely a business of flocks and herds. 
The early fathers of the world and their immediate chil¬ 
dren were shepherds and herdsmen. We farmers should be¬ 
come tenders, in a small way, of flocks and herds, by means of 
which we could, among other things, keep up the fertility of the 
land, so as to produce the required amount of grain and vegeta¬ 
bles for the consumption of the country, on much less land 
than they now grow upon, requiring much less labor and time, 
thereby enabling us to devote ourselves the more to the mental 
and social culture required, absolutely required, to fit us to live in, 
and take our share in the management of the affairs of, this enlight- 
