State Convention—Lessons of the Year. 335 
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Mr. Sherman: When I first commenced farming, I commenced 
in the State of New York, and my first operation was a failure. 
I commenced keeping some stock; bought some steers. One of those 
hard winters came on. I was young, not being used to keeping 
stock; my hay got short, consequently grain was high, and the cat¬ 
tle got poor, and the next summer I declared I wouldn’t be caught 
so again, so I sold them. That season we had plenty of hay and 
a light winter. That experience has been of more value to me 
than all the successes I ever had afterward. I find most of Wis¬ 
consin is fitted for mixed farming, and the larger the farm the bet¬ 
ter it pays. In some countries, small farms, perhaps, would pay as 
well in proportion to the cost as large farms, but in Wisconsin, 
and the further you go west, the more stock you should raise, and 
the more acres you should have. I have been a close observer all 
mv life of my neighbors as well as of myself, and I have noticed 
generally that failures are caused by too often changing, as I did 
on the start. If a farmer is going to wheat-raising, if he fails one 
year, he should not give it up and plant corn. I couldn’t estimate 
how much has been lost in the town in which I live, from plant¬ 
ing excessively of corn this year, but it is many thousands of dol¬ 
lars. Last year the wheat-crop was almost an entire failure, conse¬ 
quently the farmer said, I won’t go into wheat, I will plant corn- 
The corn-crop failed and consequently they lost. I have endeav¬ 
ored to keep along steadily in my farming, though I don't think 
it a good plan to depend on wheat every year. I think if one de¬ 
pends entirely on wheat from year to year, he will fail. Some years 
it paj^s. This year my wheat paid me better than anything else; 
last year it was a total failure. I wouldn’t recommend special 
crops, though they sometimes pay well. 
