some more experienced person. If he has among his
acquaintances a successful farmer of mature years he will be fortunate
if he can secure his advice.

CHAPTER VIII

THE FARM SCHEME

Farming is no pink tea. It is a serious business. After the young
farmer has selected the farm he must develop his farm scheme. He must
contemplate well and seriously the philosophy which underlies his
plans. Unless he sees clearly what he is striving to attain and unless
he understands the effect of his methods, he must fail in great
measure to obtain his goal.

Satisfactory results in farming cannot be obtained as a general
practice if the man is only interested in the results of a single
year. For this reason the itinerant tenant system will not be
satisfactory unless the landlord has worked out a satisfactory scheme
which he requires his tenant to follow.

It is not enough that a man shall grow a single large crop, but it is
necessary that he should continue to grow a satisfactory crop at least
at regular intervals. For example, a piece of land may be adapted to
cabbage, celery, potatoes or hay. Assume for the moment it is adapted
to cabbage and that by one or more seasons of preparation an enormous
crop of cabbages may be secured. This fact is of little value unless
sufficient quantity is raised and the process can be repeated
annually. Cabbages cannot be grown again on this particular piece of
land for from four to six years on account of club root. If the farmer
does not have other areas which he can bring into cabbages year after
year, for from three to five years, then he becomes a failure as a
cabbage raiser. Even a perennial, like alfalfa or asparagus, should
form a part of the general scheme of crop production if the most
satisfactory results are to be obtained.

There are two general questions at the basis of all farm schemes: (1)
How to obtain a fairly uniform succession of cash products year after
year, and (2) how to keep up or improve the fertility of the soil
economically while doing so. In other words, how to keep the
investment from decreasing while it is earning a satisfactory and
fairly uniform income.

It is necessary, therefore, to consider what products are to be sold
and what are simply subsidiary to the cash products. The cash products
may, of course, be soil products or animal products, but more likely
they will be both. When animals form a l