The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1880-05-28
Growing a Variety of Crops.

The leading staples which experience
has shown to be well adapted to various
sections will probably never be entirely
abandoned The time will never come
when the Central Westery States will not
grow immense amount of Indian corn, or
when cotton will not be the leading staple
of the South. Whatever changes are
made will be in addition and supplement
tary to the staples now grown. Forty
years ago wheat was not only the chief
but almost the exclusive staple of this
part of Western New York. Monroe
County produced more wheat in 1888 than
any other county in the United States, as
shown by the census of 1910. Other crops
were grown even then; but they were pro-
duced on limited scale, and mainly for
home consumption. Now apples and
other fruits, potatoes, corn and coarse
grains, and dairy products, from large
share of the sales of Monroe County far
mers. This county is still as eminent in
agricultural products as it was forty years
ago. Its aggregate production is certainly
much more valuable now than then; but
no single crop attracts attention as wheat
formerly did.
The tendency to diversified farming is
good one. 1t not only pays better, but
it requires more skill and forethought
The culture of single staple is apt to be-
come matter of routine, and tends to
repress activity of thought. Flowing,
sowing or planting, and harv esting become
merely mechanical. In regular, un-
changing rotation of one or two crops
there is little chance for skill or fore
thought. But the farmer who grows a
variety of crops, who adapts his rotation
to the changed necessities of each year,
must keep his wits about him and his
hands and brain busy if he would succeed
| think it also requires harder work.
The operations of haying and harvesting
in former days occupied only small pro-
portion of the year. During this busy
was done by larger number of men, but
at little greater expenditure of labor for
each one than now. Men work as hard
as they can in the hay and harvest-feld
at the present, while for all the rest ofthe
year the farmer of to-day works harder
with body as well as brain than did the
farmer of forty or fifty years ago. There
is no time from early spring until late in
the fall which farmers can take for rest
and recreation without interfering with
the regular programme of farm work. 1
am not sure that winters, even in our
northern latitudes. will lona be left for
rest. Some of our best farmers find wiu-
ter fattening of sheep and cattle full as
summer, and those who succeed best say
that it is work which more than any
thing else demands their personal care
and attention. The ordinary farm help
can not be trusted, where SO much depends
on regularity and close attention, as well
as good judgment.
But it is not to be inferred that because
modern farm work is constant hurry, it
is therefore constant drudgery. The
variety of employment, which keeps far
mers always busy, furnishes also neces.
tity for incessant activity of thought and
brain. Work needs more thought, partly
because it is not so much in ruts, and
partly because it is done SO largely by
complicated machinery, which requires
careful and constant supervision. The
greater variety of crops a farmer grows
the more need he has to plan and contrive
SO as to bring his work around at the
proper time. This thinking promotes
intellectual activity; and it is by this pro-
cess that the farmers of the present day
are becoming yearly more observant and
thoughtful, while those who try to farm
in the old ruts are falling to the rear
TV,n r En3uIpy IN E1.nyni,1oY nn1 0bronacTe