The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-12-28

that the farmers energies may have
regular, continuous employment with
out undue strain in the specially busy
season which pertains to all consid-
cradle growing of single crops ana
without a subsequent period OF COM
parative idleness that is neither NOR
ally, mentally or financially profitable.
! Diversity too, guards against the fatai
effects of bad seasons. With the single
cropper, weather. ruinous TO his crop
may easily come to destroy 1t at a
particular juncture, when the season as
whole is not especially bad. The
maxim about not putting all of ones
eggs in the same basket applies here
With well diversified crops, fairly good
results can often be reached when Tor
some purposes the season has been
a strictly bad one. A well-choSen d1-
versity enables the farmer, too, to
have something to sell all the time;
and he is not so much at the mercy of
glut in any staple product. 1t is
not hard to see. for example, that the
farmer who during the past season
raised wheat and corn is in better
shape than one who raised little else
than corn. This example is of course
a very narrow illustration of diversity,
and with a wider range, results one
year with another would oe still better.
We are strongly impressed with the
view that the primary end and aim
of the general farmer should be to
make home, and to raise on the farm
everything that will contribute to
home-making and provide an abund-
ance of those things that promote
home comfort so that the outlay from
the farm may be reduced to the mini
num- The fortunate situation to be in
is to have the smallest possible outlay
for necessities, so that when SURPRISES
are sold all the money received from
them will not at once once have to be
laid out to supply actual wants. There
is no pretense, in the present state of
society, that this can be done abso-
lutely; but it can be done to a much
greater extent than it is habitually
done among the farmers throughout
the country. When it is done, although
low prices which give little or no profit
are always to be regretted, yet the
hardship is not so keenly felt, because
it goes to the reduction of profits in
stead of to the cramping of the neceS-
sary income for running expenses.
There is one obstacle to any very
considerable diversity of crops that
we do not rememb Der to have seen con-
sidered by those who have treated this
subject, and this is, as crops are now
grown, good deal of machinery is
used, and much of it is special ma
chinery. When one is growing a par
ticular crop in competition with those
who use labor-saving machinery, the
necessity that he, too, shall use such
machinery is strong; and if he under
takes to grow a considerable number
of crops where special machinery is
habitually employed he will be obliged
to have quite a number of these spec
ial outfits, and there is danger that
the investment will be too large for
profit when only moderate quantities
of each crop are grown. To illustrate,
there is now a considerable line of po-
tato machinery from the seed cutter to
the digger, and one could hardly af-
ford TO provide these implements for
very narrow area devoted to pota-
toes; and yet, if market prices are
based upon the cost of growing by the
use of machinery everywhere that it
can be used, the farmer who does not
have this machinery would be at
with respect to that crop.
We refer to the matter here, because
IN cropping ones way to the diversity
that is possible in his particular case, !
1T is one of the considerations that |
must be kept in view to guide him. |
While we think that diversity is a very !
important thing for the general farmer, |
yet 1t must be a diversity that it suited |
to his situation, and crops can not be |
promiscuously selected in order to pro- !
vide diversity. The selection must be |
made wisely and with care.