Waterbury evening Democrat., 1905-08-30
ONE CROP PLAN UNSAFE.
Rational biversihcation Has Proved to Be the Better Way for
 the Farffief.


 Progressive farmers, ever alert for the newest and best, have discussed both sides of the question of diversih- cation versus specialization. Each con tlusiot is doubtless based upon lhdivid-- tai needs and capabilities. The spirit of the age working through the law of the division of labor points to the ad- vattages acctuing to him who does one thing and does that we'll" Continuity of concentration counts. The man who finds his proper sphere. and sticks to it, succeeds. The man with two many irons in the fire often bufhs his fingers.
 On the other hand, nature seems to protest at production of any one of her species. Too many hens, for ex- ample. do hot thrive together. t1x elusive crops are followed by diseases and disaster Nature strives always to preserve balance atd-as iti in- terhatiohal 1ife-petmits no husky member of the family too mitch power.
 The eastern former divides his do- main into ten-acre fields He uses much chemical fertilizer He practices rotation persistehtly and intelligently. He raises every year his small crop of clover, corn, wheat, barley and timothy tthis being about the order of succession from year to year.. He has a few pigs a small flock of poul- try. two or three COWS. a truck patch, an orchard and d wood lot. He tistial- ly makes living comfortable or not as his temperament demands, but he seldom makes more. .
 The westernef aims also to make hls homestead self-supportihg and buys nothing he can prohtably raise. but he generally selects some one feature. as wheat, corn. beef cattle, hogs, fine horses. or dairy cows, which he works for all he's worth Oh his big money crop he concentrates his energies. Many Kansas and iowa farmers are get ting rich. This is a fact, whatever the causes. ....-.
 The soitherner grows ote-half bale of ten-ceht cotton to the acre and buys western corn for man and mule and loses money. A bale to the acre costs about six cents d pound, but two bales can be grown on atl acre and afford a profit at five cents. Let the southern farmer on 20 acres raise five acres of COW peas and five acres of corn. when his cotton does not require his attention and on the remaining ten acres he can raise eight bales and he need buy no fertilizers. He would make money The average cotton planter derives no benefit from his salubrious climate and his mules eat their heads off from July to December. ..-.
 The lesson of all these Illustrations Is to specialize along lines of rational diversity.
 The westether has learned 1t, tho eastern and southern agricultural prob lens must be solved along this direc. tion.
 For example, one man has cueum Der farm under glass and ships thou sands of cueumbefs to New York and ! Boston at si50 to s250 dozen. Ht makes money in his speciality. Neai | Hastings more than 2500 acres of trist 1 potatoes have been planted. A hortherf 1 doctor who came to Florida for his health has a pineapple farm of mort than an acre under a slate foof-ht glass and uses speckled sunshine ot wood fires at will one gardener solt from one acre last winter 10000 heads 0 lettuee-12 inches across and solid al cabbages-for from three to five cent head. Another specialist lost 20 acre of sugar cane by the January, 1905, col, wave
 Every tale has a moral writes H. A Bereman. in Farmers Voice. and that 0 the practice of varied agriculture is Put not all thine eggs in one basket, which is as good now as in Ben Frank lih's day. because too many eggs fl one basket means havoc for some 0 them.
 The motto of the specialist who eai control his conditions is Put al thine eggs ln one basket and watcl that basketl"