Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 33.djvu/370

356 From the prominence given to the economics of farm management and the inseparable relations of practice and science, as factors in the progress of agriculture under its present well-defined conditions, the notion must not be entertained that a complete revolution in practical methods is needed. The general principles of farm practice have been well established by the teachings of experience, and the leading rules of the art are not likely to be superseded or essentially modified by any discoveries in science. The old landmarks which have been obscured or lost sight of from too exclusive attention to specialties of comparatively little importance, must be restored and clearly defined, as a foundation on which a superstructure of improved practice in harmony with the principles of science and the prescribed conditions of production may be safely developed. New methods are not so much needed as a systematic adjustment of details, under the old established rules, in order to secure greater certainty and exactness in results.

Development, and not revolution, must be the watchword of progress, and the generally accepted methods of practice should only be modified by a proper arrangement of details to adapt them to the new environment. Exclusive attention to special farm products, and intensive systems of cultivation, have been urged as a royal road to success, in what has been called "progressive agriculture," by those who have noticed some of the improved methods in other industries, and attempted to apply them in agriculture without any definite knowledge of existing methods of farm practice, or the available applications of science in the art. These mistaken views do harm from the defective data and hasty generalizations on which they are based, which tend to bring true science undeservedly, into disrepute, and also by diverting attention from the real methods of improvement.

From wide differences in the conditions of production, it must be readily seen that the centralization and specialization in manufactures, and the consequent subdivision of labor, which have been found essential to success in other industries, can not be applied in agriculture. With the exception of the comparatively few cases in which peculiar local conditions may warrant a departure, to some extent, from correct principles of general practice, it will be found that the specialization of products, instead of mitigating the evils arising from active competition, will only add to their intensity.

The tendencies of high farming are in the same direction. Sir John Bennet Lawes has clearly shown, from experimental data, that intensive farming can only be successfully practiced when comparatively high prices for farm products are obtained; and he concludes that high farming can not be recommended as a remedy for prevailing low prices. In agriculture, increased