Coming from Nebraska recently, my son said to me, Father, you should write a book on farming, for you have given me lessons in farming, and I raise double the amount of oats and corn the farmers do in Illinois, and my land is no better than my neighbors'. If you can write a book and show the farmers how they can improve their systems of farming, you will be a great public benefactor. While traveling in the Old World, particularly in India and China, I saw the table lands worn out and abandoned. Will this not happen in our country unless the farmers change their systems of farming and study how to improve their land? If you could show the farmers how to improve their land in a practical way instead of making it poorer, wouldn't it be the best work of your life? In?uenced by this suggestion, I submit my ideas. Having lived on a farm for twelve years — from the time I was fourteen years old to the twenty-sixth year of my life — having plowed, mowed, cradled, and done every kind of work connected with afarm, and having owned and operated farms practically all my life, I feel that this experience gives me some knowledge of farming, and enables me to present some practical ideas to those who may be inter ested in my conclusions. I notice that the rich farmers are the men who have systems and keep their land in a high state of culti vation. The farmer with no system and land worn out is the poor farmer. I feel that it is the duty of every man who has had any experience in cultivating soil to give publicity to his efforts and progress along this line, and thus add to the success of the American farmer.
