It is also helpful to settle where your family is known. The region selected should be familiar, if possible. It is unwise to plunge into farming as an owner-operator until you have tried yourself out and know whether you like farming as a business, whether you can make a success of it, and whether you have chosen the kind of farming and location you want. Mary experienced farmers stress the desirability of starting in as a tenant rather than purchaser. After that you may be in a position to manage your own farm. If you have had no experience, you should start a farming career as a hired man. You are almost certainly doomed to disappointment and failure if you undertake so complex a business without some experience on a good farm, under the guidance of a man who is a successful farmer.
To begin with, you should not buy or rent a farm unless you have had real experience in farming. How do you select a farm?Īfter carefully weighing the pros and cons of farming versus other occupations and deciding in favor of the former, you are ready to consider the questions: Shall I buy or rent a farm? Where shall I farm? What kind of farming shall I undertake?Ī wise choice takes many factors into account. In addition to knowing things like these, a farmer should have a sense of business, be able to sell his product where and when it is most profitable, keep adequate records (so as to know where he stands financially), and, above all, plan his production to take advantage of the most favorable markets. Likewise, fruit farming requires expert knowledge of tree growth as well as grafting, pruning, spraying, and fertilizing. The dairy farmer and rancher must be acquainted with the characteristics of his cattle their feed requirements, their breeding habits, and their common illnesses.
He who wishes to succeed in the culture of wheat, rye, corn, tobacco, or cotton, for example, must be thoroughly familiar with the characteristics of the plant, its germination and growth, the diseases and blights to which it is susceptible, and the methods of controlling them. To be successful, a farmer must know a great deal about his land and the products he plans to raise.Įvery plant and animal is a complicated organism. In the future this will be even more true.” The successful farmer still needs to have a love of the land, and practical experience, and plenty of courage and determination but in addition he now needs a thorough grounding in the science of his calling.
It is a never-ending science, with many angles that open up avenues leading in all directions. “More and more,” says Secretary of Agriculture Wickard, “agriculture is becoming an exact science.
0 kommentar(er)
