He will then
use in his own factory all the raw material he can raise. This will
again be returned to the land as a by-product, which will not only
maintain the fertility of the farm, but even increase it. If his cows
are of the best, they will yield butter enough to pay for their food and
to give a profit; the skim milk, fed to the hogs and hens, will give
eggs and pork out of all proportion to its cost; and everything that
grows upon his land can thus be turned off as a finished product for a
liberal price, and yet the land will not be depleted. The orchard is
better for the hens and hogs and cows, and they are better for the
orchard. These industries fit into each other like the folding of hands;
they seem mutually dependent, and yet they are often divorced, or, at
best, only loosely related. This view may seem to be the result of _post
hoc_ reasoning, but I think it is not. I believe I imbibed these notions
with my mother's milk, for I can remember no time when they were not
mine. The psalmist said, "Comfort me with apples"; and the psalmist was
reputed a wise man.
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