The hap-hazard, unskilled methods of the past are disappearing. Science is lending her aid to the tiller of the soil, and the wise ones are reaching out their hands in welcome. BUSINESS METHODS NEEDED As farming is our principal business, it follows that those who conduct this vast and varied enterprise should be business men. The farmer is a producer of goods, and so might be regarded as a manufacturer,--the original meaning of the word is one who makes things by hand. He is also a seller of his own products, and a purchaser of the products of others, so that, to some extent, he may also be regarded as a trader or merchant. Enterprise and business skill are the requisites of the manufacturer and merchant. Can the farmer succeed without them? No business can prosper without method, economy, and industry intelligently applied. No man works harder the year round than does the American farmer, yet too many are going back instead of advancing. In such cases it will be found that there is enough hard work for better results, and that the cause of failure is that the industry has not been properly applied, and that economy has had no consideration. Economy does not mean niggardliness, or a determination to get along without tools that your neighbor has purchased. A neglect to secure the best tool needed might be classed as an extravagance, a waste, if the tool in question could have added to the quality and quantity of the output, without the expenditure of more labor. Business common-sense is taking the place of old-fashioned conservatism and scientific methods are no longer sneered at as "book-farming." CHAPTER II DOCUMENTS EVERY FARMER SHOULD UNDERSTAND All property implies an owner. Property is of two kinds, real and personal. The former is permanent and fixed, the latter can be moved. Every occupant of realty holds it through a deed, which carries with it sole ownership, or through a lease which carries with it the right to occupation and use in accordance with the conditions as to time and the amount to be paid, set forth in the written instrument. A deed carries with it sole ownership, a lease covers the right of use for a fixed period. AS TO DEEDS The purchaser of real estate, say a farm, should receive, from the person selling the property, a written instrument, or conveyance known as a deed. The deed must show clearly that the title to or interest in the property has been transferred from the seller to the buyer. Before the deed is signed and delivered, the buyer should know that he is getting a clear title to the property described in the conveyance. In order to insure the accuracy of the title and thus avoid subsequent complications and perhaps lawsuits, the paper should be submitted to some good lawyer, or other person acquainted with real estate law and the methods by which titles are traced from the first owner to the present possessor. TITLE ABSTRACTS