Though plants need air they should be protected from draughts and sudden blasts of air, whether hot or cold. For this reason, the intelligent gardener will consider the effect of wind upon his crops and where necessary will plant windbreaks. If you look about you, you cannot fail to see the ill effects of strong winds in the odd shapes of forest trees; and in badly arranged gardens you will find the same effects in the fruit trees and small fruit bushes and in the stunted crops. Plants shape themselves to their surroundings, and the way they shape themselves is determined by inherited qualities; so it may be said that the success of the plant depends upon its surroundings and upon the seed it came from. FOOTNOTES: [3] NOTE.—In regard to muck soils, it is not a case of excess of nitrogen but lack of potash which makes potash valuable for such. Samuel Fraser. CHAPTER VIII. CROP ROTATION. In agriculture on a large scale the difficulty is how to arrange the farm business so as to make it pay. It is only of late that we are beginning to understand that agriculture is a business, and that to make it pay one must apply business principles. The best farmer is not necessarily the one who knows the most “Science,” but the one who is able to fit his science, his facts and his business in together. The market value of special crops is so high that the grower can afford to provide the extra manure and other expensive materials to keep the land in good condition. This is the chief reason for the use of great quantities of stable manure in market-gardening, far greater quantities than are needed for mere food of the crops. So if you find that you are advised to use more manure on your small plot than some farmer you know uses on his big field, do not feel that you are being imposed upon. He could not afford to use so much and you cannot afford to use less. The farmer on a large scale has to let part of his low priced land rest in clover once in a while. You cannot afford to let any of your small area rest, so you must make up to the land by giving it plant food enough.