[Illustration: Walter S. Tomlinson, Bryan, Ohio, began thirteen years ago with 225 acres, partly rented, to determine whether a farm could be made a satisfying enterprise. As tenant he has paid to himself as landlord $1,000 each year for rental and $500 each year as salary. The rest of the profits have been invested in 240 acres of additional land and in improvements. Mr. Tomlinson's specialty has been hogs, but he says it does not matter so much about the lines one adopts as the attention that is given them.] [Illustration: Dr. W. I. Chamberlain, Hudson, Ohio, graduate of Western Reserve University, former state secretary of agriculture, later college president. Farmer and institute lecturer and widely known for his editorial work on farm journals; has been able, amid his other activities, to manage his farm of 116 acres. The net cash income above all expenses from the farm for 1890 to 1907 was $113,966 or $1,370 per year. Of this income $8,877 were obtained from a ten-acre apple orchard.] There will still remain the question of the present condition of the land. For example, the Pennsylvania station obtained in a certain season 42 loads of hay from nine acres of land. The same season, from exactly the same soil type, the station obtained eight loads of hay from 20 acres. The condition of the soil was different, which the previous history of the two tracts of land fully explains. It is of the utmost importance, therefore, to distinguish between the natural fertility of the soil and the condition of the soil. A further example will help to illustrate this point. At the Rothamsted Station a certain type of soil has for over 60 years produced annually about 12 bushels of wheat an acre without fertilizer, while with a complete fertilizer the same type has produced 30 or more bushels. The 12 bushels may be said to represent the natural fertility of the soil, while the additional 18 bushels may be said to represent the condition of the soil due to fertilizers or to other conditions. On the other hand, the natural condition of some other soil type might be only eight bushels, or still another type might be 16 bushels.