It must be borne in mind,
however, that plants can be improved by cross breeding and that by
keeping a variety too long on the same ground its quality
deteriorates, and the plant tends to revert to the type natural to
it before domestication.
When land is cropped every season, the nitrogen, potash, and
phosphorus removed from the soil must be replaced in some form,
otherwise you have diminishing returns, while the expense for labor
is the same. In farming small areas for specialties you cannot
easily invoke the principle of rotation by enriching the land with
legumes, to be plowed under while green, the bacteria on the roots
of which gather nitrogen from the air, but you must get stable
manure or buy chemical fertilizers to maintain the fertility.
Special crops divide themselves naturally into two classes: those
raised for immediate shipment to market, and those to be hauled to
canneries. The first type are generally prepared in a more expensive
way, and need more care and attention. Each class requires its own
special forms of packing to conform to market peculiarities fixed by
the taste of consumers.
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