Corn Growers* Association. 315 



In order to maintain a supply of humus and thus preserve the 

 available fertility of the soil, it is absolutely necessary on tillable 

 lands to adopt a rotation of crops. You have a good deal of land in 

 Missouri that may fairly be called tillable, and much that is actually 

 under cultivation, that should be given over to permanent pasture. 

 You are strictly in the blue grass country, and in a climate that en- 

 ables you to utilize the blue grass, under proper management, twelve 

 months in the year. You can also grow great timothy, and could 

 grow clover if your lands were once put in proper physical condi- 

 tion and properly drained. 



Under these circumstances why, when the world has never yet 

 had enough fine butter, and when the sheep wears a golden hoof^ 

 should you wear out your teams and yourselves in trying to grow 

 corn on this kind of land ? If you would go out of your way to kick 

 a sheep, as many Missourians would, or if you don't like to milk 

 cows, repent of your sins against the sheep, and make up your mind 

 to milk cows. We have a good deal of similar land in Southern 

 Iowa, and our farmers are just learning that the road to fortune is 

 not in shocking after the binder, or plowing corn on a short corn row, 

 but in getting their land to grass and combining sheep and dairy 

 farming. 



A much larger proportion of your land should be in permanent 

 pasture, and when once in permanent pasture should not be disturbed 

 till your youngest grandchild is of age. Blue grass pasture and 

 good health are alike in this respect, that the farmer never realizes 

 their value until he plows up the one and loses the other. 



It is easy for the farmer to adopt a rotation where a rotation is 

 desirable, as it is on land under tillage. The rotation here should 

 be corn harvested and put in shock or in silo ; winter wheat drilled 

 in the stubble; clover; manure to be applied on the clover after the 

 first crop is removed, and the second crop with the manure turned 

 under for corn the next year. 



The adoption of a rotation necessarily involves some kind of 

 stock farming in order to utilize the clover and other grasses which 

 form so essential a part of the rotation. The Missouri farmer need 

 have no difficulty in determining what kind of stock he should use. 

 The Missouri mule is famous the world over. Cotton and sugar 

 cannot be grown without him. The Boers would have wiped the En- 

 glish off South Africa had it not been for the Missouri mule. The 

 miner cannot do without him, and they all recognize this fact by 

 the large prices they are willing to pay. Hence, if th§ Missouri 



