ANNUAL MEETING. 61 



the outlook would be a gloomy one were it not that here aud there people 

 are begiuuing to meet this condition by rotation of crops combined with 

 live stock. We find occasionally an intelligent system of live stock hus- 

 bandry on our farms, and where we And that we find the answer to 

 the problem of maintaining soil fertility. 



I want now to bring before yon the necessity of having live stock 

 on the farm. The only possible way in which we can build up our land 

 and maintain its fertility is by raising live stock on the farms. Pei-- 

 tilizers have been tried, but they do not add anything of a permanent 

 nature to our soil. By putting a chemical fertilizer into our soil we 

 are enabled to get a good crop. We assist the elements which are in 

 the soil already to produce a large yield. There may be a lack of one 

 element in the soil, and we supply that by a chemical fertilizer; but 

 we add nothing of a permanent nature to the soil by that method. Every 

 hundred dollars worth of corn takes thirty-six dollars worth of fertility 

 from the soil by this method. We are selling our soil by the ton. If 

 you study the question of beef production, or the keeping of live stpck 

 on the farm, you will find that every hundred dollars worth of beef 

 will take off in soil fertility not more than ten dollars. BVery hundred 

 dollars worth of butter takes off about eleven cents worth of fertility. 

 If you go into a live stock community you will find increasing yield of 

 crops, good homes, good buildings, good fences, improved farms and 

 improved farmers, if you please. In the sections where grain is grown 

 exclusively there is a contrast. I do not mean to condemn the grain 

 farmer, not at all, but I do believe that Indiana ought to be growing 

 as many bushels of corn on one-half as many acres as are now under cul- 

 tivation. The other half of the acreage should be in pastures. If j^ou 

 go into the grain gi'owing sections you will find that farmers do not 

 have good barns, their fences as a rule are not given much attention — 

 they do not have to keep their stock in— and as a rule careless methods 

 are used and the farmers are not so progressive as in the sections where 

 live stock is raised. I suppose there are corn growers here today who 

 will say that I am wrong, but I know that between the grain gi'owing 

 sections and the live stock sections there is this difference. The grain 

 farmer does not travel about as much as the stock farmer does, nor 

 does he make the improvements the stock farmer does. The stock farmer 

 has his profits distributed from one year to another and throughout the 

 year. Has It ever occurred to you that that is one of the ways in which 

 we are to solve the labor question on the farms? If we distribute our* 

 labor throughout the year and can give the men employment from one 

 month to another throughout the year we are going to have a better 

 class of farm laborers. You can do this by raising live stock on the 

 farms. If a man furnishes work for his farmhands the year through 

 he will be able to secure a better class of men than does the farmer 

 who only employs his men for five months or through the busy season. 



