550 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



DEPENDENCE OX OUR OWN KESOUKCES. 



There is this difference hetwecn our situation and that of the older 

 countries of Europe: Hitherto we have been exporters of our feed stuffs 

 rich in fertilizer constituents, while they have been importers. They have 

 been drawing on the nev/ly settled regions of the world for materials with 

 which to feed their crops. Now that we have reached the period where 

 we need to do the same thing, there are no great areas of virgin soil from 

 which we can draw such supplies. Indeed, it seems that the countries of 

 Europe will not alv/ays be able to draw on supplies of this character from 

 other parts of the world, because they will soon be needed in the regions 

 where they are produced. The American farmer can therefore not hope 

 at least in the near future, to import feeding stuffs with a view to enrich- 

 ing his land, but he will be making a long step forward when he quits ex- 

 porting these materials and returns them to his own soil. Whatever short- 

 ages there may be must be made up by the intelligent use of commercial 

 fertilizers. There is no danger of a nitrogen famine. We can grow legum- 

 nous crops to supply nitrogen. We can also, by judicious use of the ref- 

 use from grain and other crops and by the use of intelligently planned 

 crop rotations with occasional catch crops for green manure, keep up an 

 abundant supply of humus. Even if wo had no other resources for main- 

 taining the fertility of the soil than leguminous plants and humus-making 

 crops we could, on much of the land in this country, maintain a much 

 higher standard of yields than obtains at the present time. 



EXAMPLES OF SUCCESSFLTL FARMING. 



Many examples could be given of remarkable results accomplished on 

 American farms by the introduction of improved methods of soil manage- 

 ment. A few instances will suffice. In New York State there are large 

 areas of lands which formerly produced satisfactory crops, but which in 

 recent years have been reduced in fertility to the point where their cul- 

 tivation is no longer profitable by the methods in vogue in that section. 

 Two years ago a representative of this Department induced a farmer in 

 that section to grow 4 acres of potatoes under his direction. This farmer 

 had been growing potatoes for many years, using seed which had been 

 grown for sixty years in that locality without selection to maintain its 

 quality. His ordinary yields of potatoes were about 40 bushels per acre. 

 He was induced to secure new and improved seed and to cultivate in the 

 most thorough manner. As a result, these 4 acres produced a yield of 250 

 bushels of potatoes per acre. Similar results have since been secured by 

 a number of other farmers in the same locality. 



An Illinois farmer a good many years ago established on his farm a ro- 

 tation of corn, corn, oats, clover. The corn and oats were fed to hogs, 

 which were allowed to graze on the clover. Very little feed was purchased, 

 but everything raised on the farm was converted into manure and re- 

 turned to the land. At the beginning of this system of farming the yield 

 of corn was about 35 bushels to the acre. Ten years later it had risen 

 to 80 bushels per acre, the average yield for four consecutive years being 

 80.4 bushels per acre. 



