ELEVENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART IV. 127 



ing among country folk which will necessitate systems of agricultural 

 practice that constitute the highest type of agriculture. Im other words, 

 it is possible to build up an enduring civilization around systems of farm- 

 ing which do not exclude livestock and which will not only profitably 

 ultilize to the fullest extent the agricultural resources of the United 

 States, but develop an intelligent and influential farming class. 



6. While it is true that the fertility of a farm can not be maintained 

 simply by returning to the farm the manure made by livestock fed upon 

 the crops grown on that farm. It still remains true that most systems of 

 livestock farming call for the purchase of less plant food than any system 

 of grain farming. 



It would seem, therefore, that the easiest and most logical procedure 

 in developing a permanent agriculture would be to work out a variety of 

 systems of livestock husbandry which would retain as much as possible 

 of the fertility removed in cropping, supplementing whatever lack of 

 fertility there may be by the purchase of mineral fertilizers, or the pur- 

 chase for feeding purpose of the large supplies of grain produced and 

 bound to be produced by grain farmers. This buying of grain to feed 

 need not be done with the thought of building up the stock farmer's farm 

 at the expense of his neighbor's, but in a public-spirited and economic 

 sense assist in making a good market for the grain produced by those 

 who, for personal reasons, prefer to remain grain farmers, and who may, 

 if they will, keep up the fertility of their lands by plowing under rather 

 than feeding the legumes they grow, and supplementing this method of 

 manuring with whatever mineral fertilizers they find advantageous. 



I can not leave this subject without calling attention to the fact 

 that Illinois is selling from the state in her grain crops a very consid- 

 erable amount of fertilizer. 



Exact statistics showing the amount of farm products shipped out of 

 that state and used for manufacturing purposes are not available. It is 

 believed, however, that the amount of corn reserved on the farms for 

 feeding purposes would fall considerably short of fifty per cent of the 

 total production of the state. Illinois produced in 1909 approximately 

 350,000,000 bushels of corn. Assuming that one-half of this is shipped 

 off Illinois farms, attention is called to the fact that the 175,000,000 bushels 

 so shipped would fatten each year over 2,500,000 steers, or their equiva- 

 lent in other livestock, and that the fertilizer produced by this feeding 

 would increase the annual possible production of the state $15,000,000. 



It is argued that the corn belt is primarily a grain growing section 

 and that its agricultural development lies along grain growing lines. Un- 

 doubtedly grain growing is to be a leading and permanent branch of the 

 agricultural endeavor of the corn belt, but there are several systems of 

 livestock farming that are not incompatible with grain growing, and that 

 are necessary for its permanent success. I believe the time will come 

 when it will be considered bad economics to transport numberless car- 

 loads and shiploads of grain to far distant lands for feeding purposes. It 

 may be even practically impossible for transportation companies to handle 

 such traffic. Already railroads are having difficulty in handling the 



