130 IOWA DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE 



in these newer sources of meat supply. Not the retailer; because he will 

 be able to realize as great a profit on foreign meat as on the domestic 

 product. This, then, is essentially a problem for the producer. But I 

 must not dwell longer on these facts. 



It can not be too strongly emphasized that the importance of live- 

 stock production as a means of maintaining agricultural prospertiy is 

 clearly indicated by the history of nations. A mere comparison of the 

 types of farmers found in England, Scotland, Denmark and Holland with 

 the peasant wheat-growers of Russia or with the wheat and rice farmers 

 of India, is sufficient to illustrate the close relationship between livestock 

 and agricultural progress. 



Livestock production necessitates rotation of crops and frequent 

 seeding down. It requires activity and skillful management the year 

 around. It compels the farmers to observe market conditions. It brings 

 him in contact with men both as a buyer and as a seller. It enlarges 

 his heart, and broadens his sympathies beyond the routine of sowing, cul- 

 tivating and reaping. 



Grain farming, on the other hand, leads to continuous cropping without 

 proper rotations. It eliminates meadows and pastures. It involves the 

 strenuous life for a short season of the year, followed by a long period of 

 inactivity. It creates an itinerant laboring class and stimulates tenantry 

 rather than permanent farm homes. It fosters the land-robbing spirit. 

 Corn farmers, wheat farmers, cotton farmers, rice farmers, grain farmers 

 as a class, are strongly led to overdraw their soil fetility account, for most 

 men engaged in exclusive grain growing manifest small interest in a 

 permanent agriculture. The history of agriculture in this and other coun- 

 tries shows that the livestock producers have taken a leading part in ef- 

 forts to maintain and increase the fertility of soils, and in my judgment 

 the livestock producers can now be relied upon more than any other class 

 of farmers to carry forward the gospel and practice of the highest type 

 of permanent agriculture. 



While it is conceded that permanent maintenance of soil fertility with- 

 out livestock is possible, it is not practicable as a statewide policy because 

 it is not the highest type of agriculture and because few farmers can be 

 induced to comply with all the conditions necessary to make it effective. 

 While grain farming will ultimately supplant livestock husbandry where 

 conditions make such a system of agriculture practicable, it should be 

 resorted to only when and where livestock husbandry proves less profitable, 

 able. 



A very considerable extension of livestock farming in the corn belt 

 would materially increase the cash output from her farms and at the same 

 time save millions to the future wealth of the corn belt by keeping on 

 the farm a large percentage of the fertility that is now sold off in the form 

 of corn, oats and hay. 



It should be clearly borne in mind that if stock farming is reduced, the 

 need for grain is also reduced and the profits of grain farming will decline 

 as well as the fertility of the land. The production of livestock is a sup- 

 plement to grain growing — a further possible, entirely feasible and profit- 



