FOOD, PURE FOOD, AND FRESH FOOD 37 



each year which we fed to the Toggenbergs. Eventu- 

 ally we hope to produce all our own feed, as we be- 

 lieve it thoroughly practicable and extremely profit- 

 able for homesteaders to do so. An acre devoted to 

 corn and wheat, and a half acre devoted to alfalfa, 

 soy-beans, or closer, would take care of the feed for 

 all the livestock needed by the average family, espe- 

 cially if the fields are well fertilized and properly 

 cultivated. Commercial feed has cost us consistently 

 two or three times as much as farmers in the grain- 

 growing sections of the country receive for corn and 

 other grain. Sometimes it has been four times as high. 

 By the time freight, storage, and handling charges are 

 added to the price the farmer has received, the price 

 has no resemblance to that in the primary markets. 

 Even though it costs the homesteader much more to 

 raise feed than it does the farmer who operates a grain 

 "factory" in the West, it would cost him less to do so 

 than to buy feed. 



Since we have raised so little of our feed, what we 

 have actually done with our livestock operations has 

 been to substitute a feed bill monthly for the milk 

 and butter bill, and the egg and poultry bill, which 

 we used to receive in the city. The feed bills, however, 

 have not only been much smaller, but have enabled us 

 to enjoy a quality of dairy and poultry products 

 much higher than we were able to secure in the city. 

 Some day we shall clear away enough stumps and 

 roots on our new place so that we can cut out the 

 feed bill as well. When that time comes, it will be hard 



