CROPPING AND FEEDING SYSTEMS 171 



Animals Related to Farm Management. Most farmers raise some 

 livestock. They should know the nature of animals and their require- 

 ments. The care, the character of feed and the breeding that will give best 

 results are generally questions of animal husbandry. From the standpoint 

 of farm management, farmers must decide what classes of stock they will 

 raise. This will be determined by many factors. The class of livestock 

 to be kept will depend largely upon the character of the crops to which the 

 farm is best adapted. On some farms, horses, sheep and poultry may be 

 most desirable. On others, dairy cows for market milk will prove most 

 profitable. The problem resolves itself into making plans for a specific 

 farm, arranging it into fields, selecting the kinds of crops and the classes of 

 livestock that are best adapted to it, and deciding upon the proper propor- 

 tion of each. The buildings, equipment and capital must all be considered 

 in this connection. 



Cropping and Feeding Systems are Related. When crops are of prime 

 importance on the farm, the livestock kept is generally selected chiefly 

 for the utilization of by-products. Statistics show that four-fifths of the 

 farms in the United States keep dairy cows. Two-thirds of the farms make 

 butter. The small dairies are maintained largely on cornstalks, straw and 

 hay of poor quality, and the cows are pastured on land that is not well 

 adapted to the growing of crops. 



On most farms a few swine and 50 to 100 head of poultry are kept 

 largely as scavengers to utilize what would otherwise be wasted. In some 

 instances a few sheep are kept in the same way, and more might be kept in 

 small flocks at low cost, to the advantage of both the farmer and the 

 consumer of meat. 



On farms where livestock predominates, crops become subsidiary and 

 the crops grown are those that meet the needs of the livestock. 



Adaptation of Cropping and Feeding Systems. Crop adaptation must 

 take into account the texture and structure of soils as well as the rotation 

 of crops, but there is a further adaptation involved in the cropping system 

 as well as in the feeding system. These two are dependent upon each 

 other. If crops are grown chiefly for livestock, consideration must be 

 given not only to yields, but also to feeding values. Corn generally pro- 

 duces more digestible nutrients per acre than any of the small grains, 

 clovers or grasses. For example, 12 tons of ensilage, a fair yield on an acre, 

 contains approximately 3600 pounds of digestible nutrients. An acre of 

 timothy yielding 2 tons contains only about 1700 pounds of digestible 

 nutrients. An acre of clover yielding 2J tons of hay contains about 2300 

 pounds of digestible nutrients. The clover also contains much more 

 protein than the timothy. Crops for feed must be compared in this way, 

 and definite information from the standpoint of yield and feeding value 

 may be ascertained from the tables given on "Feeding Values of Different 

 Crops" in Part IV. i 



Adaptation must also be considered from the standpoint of cost of 



