98 THE SOILS ^ND CROPS OF THE FARM. 



most or all their food by grazing in good pastures. 

 Hence liberal provision for grass or some of the clo- 

 vers should be made on most stock farms. In most 

 cases it is also best that the greater part of the grain or 

 other food given them should also be produced on the 

 farm. The by-products of manufactures are com- 

 ing more and more in use, and it is well this is so. 

 Oil cake or meal, whether of linseed or cottonseed, 

 will doubtless become a still more popular food than it 

 now is. Bran, etc., may often be purchased with profit, 

 but corn and oats will long remain the chief grain 

 food for farm animals. Wheat will probably long 

 continue to be the great bread grain for civilized man. 

 The great majority of the farmers north of thirty- five 

 degrees or thirty-six degrees north latitude will do most 

 wisely, so long as present conditions continue, to make 

 some or all of these crops the chief product of their 

 farms. 



There are large areas in which minor crops may be 

 more profitable than these great staples, and in very 

 many neighborhoods a few farmers may do well to se- 

 lect seme special line of work. Thus in the neighbor- 

 hood in which this is written, large profits were former- 

 ly made on broom-corn. Now this crop is scarcely 

 grown in this vicinity, but the presence of a large 

 cordage manufactory makes the culture of hemp an 

 especially profitable branch of farming, and a number 

 of farms are almost exclusively devoted to this crop. 



Cotton will certainly continue to be the chief farm 

 crop of some Southern states, and it is probable the 

 area in the Gulf states in which sugar cane is most 

 largely grown will extend. It is believed, however, 

 that more variety of crops, allowing some rotation, 

 would be better in these regions. 



