66 WE FARM FOR A HOBBY 



It is a mistake to feed all the crops to cows. Cow 

 manure is rich in nitrogen. Without enough phos- 

 phorus and potassium, the two other principal 

 plant foods, to balance the nitrogen in cow ma- 

 nure, the farm would go all to leaf and vine. 



The proper plant food balance is attained by 

 feeding pigs, sheep, and poultry along with the 

 cows. Hence it was as well for the good of the 

 farm as for variety of diet that I decided to put 

 all four kinds of livestock on at once instead of 

 one kind at a time. Furthermore, I knew pigs and 

 chickens were highly desirable as salvagers not 

 only of garbage and waste garden truck but also 

 of large quantities of skim milk that would other- 

 wise be a total loss. 



The crux of the home-farm problem is the 

 question: How much food will a human being 

 eat? The answer is: About three-quarters of a ton 

 a year, roughly ten times his own weight. This 

 sounds like a lot, but compares favorably with the 

 hen, who will eat fifteen times her weight per 

 year. To be sure, man at least outside show busi- 

 nessdoes not lay five times his weight in eggs. 

 Back in 1932 I did not know how much a human 

 eats and there were few data to go on, in figuring 

 it out. I had the U. S. Army ration table, the Hud- 

 son's Bay Company's ration for voyageurs; Kep- 

 hart's lists, and my own records, of provisionings 



