309] BUTTER-PRODUCING AREAS 85 



the " one-crop system " ; but here again it was principally 

 the economic force determining relative values of products 

 that caused farmers to turn to the cow. In a reminiscent 

 account 1 of conditions in western Pennsylvania, going 

 back to 1849, this statement is made: "Gradually it be- 

 came apparent that the great West was about to supersede 

 the eastern sections in supplying seaboard cities with beef, 

 and as gradually the people turned their attention to other 

 branches of husbandry. Some tried sheep and for a time 

 prospered, but fluctuating prices and the many ills that 

 the sheep is heir to proved disheartening, and the poor 

 sheep are compelled to ' vamoose the ranche ', and make 

 room for the cow." This is a correct statement of the situ- 

 ation. Under existing economic conditions dairying was 

 the most profitable and the safest type of farming that of- 

 fered itself to many sections less adapted to the raising of 

 staple crops. 



It is a fact, historically, that the fertility of land has been 

 largely maintained through the application of manure. 

 That this is the quickest and most profitable way, however, 

 has been disproved. The fertility of the soil can be main- 

 tained much more readily and at a lower cost by plowing 

 under clover and other nitrogenous crops. C. G. Hopkins 

 says, " a 50-bushel crop of corn removes from the soil 74 

 pounds of nitrogen, and eight tons of average manure or 

 two tons of clover plowed under will return 80 pounds of 

 nitrogen to the soil ". 2 The contention is that by leaving 

 on the land the straw of grain crops and all the grass cut- 

 tings except the last one which is used for seed, the pro- 

 ductivity can be restored and maintained at a greater profit 



1 Second Annual Report of Transactions of the Pennsylvania State 

 Dairyman's Association for 1876, pp. 311-4. 



1 Soil Fertility and Permanent Agriculture, p. 230. 



