34 FOR BETTER CROPS 



years, grain ; third, fourth, and fifth years, grass and clover •, 

 sixth and seventh years, grain ; eighth year, corn ; then repeat 

 by eight-year rotation period. 



Stock Feed More Profitable in Iowa — In Iowa, on the 

 other hand, where corn, mainly fed to live stock, and pastures of 

 clover and grasses yield more value to the acre, the grains are 

 being crowded down to a limited area. 



There these crops are often chosen because of the need of a 

 nurse crop to produce during the year of seeding, the timothy 

 and clover sown for hay or pasture in following seasons. And 

 though wheat and flax do not average as much value to the acre 

 as corn and oats, barley and rye do not produce as much feed value 

 to the acre as corn or grass ; and though all these small grain 

 crops deplete the soil more than crops of corn or grass, yet in 

 limited areas they round out the farm management plan. 



If we can sell more live stock products Iowa and surrounding 

 states can afford still further to reduce the acreage of these soil 

 consuming, weed increasing crops, unless prices for these com- 

 modities increase. The world needs the amount of cereals now 

 grown, but other countries where labor is not so dear are will- 

 ing to produce them at a rather low price per acre and per worker. 



Only better varieties for each and all of the many localities, 

 better preparation of soil by rotation, good cultivation, and cheap 

 effective fertilization will make it practicable to retain our 

 present acreage. 



Handicap in Competition -with Live Stock — Live stock 

 and the crops they require are a paying proposition with which 

 grains for sale must compete. Grains have two great handicaps— 

 they bring in less money and they leave the soil impoverished 

 instead of richer. 



As a matter of practical business most of the small grains in 

 American agriculture are produced in connection with live stock 

 products. By alternating them with the crops fed to live stock, 

 the land is prepared for the grains; often at the expense of the 

 future crops for live stocks. 



From Illinois eastward and southward, commercial fertilizers 

 are gradually coming into extensive use, placing the production 

 of these crops on the same basis as that on which grains are 

 grown in much of Europe. The use of commercial fertilizers 

 for this purpose will of necessity gradually extend westward, 

 and to other regions where the lands are now new. 



The world will not rapidly change the proportionate amounts 

 of cereal and live stock products it demands, and these, the one 

 competing with the other, will each regulate the price of the 

 other. 



The great cities which consume the surplus of these products 



