140 FOR BETTER CROPS 



of fertility. Everything- depends upon the way in which the 

 work is done. 



Whether hay should be fed on the farm will depend almost 

 entirely on the conditions. It may pay better to sell timothy 

 than to feed it, because of the very high price which it brings 

 in the market. Usually, however, it will pay better to feed hay 

 from legumes on the farm. It does not bring so high a price 

 relatively as timothy in the market, and yet it is more valuable 

 than timothy for home feeding, except in the case of horses. 

 Alfalfa in the range country is now frequently sold in the stack 

 to ranchmen, who feed it in winter to the cattle and sheep which 

 they run on the open range in summer. Such hay may usually 

 be made to bring a much higher return to the grower who will 

 judiciously turn the same into beef, mutton, wool, or pork on 

 the ranch which produced it. But of course there are condi- 

 tions under which it is legitimate to sell it. 



This much is clear, it never pays the farmer to let his stock 

 go backward for the sake of selling hay at a high price. The 

 policy is also mistaken which sells hay from a farm much in 

 need of fertility, unless the price is such that it will justify 

 selling the hay and buying the needed fertility in the form of 

 commercial fertilizers. 



When hay is fed to live stock, the resultant product in meat, 

 wool, milk, or labor, is only a part of the farmer's return. He 

 has also the fertility obtained from feeding it. It is common to 

 estimate that the fertility offsets the cost of labor from feeding 

 the hay. Usually it is worth much more than such labor. 



It should be observed also that hay composed of legumes is 

 usually much more valuable for feeding than non-leguminous 

 hay, and the resultant fertility is also much greater. On the 

 other hand, non-leguminous hay, as timothy and red top, is most 

 in demand in the markets and brings the highest price. If, 

 therefore, hay is to be sold from the farm, let it be hay that is 

 non-leguminous in character. Such hay ships much better than 

 the other, since it breaks less while being handled. For some 

 kinds of hay there is virtually no market off the farm and 

 probably it is well that it is so, as they can be utilized so well 

 on the farm. Such are sorghum and kaffir corn hay. 



Usually it pays better to feed hay on the farm than to sell 

 it. Where it does, the farmer should aim so to stock his farm 

 that the animals on the same will consume it all. The great 

 truth, that should ever be remembered, is that the relation 

 between abundant stock-keeping and high values of land and 

 profits from it, is of the closest possible kind. 



