38 The State and the Farmer 



crop except the roots and stubble to return 

 to the land. This primitive mode of gen- 

 eral farming allows a man to make a profit 

 only on a single sale. The manufacturer tries 

 to turn his property over more than once, each 

 time expecting to realize a profit. When the 

 farmer is able to market his forage largely in 

 the shape of animal produce, he will not only 

 save fertility but should make a profit on both 

 the crop and the animal. The selling of baled 

 hay rather than pork and beef and milk and 

 eggs, cannot be expected to yield much profit 

 or satisfaction to the average farmer or to 

 keep his land in living condition. Taking it 

 by and large, no agriculture is successful with- 

 out an animal husbandry. 



The popular mind pictures these so-called 

 abandoned lands as exhausted in their plant- 

 food, but this is probably not often the case. 

 Very many of them are potentially as produc- 

 tive as ever, but they are run down; yet even 

 at their best they might not be able to satisfy 

 a man who lives in the twentieth century. 

 Human wants have increased. What would 



