64 PRINCIPLES OF FARM PRACTICE 



Crops for feeding animals. Emphasis has been placed 

 upon the use of a cropping system that will secure the up- 

 building of the soil. While keeping up the fertility of the 

 soil is of primary importance, it must be managed so as to 

 make farming a profitable undertaking. The use of crops 

 to feed animals has already been referred to as a means of 

 securing soil fertility. This use of crops is, at the same time, 

 one that is profitable from a business standpoint. A study 

 made of the profits on some farms in certain counties of 

 Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa shows a much greater labor 

 income from live-stock farming than that secured from crop 

 farming. Of the 273 farms included in this study (made 

 in 1914), 194 were stock farms with an average labor income 

 of $755; and 79 were crop farms with an average labor income 

 of $28. 



If the purpose is to provide crops for feeding, we have 

 another factor to consider in determining the kinds of crops 

 to produce. Here the problem is to develop a cropping 

 system that will provide crops adapted to climate and soil, 

 include legumes in rotations and, at the same time, secure 

 the right kind of feed for farm animals. This is by no means 

 an easy problem. In the Corn Belt, the chief crop for feeding 

 purposes is corn, which is supplemented by clover or some 

 other legume. Much of the plant food removed by the crops 

 is returned to the soil in the form of manure. For this region, 

 experience seems to indicate that the system is a good one 

 both from the standpoint of permanent soil fertility and of 

 profitable farming. In other sections of the country, like 

 western Kansas and Oklahoma, where the rainfall is too 

 light for corn, millets and sorghums form the chief feeding 

 crops. In the cotton states sudan grass and some kind of 

 grain adapted to that region are used. These examples serve 



