354 SYSTEMS OF FARMING 



QUESTIONS 



1. What is the important problem in agriculture? Why? 



2. Name and describe briefly the different systems of farming. 



3. What is the importance of grain farming? 



4. What has been the result of grain farming in the past? Illustrate. 



5. How is it possible, even in grain farming, to maintain and increase soil 



productivity? Give an illustration. 



6. Why is livestock farming popular? 



7. What are the probabilities of maintaining soil fertility by livestock farming? 



8. What comparisons have been made between livestock farming and grain 



farming? Describe these tests briefly and give results. 



9. What are the advantages to be gained in combining stock raising with 



grain growing? 



10. Aside from crop yields, what may indicate good farming as regards soil 



fertility? How can this be determined on different fields? 



11. Explain and illustrate by aid of a diagram the sources of loss and gain of 



the fertilizing elements in farming. 



12. Summarize the sources of loss and gain of the soil supply of plant-food 



elements in farming. 



13. How may the losses and gains be determined in the following cases: 



(a) When corn or barley is sold. 



(6) When clover or alfalfa hay is sold. 



(c) When alfalfa hay is purchased and fed. 



(d) When soybean seed is sold. 



(e) When straw is purchased for bedding. 



(/) When corn silage is produced and fed on the farm. 



(g) When commercial fertilizers are applied to the soil. 



(h) Leaching from the soil. 



(?') When a crop of green clover is plowed under for soil improvement. 



(j) When the straw produced is used for bedding. 



(A;) When stock is pastured. 



(I) When concentrates are purchased and fed. 



(m) When clover hay is produced and fed on the farm. 



14. Give the important conclusions of this chapter. 



PROBLEMS 



1. When the manure is well cared for, how many tons of wheat bran or 

 cotton-seed meal must be fed to offset the loss of phosphorus in feeding twenty 

 tons of alfalfa and sixty-five tons of corn silage? 



2. Assuming good care in handling the manure, construct a nitrogen- 

 phosphorus balance sheet for a farm on which all the crops, except cabbage, 

 are fed as follows: No feeds are purchased; 250 tons of corn silage are fed 

 (all corn made into silage) ; sixty tons of clover hay (medium red) ; six tons of 

 oat straw are fed, the remainder is used for bedding; 1000 bushels of oats; 

 thirty acres of pasture equivalent to 0.8 ton of mixed grass hay per acre; 

 eighty tons of cabbage are sold, (a) How many pounds of acid phosphate 

 carrying sixteen per cent phosphoric acid (P 2 O 6 ) must be used to offset the 

 loss of phosphorus? (b) How many pounds of rock phosphate analyzing 

 13.5 per cent phosphorus? 



3. Suppose on a stock farm the following crops were fed: Twenty acres 

 of corn yielding twelve tons of silage per acre, forty acres of medium red 

 clover, yielding two tons of hay per acre, and 19.2 acres of oats averaging 

 fifty bushels per acre (all straw used for bedding). Ten tons of gluten feed 

 (high grade) were purchased and fed. Assuming good care in handling the 

 manure, what per cent of the fertilizing elements contained in the crops and 

 purchased feed may be regained in the manure? 



