INTENSIVE AND EXTENSIVE FARMING 179 



tons of manure were hauled back to the fields. 1 The labor 

 of hauling the feed and manure, to say nothing of the cost 

 of growing the crops, would more than pay the pasture 

 bill on most dairy farms. It is evident that land and 

 milk must be very high in price, before a soiling system 

 will pay. 



A less intensive system that pays on most dairy farms 

 is to have enough corn silage to supplement the pasture 

 at times when the pasture is poor. But even this is too 

 intensive a system in the newer regions and far from cities. 

 In Minnesota, it was found that $1 expended for labor 

 and other costs of production of a hay crop gave a product 

 with a feeding value of $2.21. For the same cost, fodder 

 corn gave $1.38, silage $.98, and mangels $.79. The last 

 two failed to pay the cost of production. 2 



In some parts of Europe, and occasionally in the edge 

 of large cities in America, it pays to follow a soiling system 

 in the summer, with silage or roots for winter. In the 

 Eastern States, and near cities in other states, it generally 

 pay; a farmer, who has 10 or more cows, to pasture in 

 summer and feed corn silage and hay in winter. Farther 

 west, where hay is choaper, the silo is less profitable. In 

 some sections it has not yet proved its worth. Root 

 crops rarely pay in America, except when one is making 

 advanced registry records, or under some other unusual 

 conditions. Sometimes it pays to have a small amount 

 of roots to furnish a succulent feed, if the herd is too 

 small to justify one in having a silo. 



The farmer's problem is to intensify his business up to 

 the point of greatest profit for his conditions. Since con- 

 ditions are gradually changing ifi favor of more intensive 



1 E. B. Voorhoes, Forage Crops, p. 35. 

 * Minnesota, Bulletin 117, p. 31. 



