230 SYSTEMS OF PERMANENT AGRICULTURE 



bushel crop of corn removes from the soil 74 pounds of nitrogen arid 

 that eight tons of average manure, or two tons of clover, plowed 

 under will return 80 pounds of nitrogen to the soil, as there is in 

 estimating the quantity of corn and hay that will be required to 

 feed a car load of steers for eight months. 



The average American grain farmer " changes " his crops more 

 or less by occasionally substituting oats or barley for corn or 

 wheat. He rarely even plows under a catch crop of clover, often 

 burns his straw and corn stalks, and makes almost no effort to 

 restore to the soil the fertility removed in crops. The supply of 

 active organic matter rapidly decreases.. Consequently the land 

 soon reaches a condition of low productiveness, and he is correctly 

 termed a " soil robber." He knows his soil is running down, but 

 he hopes it will last as long as he does. 



The average live-stock farmer is forced to keep more or less of 

 his land in meadow and pasture, and in the residues and grass 

 and clover roots supplies some fresh organic matter, which, as it 

 decays, hastens the decomposition of the old humus and also the 

 liberation of mineral elements from the soil. By these means and 

 by the better avoidance of insect injuries and plant diseases, he 

 produces larger crops when corn or other grains are grown, which 

 may reduce the fertility of his soil even more rapidly than the 

 smaller crops of the grain farmer; but he does not know it, and, 

 as he makes a good show on new, rich land for two generations or 

 more, he is incorrectly held up as a " soil builder." In actual 

 practice most of the farm rarely, if ever, receives an application of 

 manure. " Farm manure is good enough, but there's not enough 

 of it " is the common report of experienced live-stock farmers. 

 This inadequacy of the manure supply is due not only to the large 

 destruction of organic matter when fed to animals, but also in part 

 to unavoidable losses of manure and in part to unnecessary waste. 



In planning systems of permanent agriculture of wide applica- 

 tion, a distinction should be kept in mind between the ordinary 

 live-stock farmer, who markets his own farm produce in the form 

 of meat, wool, or dairy products, and the stock breeder, who sells 

 breeding animals at higher prices, or the stock feeder, who often 

 buys both stock and feed and is to that extent not a farmer but a 

 manufacturer. 



