2 PROFITABLE STOCK RAISING 



specific instances illustrating the problems dis- 

 cussed. It goes without saying that if the general 

 principles are thoroughly understood, and if these 

 general principles are frustrated even briefly, the 

 progressive farmer will be able to work out his own 

 salvation; consequently, while there are number- 

 less books on different phases of live stock, there 

 are none which fill the need which this book is 

 intended to supply. 



The exclusive grain growers of the Northwest are 

 rapidly changing to diversified agriculture. In cer- 

 tain sections of South Dakota, for example, wheat 

 and oats formerly occupied all the attention of the 

 farmer. Yields greatly decreased until farming on 

 a large scale became unprofitable except during the 

 most favorable seasons. Diversification is rapidly 

 taking place. Large numbers of farm animals are 

 being kept. Corn is being grown, potatoes and 

 even cabbage occupy a part of the land. In New 

 England the worn-out farms are being made profit- 

 able by the keeping of dairy animals, of hogs 

 and of poultry, by the growing of alfalfa, cowpeas, 

 crimson clover and vetch, by the buying and feed- 

 ing on the farms of some form of concentrated feeds 

 like oil meal, cottonseed meal or refuse from the 

 flour mills of the Northwest. It has been definitely 

 proved that these older farms along the Atlantic 

 coast can be profitably handled if live stock is kept, 

 if leguminous plants are grown and if, third, but 

 not least in importance, the soils are given thorough 

 and intelligent treatment. 



But it is not only South Dakota; it is not only 

 New England; it is not only the older states along 

 the Atlantic coast that must give this matter of 

 profitable live stock careful attention. Illinois and 

 Iowa, with their apparently inexhaustible soils, 



