26 PROFITABLE STOCK RAISING 



was not recognized, and the stock industry was 

 allowed to decline along with the crop production. 

 Every instance of the building up of these worn- 

 out soils has included either the keeping of increas- 

 ing numbers of live stock and the growth of legu- 

 minous plants, or the heavy use of commercial 

 fertilizers purchased at a relatively high rate in the 

 market. The time has come when the American 

 farmer must choose some definite system by which 

 he can procure larger crops than he is doing at 

 present and at the same time return to the soil 

 plant food which will tend to continually increase 

 the productive capacity of the soil, so that future 

 generations will receive the land not in a depleted 

 condition, but capable of producing more and more 

 in order to keep pace with the growing demands 

 of the nation for agricultural products. 



LIVE STOCK SUPPLY 



Under certain conditions, it may be true that a 

 system of exclusive grain farming is necessary and 

 is best suited to the surroundings, but on the large 

 majority of the American farms today, there is a 

 larger field for live stock and the type of farming 

 which its keeping implies than there has been at any 

 previous time in our history. There is a greater de- 

 mand today for meat, for dairy products, for wool 

 and for work animals than there ever was before. 

 Population is increasing much more rapidly than 

 our agricultural production, and farm products of 

 all kinds will undoubtedly be in constantly stronger 

 demand. The extremely high prices realized in 

 recent years for all classes of meat-producing 

 animals is caused by a marked shortage in the supply 

 of these animals in the United States. The supply 



