FARMER'S 

 CYCLOPEDIA OF LIVE STOCK 



STOCK RAISING AND SOIL FERTILITY 



Stock raising is the only kind of farm- 

 ing that maintains the land in its virgin 

 productiveness. On a carefully managed 

 stock farm the soil should be as produc- 

 tive after a hundred years of farming as 

 on the day when the first furrow was 

 turned. This cannot be said of grain 

 farming, or hay farming, or any other 

 kind of farming, where crops raised are 

 sold off the farm. 



The growing plant takes food from the 

 soil for its' development. When first 

 broken up the virgin soil is mellow from 

 the remains of plant and animal life that 

 have accumulated in it for ages. It 

 absorbs and holds the rainfall. Its rich 

 dark color retains the warmth of the 

 sun and it bountifully yields up its food 

 in fields of grain and hay that gladden 

 the heart. But as crop after crop is re- 

 moved from the field and sold off the 

 farm, the original stock of available plant 

 food in the soil grows less and less. The 

 humus that once served to make the soil 

 mellow, and hold the summer rains for 

 the thirsty crop, burns out. The soil 

 bakes and packs. The rain washes over 

 its surface and wears great gullies in it. 

 The plant searches for the scanty stores 

 of food, but the dwarf growth and sickly 

 color of the crop tell the story of the ex- 

 hausted soil and the reasons for the 

 abandoned farm. 



The stock farmer a manufacturer — 

 Legitimate stock farming never leads to 

 this result. It is a higher class of farm- 

 ing. A higher grade of intelligence is re- 

 quired to carry it out successfully. The 

 stock farmer must know, as a first re- 

 quisite, how to produce hay and grain. 

 But these are simply the crude product 

 in his business and correspond to pig 

 iron in the steel industry. Out of the 

 crude hay, grain, roots, etc, grown, the 

 stock farmer must know how to manu- 

 facture marbled mutton and beef, 

 English breakfast bacon, stanch draft 

 horses, speed, butter with the flavor of 

 June, wool, eggs, cheese. 



The stock farmer is a manufacturer. 

 His animals are the machines he works 

 with and they constitute a mechanism 

 more profound and delicate than any- 

 thing ever conceived by the mind of man. 

 To know just what crude materials to 

 use, in just what amounts and just how 

 to combine them for the production of 

 the choicest product, to know when the 

 machine is working to its fullest capac- 

 ity, and to know how to repair it should 

 it get out of order, requires an intelli- 

 gence of as high order as that required 

 to build a battleship. 



Utilization of by-products — I n many 

 of the great industries of today the 

 profits come in the careful husbanding 

 and utilization of the by-products — ma- 

 terials that once were considered of no 

 value and thrown away. This is espe- 

 cially true in stock farming. Success in 

 this business depends very largely on 

 what use is made of the by-products. The 

 one great by-product in stock farming, 

 the one that maintains the fertility of 

 the farm unimpaired, and which makes 

 it an inexhaustible gold mine, is the 

 manure pile. 



Value of manure— This material con- 

 tains every element essential to the 

 growth of crops. The nourishment it 

 contains is in a form readily available 

 to plants. It also supplies to the soil 

 that great ameliorator known as humus. 

 Humus is not directly a plant food in it- 

 self, but it makes the soil friable, mellow 

 and porous, so that rain can soak in and 

 the air penetrate to the roots of plants. 

 It absorbs and retains the rains, yielding 

 up its moisture slowly to the growing 

 crops and in a large measure it consti- 

 tutes the life of the soil. Enormous 

 quantities of the highest grade mineral 

 fertilizers are of little value to the 

 farmer unless the soil also contains 

 humus. 



Selling fertility — Every crop grown on 

 the farm has a value as a fertilizer. 



