History tells us that Memphis, the first great city of ancient times, a 

 city which controlled the civilized world, was built up and made 

 powerful because of the fertility of the farms, made so by the 

 judicious use of manures. Nineveh, Babylon, Venice and other ancient 

 cities grew to greatness from the same source and then fell to the pit of 

 destruction when the farmers ceased to observe stock-raising as a feature 

 of farming. 



America today is the foremost commercial nation of the world, but 

 to maintain that supremacy we must produce from the soil food to feed 

 our people and, if we produce a surplus for other nations, our power will 

 be universal. On the other hand, if we disregard nature's exacting laws 

 which govern soil maintenance, history will repeat itself and our great 

 commercial institutions will be crumbling monuments to the American 

 farmer's carelessness. 



The history of "Farmers of Forty Centuries," in the Orient gives us a 

 vivid picture of the successful application of manures, good tillage and 

 rotation. For 4200 years the fertility of those lands has not waned, but 

 increased and today are producing four and five times as much as the 

 soils of our own country. 



If every farmer could read "Farmers of Forty Centuries," written by 

 Prof. King, he would be so impressed with the results of the systems 

 described that he would not ignore a single feature which has wrought 

 such remarkable results. 



The advent of the dairy cow in Wisconsin was the beginning of a new 

 era of progress in the Badger State. Her soil, because of continuous 

 cropping, the neglect of systematic rotation and the application of 

 organic matters had become emaciated and her vegetation withered. 

 Today Wisconsin stands first in number of dairy cows; 1,504,000 on the 

 farms and a goodly number in the towns and cities produced last year 

 150,000,000 pounds of cheese, about one-half of all the cheese manufac- 

 tured in the United States, and 131,049,000 pounds of butter, the two 

 products having a market value of $60,000,000. The increase in their 

 superior breeds brought the total products close to $100,000,000. 



While the Wisconsin farmer has secured millions of dollars from his 

 dairy products, he has reduced plant food exhaustion to a minimum and, 

 by applying manure from purchased feeds, planting legumes and rotating 

 crops, has increased the fertility of his lands to a remarkable degree. 



From eighty to eighty-two percent of all the plant food removed from 

 the soil by the feeds eaten by the live-stock is returned to the soil in 

 manures and, if legumes (especially clover and alfalfa) are grown in 

 rotations with grains and corn, the loss is very small. Legumes not only 

 secure their own supply of nitrogen from the atmosphere, but a consider- 

 able amount is deposited in the soil through roots and stubble, leaving 

 the soil richer in that valuable element than it was before the crop 

 was planted. 



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