60 SUCCESSFUL FARMING 



and not to be recommended where other and cheaper methods can be 

 used. 



Lands that are steep and subject to erosion should be kept covered 

 with vegetation as fully as possible. Such lands should not be plowed 

 in the fall and allowed to lie bare through the winter. 



Farming Systems that Maintain Fertility. — Systems of farming which 

 provide for a return of the largest possible proportion of the plant-food 

 constituents removed in crops are those that most easily maintain the 

 fertility of the soil. It is, therefore, evident that livestock farming in 

 general is least exhaustive of soil fertility, provided the excreta of the 

 animals are carefully saved and returned to the soil. In the rearing of 

 animals for meat, about ninety per cent of the plant food consumed by 

 the animals is voided in the liquid and solid excreta. If this is carefully 

 saved and returned to the soil, depletion of soil fertility will be exceed- 

 ingly slow. 



In dairy farming, where the milk is sold, a somewhat larger propor- 

 tion of the plant food elements is sold from the farm. Even here the 

 total amount is relatively small, and may be offset by the plant food in 

 concentrates purchased for the dairy. If the milk is fed to pigs and 

 calves and only the butter is sold, the exhaustion in the long run will be 

 no greater than in meat production. It is, therefore, evident that the 

 type of farming is closely related to the maintenance of soil fertility, and 

 those tjrpes which permit a maximum sale of cash crops cause the largest 

 direct removal of plant food from the farm. All types of livestock farm- 

 ing, therefore, come closest to maintaining permanent fertility. 



In new countries it is not an uncommon practice for farmers to dump 

 the manure from stables into a nearby stream in order to get rid of it. 

 It is also a common practice to burn stacks of straw and the stubble of 

 the field in order that the soil may be freed of rubbish and easily plowed 

 and cultivated. Such practices are to be condemned, for in the long run 

 they encourage soil depletion. Where land is cheap and fertile and labor 

 expensive, the immediate returns from applying manure may not justify 

 the cost of its application, but in a long term of years it will prove profit- 

 able. A farmer should be far-sighted enough to calculate what the result 

 will be in the course of a lifetime. There should be more profit in the 

 removal of fifty crops in as many years where fertility has been main- 

 tained or increased, and where the crop yields have increased, than there 

 is in the removal of fifty crops with a constantly decreasing yield. In the 

 first case the land is left in good condition for the succeeding generation; 

 in the second case, in bad condition. 



Deep Plowing Advisable. — Fertility of the soil is generally improved 

 by increasing the depth of plowing. It is a common observation that in 

 regions of good farming where farmers are prosperous, the soil is generally 

 plowed to a depth of seven to ten inches. In many portions of the South 

 we find the one-mule plow that barely skims the surface of the soil, and 



