A FEW years ago I visited my 

 Uncle Bill in Wisconsin. He 

 took me to the barn to show me 

 around. The hay mow was full. 

 I picked up a handful of hay and 

 said: "Why Uncle Bill this hay is mostly 

 timothy." 



"Yes," he replied, "I haven't had such 

 good luck with my clovers these last few 

 years." 



"Why do you have the hay chopped up 

 with an ensilage cutter.-'" I asked. 



"They eat it better that way." 



"How do they milk on it.'" 



"Not so bad when you feed them some 

 oilmeal." 



"Isn't that pretty expensive?" 



"Yes, but the price of milk is pretty 

 good now too, and besides we get a check 

 from the government that helps out 

 some." 



"But Uncle Bill, wouldn't you be better 

 off if you used the necessary lime, phos- 

 phate, and potash needed on your fields 

 so you would have the barn full of clover 

 or alfalfa hays that contain as much as 

 li to 18 per cent protein instead of hav- 

 ing the barn full of this timothy hay that 

 contains only six to eight per cent pro- 

 tein.'' Because I dare say your cows would 

 milk about as well on high quality, high 

 protein, legume hay without the expensive 

 concentrated feeds as they are now doing 

 with this low-protein grass and weedy 

 hay plus the expensive oilmeal you use to 



20 



build up the protein for these cows." 



"That's what my son Jack says, but 

 fertilizers are expensive too." 



There is a real tragedy in the truth of 

 the above story. 



I'll quote another all too common case 

 that involves a close personal friend of 

 mine, and through kindness 1 will with- 

 hold his name. We will call him Frank 

 for convenience here. Frank's farm is 

 fairly steep. He inherited it from his 

 father, who in turn inherited the land 

 from his pioneering father, who cleared 

 it of trees and stumps. The whole family 

 has a history of fine citizenship, public 

 spirit. They are good supporters of 

 schools and the church and ready with a 

 welcome meal and hospitality to anyone 

 that drops in. 



Last summer I walked over the fields 

 with Frank. His son Jim had been in 

 4-H Club work and had become very 

 much interested in soil conservation. Jim 

 had even gotten his father to put ail the 

 fields into a contour strip farming system. 

 The crops were in standard, well adjusted 

 rotations. The land had been limed ac- 

 cording to recommendations. But not one 

 pound of phosphate or potash in ferti- 

 lizers had ever been put on the ground. 



The manure from the very excellent 

 dairy herd was always carefully put on 

 the fields that were to go to corn. Friend 

 Frank thought he was doing a better than 

 average job of farming. This he was 



By GEORGE D. SCARSETH 



American Farm Research Association 



doing, but yet it was not good enough as 

 to efficiency in costs of production, and it 

 was not on a durable basis with regard to 

 the land. I could see this farm abandoned 

 in a few more generations. This has al- 

 ready happened to four other farms in 

 this community. 



Some would argue, "Good, such land 

 should not have been farmed in the first 

 place". The fact is human beings aren't 

 just efficiency machines. This community 

 was once a place of neighbors that loved 

 one another, lived happily and believed in 

 God, America and the value of individu- 

 als. I see this community on the way out. 

 It will be a local and national loss. Yet 

 this need not be so. 



Frank's strips of meadow were largely 

 timothy. Here and there a few clumps 

 of clover showed. The clover had been 

 seeded, but "These last years we haven't 

 had clovers like in the past". There was 

 unmistakable evidence of both phosphate 

 and potash hunger. "Yes, we buy a lot 

 of concentrated feed for the pigs as well 

 as the cows ". His wife made such beau- 

 tiful drapes for the windows with the 

 sacks. The brood sows were in a dusty 

 lot. "Alfalfa doesn't hold out well on 

 this ground". 



"We figure that with lime and the 

 manure we get, that we don't need the 

 commercial fertilizers". 



I did a little pencil work on the hay 

 rack board. "Look here. One ton of 

 alfalfa carries off about 40 pounds of 

 potash. One ton of manure contains 

 about 10 pounds of potash. Therefore, it 

 takes about four tons of manure to bal- 

 ance this potash — not counting any 

 losses by erosion and leaching. To make 

 four tons of alfalfa on an acre would re- 

 quire about 16 tons of manure to supply 

 the potash carried off". 



Here he butted in with — "Gosh, I 

 guess with 16 tons of manure on one acre 

 one should really make alfalfa". 



My reply was, "Surely, but your alfalfa 

 should last for six to seven years, and to 

 get the needed potash for this, let's see — 

 seven years times four tons of alfalfa 

 times four tons of manure equals 1 12 tons 

 of manure ". By now, he lost interest. 

 Such talk can't make sense. 



"I couldn't afford the fertilizers", he 

 said. He meant he didn't have the money. 

 Jim needed a hernia operation. Frank's 

 wife really should have a goiter operation 

 too. He needed some new store teeth. 

 So it goes. Next winter the cows will 

 need feed, so Frank will drive 10 miles 

 to town to buy it. "Got to buy it. Cows 

 don't milk when they eat only timothy 

 hay. Even the calves die then". 



{Continued on pa^e 50) 



I. A. A. RECORD 



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/B COt¥'f T/tfC CAN ( 

 BAD EVE INJURlt 



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W: 



ITH bo 

 1948, I 

 vested tl 

 of accidi 

 dangeroi 

 are some of the 

 that happened oi 

 Be careful. Acci 

 pen to you I 



Trying to ent 

 window, an Ore 

 when the .sash fel 

 him to smother t 

 swarm of bees, a 

 swung at them v 

 himself. 



In another an 

 Greenup man trii 

 his house. Thrc 

 old sacks the fii 

 him to death. 



A Sterling bo\ 

 ricocheted and ki 

 inson boy killed 1 

 at a rabbit. The 

 and struck the yoi 

 A Dakota, 111. 

 his front gate wl 

 was thrown again 

 suffered a fractur 

 sharpening imple 

 the stone shatten 

 farmer. A Lon^ 

 arm when he pu' 

 Running from 

 Auburn youth fel 

 ripped open his 

 broke a leg and 

 when he fell inti 

 mixer. A LaHar 

 ball cut when th 

 flicked her tail, 

 eyeball cut by a 

 gola man absent-; 

 his fingers into a 

 A Joliet man 

 while storing bali 

 powered by a trac : 

 top of the barn b;, 

 ington Grove man 

 was hoisted up b-. 

 seriously injured. 



FEBRUARY, 194 



