FACTORS OF SUCCESSFUL FARMING NEAR MONETT, MO. 19 



A WELL-ORGANIZED TWO-MAN FARM. 



These studies indicate that a satisfactory business can be conducted 

 on a well-organized farm in this region. The most important diffi- 

 culty confronting the fanners here appears to lie in the fact that the 

 system of farming which seems to be best adapted to local economic 

 conditions does not provide satisfactory means of keeping up the 

 fertility of the soil. The most important factors in maintaining 

 fertility are sod crops, manure, and fertilizers. The area of sod crops 

 grown on these farms or needed in the local farm economy is very 

 small and has very little influence on the fertility of the soil. Par- 

 ticularly is this the case when the sod, which usually is timothy, is 

 kept for several years and pastured rather closely before being 

 plowed up. 



The amount of live stock kept on these farms is not only small, but 

 such animals as are maintained are kept out of doors a very large 

 part of the time and a great deal of the manure is lost, so far as 

 the field crops are concerned. 



Aside from the loss of manure from unconfined live stock, the prin- 

 cipal wastage on these farms is in corn fodder and wheat straw. 

 There is every reason to believe that if cowpeas were planted with 

 all the corn at the time the corn is planted, using two cowpea seed for 

 every grain or corn, and then cutting the corn for fodder, it would 

 pay these farmers to keep enough live stock to consume these corn 

 stalks with the cowpea vines on them. If the stock kept for this pur- 

 pose are dairy cows it will be necessary, of course, to buy considerable 

 quantities of mill products to feed with the roughage. Whether this 

 will pay will depend on the dairy quality of the cows kept. Con- 

 ditions are not highly favorable to the dairy industry here. They 

 are rather favorable to the raising of beef cattle. A considerable 

 herd of cows of a beef breed could be maintained on these farms 

 largely on roughage in winter and pasture in summer, and as this 

 roughage is now available it would seem that this business ought to 

 add considerably to the farm income in this region. Particularly 

 would this be true if the cows were such as to produce $45 to $60 

 worth of dairy products per year in addition to a good calf. 



In this connection it may be mentioned that in recent years quite 

 a number of farmers in this general region have stocked their farms 

 with pure-bred beef cattle, and the results are proving to be very 

 satisfactory. This is a type of cattle farming that does not require 

 ? great deal of labor and that provides an outlet for the wastes 

 which now occur on these farms. At the same time it does not re- 

 quire the purchase of large quantities of mill stuffs, for these ani- 

 mals can be maintained very well on cornstalks and cowpea fodder 

 of good quality, a little straw, and a little corn, with perhaps an 



