A DEBIT AND CREDIT ACCOUNT IQ 



To illustrate further how dairying, properly con- 

 ducted, will preserve the fertility of the soil, land 

 on the Pacific Coast reduced to such poverty by the 

 continual raising of wheat that it produced only 

 eight or nine bushels to the acre has been so restored 

 by dairying that it now produces from 20 to 40 

 bushels and the land has doubled in value. The 

 same may be said of thousands of acres of land 

 which have been continuously planted to corn until 

 it failed to return a profit. Such farmers have had 

 to return to dairying and the keeping of live stock to 

 restore the fertility to the soil. 



Continuous growing of corn or wheat is like 

 drawing the principal deposited in the bank until 

 all is gone, while dairying permits a man to live on 

 the interest. The use of commercial fertilizers and 

 the turning under of green crops may be used in 

 conjunction with dairying for maintaining equilib- 

 rium in fertility, but the dairy cow will do the work 

 the cheapest. When the crops grown on the farm 

 are fed to live stock and the fertilizer resulting is put 

 back on the land, it is possible to restore to the land 

 80 to 90 per cent, of the fertilizing elements 

 that were taken from it. The growing of legu- 

 minous crops on the farm to be fed to the dairy 

 cows tends to increase the nitrogen content of the 

 soil, since these crops deposit more nitrogen in the 

 soil than is sold in the milk produced by feeding 

 them. This matter of maintaining soil fertility is 

 one of the most important agricultural questions in 

 this country. 



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