THE KINGDOM OF THE COW 8 



that demand less sustained effort and skill than 

 dairying. For this reason the typical corn-belt 

 farmer is not a dairyman, nor is he likely to be- 

 come one. I am not sure but that deep down in 

 his heart he really despises the man who will milk 

 a cow, deeming it women's work or worse. Eather 

 would he guide his three-horse draught team and 

 riding plow, laying the long furrows of his quar- 

 ter-section, or see his shocks of wheat standing like 

 the tents of an army in orderly array or lave his 

 hands in the stream of golden grain as it pours 

 from the threshing machine. Not for him is the 

 cow with her bovine ways and the personal service 

 and undeviating round of attention which she ex- 

 acts from those who would succeed through her. 

 Yet unconsciously he fills his place in our agricul- 

 tural economy, for some one must grow the world's 

 coarse, cheap, staple crops of wheat and com and 

 hay. He and his ilk may be said to follow agri- 

 culture along the line of least resistance. His (ex- 

 cepting only the grazier) is the type of farming 

 that calls for the minimum of both labor and skill. 

 Under favorable conditions, i.e., with abundant 

 fertility and good markets, it may yield ample re- 

 turns and may accumulate considerable agricul- 

 tural wealth, but if unintelligently followed the 

 end is confusion. It is soil-mining rather than 

 permanent agriculture. Sooner or later come fall- 

 ing crop yields, and with them social and economic 

 decay unless a system of purchased plant-food and 



