24 LIVESTOCK ON THE FARM 



that this method saves bacteria, and the crop of corn or 

 potatoes is clear gain. 



THE BUSINESS OF GRAIN FARMING 



The farmer often looks upon his work as of inferior rank. 

 He is "only a farmer," he says, but the modern successful 

 farmer is a business man, and one must not only till the soil 

 and grow crops, but must come into contact with practically 

 all of the other kinds of business men and know something 

 about their business. 



Revenues from Grain Farming. — Since grain farming, as 

 such, is soil robbing, it must necessarily appear very profitable, 

 so long as the store of fertility holds out in sufficient quantity 

 to produce abundant crops. It yields "easy money" which 

 helps in establishing a new farm or a new farming community. 

 When a man settles in a new country he has need of all the 

 cash that is available to establish his home and his enterprise. 

 If, then, he takes some of the capital stored in his soil and 

 invests it in improvements on the farm so that he can make 

 better use of the rest of the fertility in the soil, he is entirely 

 justified. If he goes farther, however, he soon overdraws his 

 account. The man, however, who lives in the city, buys a 

 piece of land, robs it of its soil fertility, does not put the money 

 back into the farm, and then sells the land to some ignorant 

 outsider who wants to be a real farmer, charging a price in 

 accordance with what the land has produced, ought to be 

 considered guilty of a criminal offense. 



The Labor Problem. — The grain farm employs very little 

 labor during the winter and a very great deal during the 

 summer. The amount employed in the summer is not uni- 

 form. Much more is needed at harvesting and threshing 

 times than at other times. Labor on the grain farm, therefore, 

 is very expensive for the time it is employed, for it demands 

 a wage based upon the need of support through months when 

 no such employment can be had. Possibly grain farming is in 

 part responsible for the tramp evil in the United States. 



Looking at the labor problem from another standpoint, the 

 grain farmer, if he is farming properly, must necessarily plow, 

 disc, harrow, seed and harvest all of the land upon all of his 



