FORTY-FIRST ANNUAL CONVENTION 155 



have a reversing influence on our present deductions, I believe 

 a thorough test would demonstrate that the proper proportion 

 of the cultivated acreage that should be in legumes in order to 

 maintain the nitrogen acreage of our soils, is none too great 

 from the standpoint of profitability. I firmly believe that the 

 limiting factor of our agricultural prosperity today is the small 

 acreage of our farms normally in leguminous crops. I believe 

 from the standpoint of pure profit, the acreage of all clovers, 

 alfalfa, etc., could be easily doubled. 



But let us not forget the real conclusion we started out to 

 reach, and as a general average of all the data on the subject, 

 let us fix well in our mind that under the ordinary systems of 

 farming one-quarter of the cultivated acreage of the farm is 

 none too large a proportion to be devoted to legumes if we are 

 to keep our soils abundantly supplied with perhaps that most 

 valuable and important element of plant food, Nitrogen. 



In the livestock system of farming, if w^e do not guard our 

 farm manure and make every effort to have it reach the ground 

 without having suffered any great loss, if it does lose its strength 

 to So^'^, the nitrogen w^ould not be as great in proportion to what 

 is taken from it as in the grain system, where the clover is sup- 

 posed to be plowed under. 



The special mixed system differs from the mixed system in 

 that it has alfalfa mixed into the rotation, which is getting com- 

 mon here. 



Now, it seems to me that this article has brought two points 

 rather clearly before us. If we are to maintain our nitrogen 

 supply in grain farming, our biggest duty will be to increase the 

 acreage planted in legumes to a certain point, so that it will be 

 taken care of in the legume crops that are plowed under. 



In the live stock system of farming it is not so much a 

 question of the acreage of the legumes as in the conservation of 

 the manure of the crops gotten on the farm. And I think the 

 acreage of legumes in the dairy system need not be considered 

 here, because the man who is not producing his own nitrogenous 

 feed is not in the dairy business these days. There is no reason 

 our dairy farmers should not produce their own nitrogenous feed. 



