DRY FARMING CONGRESS. 



218 



These types are fixed largely, if not almost wholly, by the kind of 

 crops that can be grown upon the soil Every well-informed farmer 

 knows that constant crqpping removes certain elements of fertility, and 

 that if the cropping is continued long enough the ability of the soil to 

 produce is finally diminished to a point where it becomes unprofitable. 

 Fortunately the demands made upon the farmer are not confined to the 

 cereals, to hay, to cotton, tobacco, or fruit. These things form only a 

 portion of the farm products required by a people. Our tables must be sup- 

 plied with meat, and all the various products of the abattoir — with butter, 

 cheese and milk, and our necessities require the wool for clothing, leather 

 for shoes and gloves and multitudes of other products which have their 

 derivation in the great livestock industry of our country. The production 

 of these things requires the raising of crops to feed livestock, and the 

 Creator in his infinite wisdom devised or planned the works of nature so 

 that there would ba compensation or equilibrium established between the 

 product of the soil and the needs of the animal kingdom with which the 

 earth is populated so that neither soil exhaustion on the one hand nor 

 starvation on the other would occur. ]\Ian in his finite wisdom has often 

 disregarded the laws of nature and attempted to indefinitely crop the soil 

 without replacing the fertilit}^ or to maintain animal life with too scant a 

 supply of the necessary forage for its existence. It matters not how 

 much one ma}^ wish to confine his operations to a special line, such as 

 wheat growing or cattle raising, he must provide alike food for his crops 

 and for his stock. Thus any system of farming which neglects either 

 of these great principles must have for its end ultimate failure. Let not 

 the dry land farmers fail to remember this and in working out systems 

 of cropping adapted to arid or semi-arid conditions fail to include in the 

 scheme some branch of livestock industr}^ 



What line or class of livestock will be best adapted to the condi- 

 tion will depend on many things. It may be stated that within certain 

 limits livestock can be adapted to almost any condition of climate or other 

 environment. The many breeds and the many purposes for which they 

 are grown make the selection one largely of preference or individual liking 

 in the matter. The range of selection may be much wider than in the 

 case of the money crop that can be profitably grown on the soil. It is 

 not my purpose to discuss livestock in general but dairying in particular, 

 and its adaptability to dry land farming. This rather long preamble has 

 been given to show that some form of livestock must accompany dry 

 farming and that livestock growing is fundamental to successful farming 

 under any condition of latitude, longitude, elevation or climate. 



In discussing this question it is assumed that the farmer is a home 

 builder. That he is engaged in farming, first because he loves it, and 

 second, because from the soil he can derive an income that will keep 

 him in comfort and happiness, that will enable him to educate his chil- 

 dren and add to the community in which he lives his due portion of in- 

 fluence for all that is good and noble in man. His allotment of land will 

 be no larger than he can farm with the greatest degree of skill and in- 



