DRY-FARMING CONGRESS, WICHITA, 1914 



85 



straw at $1 per ton in the stack, both of which were produced in 1912 when 

 no other market at any price could be obtained. 



3. An allowance for labor in winter was made at 17% cents per hour 

 for man, or 40 cents for man and team at a time when little opportunity for 

 employment is offered. 



4. The possibility of diversified farming permits of a more equitable 

 distribution of labor throughout the growing season than is possible when 

 only one crop is produced. 



5. The manure produced and properly applied maintains soil fertility 

 and adds humus to the soil, which prevents blowing and erosion. 



6. No attempt was made to reduce the cost of wintering by the 

 utilization of wheat pasture. 



7. The average value of calves similar to those produced in these 

 experiments has been $35 per head for the past three years, and promises 

 to remain equally as high for several years to come. 



All of these factors add to the profits of beef production very materially, 

 although they are usually entirely ignored. Calves similar to those pro- 

 duced at Hays were handled at Manhattan during the winter of 1912-13 

 and 1913-14 on rations made up largely of silage with a pound of linseed 

 or cottonseed meal per head daily at a cost of 6.8 cents per day, or $10.23 

 for a 180-day period, making the cost for production of a stocker at twelve 

 months of age $30.82 based upon period when the cost of production was 

 higher than at any other similar period in the last 40 years. 



This series of experiments indicates that the maintenance of beef- 

 breeding herds and the production of stockers and feeders is a business 

 peculiarly adapted to the subhumid areas, because of the fact that such 

 production permits the utilization of the byproducts of crops usually 

 grown where rainfall is deficient. The data presented coincide with care- 

 ful observation of the general farm and ranch practice in the same area, 

 in that the livestock farmers are the most prosperous, their farms are more 

 productive, their homes are more modern, and their credit is better than 

 that of their neighbors who have attempted to farm without livestock. 



In order that this method of farming may become more general, the 

 colleges and experiment stations and their agricultural journals, as well as 

 the leaders in such communities should use every possible means of dis- 

 seminating information as to methods of farming and management which 

 will permit of profitable livestock production, and work out some means 

 of financing breeding operations. 



As yet it is impossible for farmers to secure capital through a series 

 of years with breeding herds as security. Adequate means have beenupro- 

 vided to secure loans on cattle-feeding propositions, because of the fact 

 that they are concluded in less than a year; bu the same men, with the same 

 equipment and feeding materials, are able to negotiate a loan on breeding 

 stock. 



This is a problem yet unsolved, and which I leave for you to consider. 



