FACTORS OF SUCCESSFUL FARMING NEAR MONETT, MO. 19 
A WELL-ORGANIZED TWO-MAN FARM. 
These studies indicate that a satisfactory business can be conducted 
on a well-organized farm in this region. The most important diffi- 
culty confronting the farmers here appears to lie in the fact that the 
system of farming which seems to be best adapted to local economic 
conditions does not provide satisfactory means of keeping up the 
fertility of the soil. The most important factors in maintaining 
fertility are sod crops, manure, and fertilizers. The area of sod crops 
grown on these farms or needed in the local farm economy is very 
small and has Yerj little influence on the fertility of the soil. Par- 
ticularly is this the case when the sod, which usually is timothy, is 
kept for several years and pastured rather closely before being 
plowed up. 
The amount of live stock kept on these farms is not only small, but 
such animals as are maintained are kept out of doors a very large 
part of the time and a great deal of the manure is lost, so far as 
the field crops are concerned. 
Aside from the loss of manure from unconfined live stock, the prin- 
cipal wastage on these farms is in corn fodder and wheat straw. 
There is every reason to believe that if cowpeas were planted with 
all the corn at the time the corn is planted, using two cowpea seed for 
every grain or corn, and then cutting the corn for fodder, it would 
pay these farmers to keep enough live stock to consume these corn 
stalks with the cowpea vines on them. If the stock kept for this pur- 
pose are dairy cows it will be necessary, of course, to buy considerable 
quantities of mill products to feed with the roughage. Whether this 
will pay will depend on the dairy quality of the cows kept. Con- 
ditions are not highly favorable to the dairy industry here. They 
are rather favorable to the raising of beef cattle. A considerable 
herd of cows of a beef breed could be maintained on these farms 
largely on roughage in winter and pasture in summer, and as this 
roughage is now available it would seem that this business ought to 
add considerably to the farm income in this region. Particularly 
would this be true if the cows were such as to produce $45 to $60 
worth of dairy products per year in addition to a good calf. 
In this connection it may be mentioned that in recent years quite 
a number of farmers in this general region have stocked their farms 
with pure-bred beef cattle, and the results are proving to be very 
satisfactory. This is a type of cattle farming that does not require 
p great deal of labor and that provides an outlet for the wastes 
which now occur on these farms. At the same time it does not re- 
quire the purchase of large quantities of mill stuffs, for these ani- 
mals can be maintained very well on cornstalks and cowpea fodder 
of good quality, a little straw, and a little corn, with perhaps an 
