Vor.. LXVIII No. 4026. 
NEW YORK, DECEMBER 25, 1909. 
WEEKLY, $1.00 PER YEAR. 
THE FUTURE OF SOUTHERN OHIO. 
Must Depend on Live Stock. 
In Ohio the time of soil exploitation is about past; 
there remain but few tracts of timber that can be 
cleared up, and many farmers desire to maintain wood 
lots. Further development, then, must come through 
changes in the treatment of the fields already under 
cultivation. In southern Ohio there is much rough 
land, which, under present economic conditions, must 
be used for pasture, and for orchards in a few cases. 
Until the struggle for existence becomes so keen that 
this rough land must support a much larger quota of 
people, pasturing is its logical use; when conditions 
here become 'much as they are in Japan to-day, then 
this rough land will be terraced, carefully tended, 
fertilized, and made to yield sustenance to a numerous 
strong and sturdy people. 
The land just referred 
to is distinct from the 
cultivated hills along the 
Ohio River; they are 
within the limits of the 
glacial drift, and some 
are gravel deposits, while 
others arc partly denud¬ 
ed ridges of rock. As 
we get farther north the 
land becomes smoother, 
and more of it is possi¬ 
ble of profitable cultiva¬ 
tion under present condi¬ 
tions, and with modern 
machinery. Where farms 
of 100 to 200 acres are 
in the majority, where 
machinery does almost 
all the work on the 
farms, and where general 
farming is the rule, it 
goes without saying that 
extensive rather than in¬ 
tensive describes our 
plan of farming. Our 
farming is probably up 
to the average, in some 
cases above the average, 
but we are not carrying 
out our present plan of 
farming as we should; 
there are too many 
washes in our fields al¬ 
lowed to go unchecked 
from year to year; there 
are too many clover failures, too little humus added 
to our soils, and too much attention paid to getting 
quick money from our soils and not enough attention 
devoted to their proper conservation for the future. 
We are successful with our crops of corn, wheat and 
with our live stock, but we must do better with our 
clover and other legumes. Wheat, Timothy hay and 
Orchard grass seed arc our principal cash crops, and 
we should not lose sight of the fact that these crops 
remove lots of phosphorus and potassium, and that 
our soils are just that much poorer unless purchased 
chemicals are added to make good the depletion. Our 
upland soils do not need potassium, so phosphorus is 
the one element that concerns us most, though lime 
is a close second, and while nitrogen is indispensable 
the legumes ought to make the purchase of that 
element unnecessary. Timothy hay, so long as it is 
more profitable to sell than to feed, will be sold, and 
it will be raised so long as there is a demand for it 
at profitable prices. Wheat will never be low priced 
again; though it may not remain at the present high 
level the price of wheat will stay up well, and not 
fluctuate much, so that wheat, working so well into 
a corn-wheat-clover rotation, being well suited to 
our soils, and needing the addition of phosphorus, 
mainly, will continue to be grown and with larger 
acreage and increasing yields each year. Orchard 
grass, Timothy and clover seed are money crops of 
minor importance, but it is possible, as our farming 
becomes better, that these crops will be more profita¬ 
ble, and may supersede, in acreage and importance, 
some of our staple crops. This prediction is especially 
applicable to Orchard grass seed, for it is now 
of much importance locally, and the acreage is in¬ 
creasing yearly. 
Our live stock has been, is and must continue to be 
the main dependence of our farms and our farming. 
Our cattle, hogs and sheep constitute a farm market 
for those bulky crops such as corn, corn fodder, clover 
hay and pasture grasses, for which there is no profit¬ 
able market, and which are not profitable to haul to 
market, to say nothing of robbing the soil of fertility 
and humus. Our stock eat these crops, get fat, and 
when sold carry from the farm only the phosphorus 
and nitrogen actually needed in the make-up of the 
body; the larger part is kept on the farm. Such a 
policy is sound, and our live stock interests will con¬ 
tinue important. Corn, clover and Alfajfa make fine 
beef, pork and mutton, and such feeds are the most 
economical known for the purpose; so these crops 
will continue to be grown, with better and better 
success as we advance into the future. These changes 
are changes of development and are not evolutionary 
in character; perhaps there will be more potatoes 
grown here, more fruits or some other specialty, 
dairying, trucking, etc., but our live stock must remain 
our dominant interest, and such a condition must 
continue up to the time when the inevitable decrease 
in the size of our farms or the adoption of a different 
tenant system makes live stock farming decidedly 
unprofitable. 
There will be more pure-bred and high-grade stock 
on our farms in the future, more dairies, undoubtedly, 
and, of course, better farming, and less waste land. 
Some land will be set to timber, but unless the income 
from timber tracts warrants their existence they will 
give way to more profitable crops and the problem of 
conserving rainfall is not pertinent with us, for a 
tile-drained field covered with a crop or pasture is 
equal to a forest in most respects, the greater shade 
being the only advantage in favor of the forest. As 
time goes on and the struggle for existence becomes 
keener, due to the rapid increase in population, the 
unessential must give way to the essential, and the 
essential is not that which pleases the aesthetic senses, 
but which feeds the inner man, in other words, the 
race must be fed whether the appreciation of the 
beautiful be pandered to or not. For instance, the 
bare hillside will be made 
fertile and productive, 
not to please the eye, but 
because food is needed 
to meet the requirements 
of the largely increased 
population. 
We must do more and 
better tile drainage; 
many of our upland 
fields and even some of 
our hillsides will repay 
us for artificial drainage. 
We must do better and 
deeper plowing, some 
subsoiling, maybe, and 
we will come to use lime 
more and more, as we 
arc coming to regard 
lime less as a soil stimu¬ 
lant and more as a plant 
food and a corrector of 
acidity. Better drainage, 
better plowing, lime, 
more and larger legumi¬ 
nous crops, bigger yields 
of the staples, and more 
and better live stock. 
Better country homes, 
better schools, better ed¬ 
ucation for the farmers’ 
children and a building 
up of rural society in 
both church and home. 
Let your mind picture 
these things for you, and 
all they mean, and you 
have before you the future of our farms. 
Highland Co., Ohio. w. e. duckwall. 
FERTILIZING VALUE OF PEAS. 
A few weeks ago I noticed an interesting editorial 
in your paper concerning pea growing as a soil im¬ 
prover for the East. This method of renovating the 
soils has appealed to me as being worthy of more 
attention than it has received in the past, and some 
of the facts that have been brought out in this State 
might be of interest to you. Of course we do not 
expect people of the East to believe more than half 
that we say, but if they care to look for proof we 
shall be glad to show them if they will come here. 
Our San Luis Valley has been noted for several 
years for its pea-fed hogs. The peas there have been 
almost without exception the so-called Canada peas 
or Mexican peas, that is, the field or stock varieties. 
These are used entirely for stock feeding. The main¬ 
tenance of fertility of the soil in the valley has been 
from this crop, the rotation being grain, peas and 
potatoes. So far their soil is as good as if not better 
WINTER SCENE ON AN OHIO STOCK FARM. Fit;. 503. 
