Tensas gazette. [volume] (St. Joseph, La.) 1886-current, 1911-07-28
A FEW ADVANTAGES
OF STOCK RAISING.
BY CARL CHRISTOPHER, Assistant
in Animal Husbandry, University
of Arkansas.

Stock farming Is the easiest anu
most satisfactory way of maintaining
the soil In its virgin fertility. Per-
haps 1t Is not too much to say that
it is the only way that the virgin fer
tility OF the land can be maintained
without buying commercial fertilizer.
On a carefully managed stock farm
the soil. does not wear out, but If more
feed than is raised on the farm is
bought and fed, as is often the case,
the land may even grow richer, while
the grain farmer as he sells his crop
from year to year also sells the fer
tility of his farm with it, and in a
comparatively few years, as the plant
food becomes less and less, the crop
becomes poorer and poorer, and the
farm is spoken of as a run down farm
and in few more years, unless some
thing is done to revive the fertility
of the soil, II is an abandoned farm.
Intelligent stock farming never
leads to this result. 1t is a higher
class of farming and requires higher
grade of intelligence than exclusive
grain farming to carry IT out success
fully.
The stock farmer must in fact be
both a grain farmer and a stock farm
er, since the farm should produce
the feed for the animals kept on it.
The stock farmer is in reality manu-
facturer, his animals being the ma
chine which manufactures meat, milk,
wool, ETC., for him, from the crude
materials, which is the feed he gives
them.
To know just what crude materials
to use, in just what amounts and in
what combinations to use them in
order to obtain the choicest products
at least cost, requires very high
order of intelligence.
Success in stock farming depends
very largely on what use is made oil
the by-products. The most important
OF which is the manure.
Farm manure contains every ele
ment essential to plant growth, and
is in a readily available form. Another
essential thing which manure adds
to the soil is humus; this is not di
rectly plant food in itself, but IL
makes the soil friable, mellow and
porous so that the rain can soak II
and penetrate to the roots OF the
plants. 1t aids in holding the moist
ure in the soil and gives up the
moisture slowly to the growing plants
Every crop grown on the farm has
a value as fertilizer, and when the
crop is removed from the farm SO
much fertility has been removed also
Ii the crop is fed to live stock and
the manure saved and returned to
the farm a great loss of fertility is
checked. On many up-to-date stocE
farms more grain and hay is fed thar
is raised, and the manure Is saved
and returned to the farm, such farms
instead of becoming run down are
actually growing richer to the detri
ment however OF the farm run by the
grain farmer who is furnishing the
fertility to increase the value of his
neighbours stock farm.
In selling crops from the farm VIZ
sell also their entire fertility value
while If we feed them to live stocl
we provide home market that pays
us as much for our hay and grain al
we would receive for IL il we hauled
it to the market in the raw state
and III addition we retain its fertility
to enrich the farm for greater pro
| .kor 70
by g great number of experiments il
live stock feeding that nearly tn,
whole fertility value of the materia
feed is recovered in the manure o
fattening and working animals. Fat
tening and working animals excrete 81
to 95 per cent of the fertilizing con
stituents of their food. Young rapids
growing animals, however, may no
excrete over so per cent of the fer
tilizing constituents of their feed
In selling animals, OF animal prod
ucts from the farm there is also
certain amount of fertility removed
The amount, however, is very nue.
less than where the raw crops ar
sold.
Experiments show that it take
about $1,000 pounds of hay and grail
to produce 1000 pounds of beef. Thi
i hay and grain If sold direct would re
movo fertility, which If bought woul,
cost at least 500. At the same price
the value of the fertility remove,
when the 1000 pound animal produce,
on this feed is sold, would be abou
sJ2.
IL instead of meat butter is sol
from the farm, the fertility removes
is practically nothing. 1t has bee
said that the degree of success al
tended by the farmer can very ofte
be accurately gagged by counting tn
number of loads of manure he haul
and spreads out over his fields, an
in very large measure this is true
Successful live stock raising neces
states diversity of crops and frequen
seeding. 1t enables the farmer I
keep up the fertility of his land. 1
provides home market for the raj
material at highest prices and Ell
/