Arizona republican., 1911-09-28

l OI ODlHlOH III ldNOE OI dnllIldl nus
 bandry as a means. of soil improve
 ment When soils have become ex-
 hausted and unprofitable from con- l tinuous grain growing. the almost
 universal advice is to change the
 system of farming to stock husbandry
 and feed out all crops on the land.
 Nor is this advice to be regarded as
 eminating from theorists whose con clusions have been drawn alone from the test tube of the chemist, but more often such advice comes from men
 who are trained in farm management and have themselves demonstrated ] that a rational system of animal hus- 1 bandry will not only maintain but inn prove the fertility of the average farm | located in the corn belt Live stock
 farming carried on for the purpose of
 soil improvement is not an untried experiment. Not only individual farms but whole communities have been
 brought up from a condition of ex-
 haustion and unprOfitableness to a
 condition of productiveness by animal
 husbandry.
 Exclusive grain farming as practiced | from New England westward to the | Dakotas has left behind a trail of de- | pleted soils and where carried on for
 too long a time ruined farms and
 abandoned homes have marked the
 way
 These same soils are today being reclaimed and profitably titled as the
 result of changing from grain farm | ing to dairy and stock farming. This ] t.I i'm, | Michigan. Wisconsin and is now oc-
 curing in Minnesota. The result of profitable system of live stock farm | ing on even the poorest of soils is to | be seen in Holland. On thin. sandy | lands reclaimed from the sea. dairy l farming has increased the value of | the farming lands until now they are valued at $500 to S1.0OO per acre. 1 Holland today supports a population twelve times as dense as Illinois. and yet has an annual surplus of cheese and butter for export amounting to
 more than $4 per acre.
 Fifty years ago Denmark was d wheat producing country. Its soils were gradually being depleted of fer tility and agricultural ruin was i'm il4Atl'ilAH li1 SN sum VI itii iiiiit1 W tiN
 at that time radically changed to al
 system of live stock production. with
 the result that after forty years of
 dairy farming. the agriculture of Den
 mark is regarded as a model of farm
 management, both from the stand
 point of the conservation of soil fer
 tility and profits per acre
 Farm yard manure is now and sl-
 ways has been the greatest resource
 for maintaining soil fertility on the
 typical middle west farms. Dr. C. G. Hopkins says that Farm manure al- ways has been and without doubt always will be. the principal material used in maintaining the fertility of the soil"
 Director Thorne of Ohio has pointed out that the increased fertility of English farms as measured in in- creasing wheat yields has in his opinion been due tO the fact that the cattle. sheep. hogs and horses have increased rapidly per cultivated acre since 1865. In that year Great Britain 1 was maintaining the equivalent of one | cattle beast for each acre cultivated, | while in 1900 the live stock popula- | ton had increased until there was | maintained on British farms the | equivalent of one cattle beast for each | cultivated acre.
 When Great Britain maintained one | cattle beast for each two acres of land cultivated in grain. the average | wheat yield was 2S bushels per acre. When she had increased her live stock population to the equivalent of one cattle beast to one acre of land Culti vated in grain. the yield of wheat had risen to 32 bushels per acre.
 The limits of this paper will not permit me to quote the opinions of all the leading agricultural and soil experts who have publicly expressed themselves on the important relations of animal husbandry to soil fertility. But such national authorities as Hen ry Wallace, President Waters. Dean Dean Curtis. Governor Hoard and a host Of others have pub licly placed themselves on record as favoring live stock husbandry for con serving soil fertility on the American farm.
 The production of farm yard ma nure in this country now represents a value greater than the total value of the corn crop. The estimated annual value of farm manure produced in America is two and One-third billion dollars All authorities agree that more than one third of this material Is absolutely wasted by the farmers. Here is d source of fertility ten times as great as all the commercial fer tilizers annually sold in the whole ; United States If this manure now wasted could be intelligently applied .o the corn lands of America, there would be added $500, ,OOO.O 900 annually .o the agricultural wealth of this [ 
 Tn planning systems of live stock { 'arming for permanent agriculture. 1t s necessary to apply the amount of removed in the annual products sold. either as commercial ( fertilizer or by the purchase of sup : elementary foods. This amount will Dc comparatively small, and if added $ ly the purchase of supplementary { 'oods may be supplied at little or no additional cost, as the profits from ( eeding will pay for the phosphorous ( lsed
 No scheme of soil conservation can l