The silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1909-1925, 1913-12-06
GRASS The NlIBJF(T OF
COPPER BANKS IFTTFR

The following is taken from the De
eember trade letter of the National
Copper bank of Salt Lake City:
We can not but feel that the lack
o! attention paid to the growing of
grass and the raising of livestock is
regretable and serious error in the
practice of the farmers of this terri
tory. If there were no other reason
for this letter, there would be one in
the fact that the farmers In a large
part of the Intermountain Empire are
a; present able to pay their bills only
once year. Crop handling expenses,
store bills and interest must usually
wait until December before their pay
ment is possible. 1t is obvious that if
some sort of husbandry were adopted
which would allow the farmer to Sc
cure continuous income throughout
the year, he would cut short his slav-
cry to the circumstance which oft
times compels him to act at the die
tation of Others He would become
his own master.
But there is only one farm product
that is capable of supplying a con-
slant flow of income, j. e., livestock
and not all livestock at that. Sheep
ranged and handled in the usual way
will afford returns to the owner twice
year, and sometimes similar is true
of range cattle, though cattle may be
fed upon farm in such way as to
provide marketable stuff at any month
in the year. Or the farmer may com
mence the raising of hogs and may in
stal dairy. In these last two items
or laE Al
OF profit.
Particularly in these last few years
when the price of beef cattle has
swung upward to about twice what it
was, and the price of pork has done
likewise, it is profitable to develop
this industry. The increase in meat
prices is due almost entirely to an
increased demand, for both the
amount of livestock produced in the
United States, and the expense of
producing it, have remained at figures
not far from those of ten years ago.
But in that time our population has
cumulatively increased growing at
the rate of about two per cent each
year. Furthermore, large share of
that inerease-too large a share-has
been in the population of cities and
towns, which is population that can
not produce food, though it must con
sumo 1T. 1t is no wonder that the
prices of meats have scared. They
have scarcity value.
Even at the lower prices of ten
years ago, it used to be proverbial
among the farmers of the middle west
that the richest of them were those
xrb is,hr Ian lu 10
voted their energies to beef and dairy
cattle and to hogs. 1t is now more
true than then.
Here let us quote from Eugene II.
Grubb, the leading potato expert of
the United States, who, in converse
tion few weeks ago. said to us,
"Corn is not king, nor is cotton, nor
is what. Grass is king There are
four reasons for this. Frst-lands
are usually far more profitable when
supporting livestock than when crop
ped. Second-the most necessary as
well as the cheapest food for stock is
grass. Third-the cheapest, deepest
and best tilers. drainers and warmers
of the soil are roots. Fourth-the
cheapest fertilizer is turf composed
largely of deeply roofing plants.
The intermountain irrigated valleys
can maintain throughout the season
green, thick pasture of sueculent
grasses. These are so nutritious and
luxuriant that the Agricultural college
vouches for the fact that they can
support from four to eight times as
many cattle per acre as can the lands
of the middle west. Then if hogs are
mortgage-lifters in Iowa, we must
acknowledge that they would be about
six times as valuable in Utah, Neva-
da and Idaho.
Grasses, dairycattle and hogs-it is
the keynote of good farming.