Mixed farming

“ Agriculture, especially of the Middle West, is affected in all its parts by the exploitation of land. To a traveller from the Eastern States, the selling [Pg 34] and re-selling of farm land, without fertilization or improvement by any of the successive owners, is a source of amazement.
"The new lands opened under the Homestead act of half a century ago were often exploited for temporary profit by soil robbers who were experts of their kind. Owing to such farm management, the yield of the acre in the United States gradually decreased. Very little intensive farming was done." ”

“ In many instances a rational system of fertilization has not been introduced because 98 the owner of the land could not afford to wait six years for his return. Profit in farming, therefore, does not consist in raising one big crop or even in obtaining a large balance on the right side of the ledger in a single year. It is both interesting and valuable to know that five tons of timothy hay, 45 bushels of wheat, 100 bushels of maize and 40 tons of cabbage may be raised on an acre, but the real profit in farming only comes through a lifetime of effort. ”

“ It is a problem of how to bring the precious rills of water on to the alkali and sage brush. Population is increasing faster than the food supply.
New farm lands no longer increase decade after decade in areas equal to those of European states. While the ratio of increase of improved land declines, the value of farm lands rise and the price of food leaps upward, reversing the old ratio between the two. The cry of scientific farming and the conservation of natural resources replaces the cry of rapid conquest of the wilderness. ”

“ Except in special cases, as in truck farming, it is cheaper to purchase natural plant-food in the soil than artificial fertility. One acre of land may have potential plant-food sufficient under superior tillage for one hundred crops, while another unaided will yield but half as many, and yet the two pieces of land are often priced at the same figure. In other words, land [63] of high productive power is usually cheaper than land of low productive power. A good farm may be cheaper at $50 per acre than a poor one as a gift. ”

“ I wish, however, to deal exclusively with what are commonly termed the bad lands, inasmuch as in many parts of the world though recently settled, agriculture is being forced to attack these bad lands because the supply of natural farming land is running short. In a new country farming begins on the naturally fertile soils that only require a minimum of cultivation to yield profitable crops, and the newcomers wander further afield in order to find land which will in the light of their former experience be good. ”

“ The offices of the hollow straws may be performed by a system of ridging and back furrowing, having previously covered the soil with leaves, or other refuse organic material.
In high farming, where the object of the cultivator is to make a profitable investment of labor, these last named methods will be found most expedient; but, if the farmer have a large quantity of land, and can afford but a limited amount of labor, the raising of green crops, to be plowed under in the fall, will probably be adopted. ”

“ It is probable that the strong competition of immense farms in grain raising, possibly also in sugar raising from either cane or beets, and in seed raising, will awaken among the smaller [pg 203] farmers attention to finer grades of farming and more care for the fertility of their fewer acres.
On the whole, the tendency with increasing population is toward smaller farms with more intensive farming. Whether our country, with its stronger commercial energy, will follow this tendency as exhibited in northern Europe seems doubtful. ”

“ It is preferable that they should produce farm crops instead of tree crops if the land is best adapted to agricultural use. It is an economic necessity that all lands in this country best suited for farming purposes should be tilled. Our ever-increasing population demands that every acre of land useful for growing crops should be cleared and devoted to farming. ”

“ If there is one business above all others that requires constant attention, it is farming—and especially stock-farming. But my friend is right in saying that he cannot afford to wait to enrich his land by clover and summer-fallowing. His land costs too much; he has a large barn and everything requisite to keep a large stock of cattle and sheep. The interest on farm and buildings, and the money expended in labor, would run on while the dormant matter in the soil was slowly becoming available under the influence of good tillage. ”

“ Farming will never be carried on in America by trusts or syndicates. A combine can run fifty nail factories or breweries, but not fifty farms, at a profit, because farming is too difficult, requires too close supervision and frequent change of details and combinations, and new plans to meet the ever-changing conditions of climate and soil. The conditions which surround agriculture in America put a quietus forever on “bonanza farming,” and tend to the rearing of ideal homes and the accumulation of [37] modest incomes. ”

“ In the arid and semiarid regions it is now a commonly accepted doctrine that upon the expensive irrigated lands should be grown fruits, vegetables, sugar beets, and other intensive crops, while wheat, corn, and other grains and even much of the forage should be grown as extensive crops upon the non-irrigated or dry-farm lands. It is to be hoped that the time is near at hand when it will be a rarity to see grain grown upon irrigated soil, providing the climatic conditions permit the raising of more extensive crops. ”

“ If the land does not need draining, it will not forget this treatment for many years, and it will be the farmer’s own fault if it ever runs down again.
In this country, where wages are so high, we must raise large crops per acre, or not raise any. Where land is cheap, it may sometimes pay to compel a cow to travel over three or four acres to get her food, but we cannot afford to raise our hay in half ton crops; it costs too much to harvest them. High wages, high taxes, and high-priced land, necessitate high farming ”

“ The soil was rapidly exhausted by planting the same crop year after year, for it was easier to take up fresh land than to restore productivity to the old. Indeed, the comments [Pg 127] of foreign travelers at the close of the century suggest doubts as to whether the American farmer understood the importance of rotating his crops and of fertilizing his fields. The farming implements in use showed little of that mechanical ingenuity which is now characteristic of the American people. ”

“ If one man attempts to handle a larger farm, the work is likely to be done in so slipshod a manner that the crop yield decreases and the total returns are no larger than if 200 acres had been well tilled.
One man with four horses would be unable to handle even 160 acres were it not for the possession of modern machinery; and dry-farming, more than any other system of agriculture, is dependent for its success upon the use of proper implements of tillage. ”

“ I always said this country would do for dairy farming, though it takes more money, of course, to start a dairy farm than it does just to plant crops. The cows ain't all of it, you know. You ought to raise your own hay and the corn you need for silage. Borrow money, too, if you haven't got it, to drain and tile your fields. It will pay you back in the long run, for I doubt if you will get any good clover until you put ditches in your land. ”

“ I do not know just where and when all pasturing becomes wasteful and improvident; but I do know that pasturing fosters thistles, briers, and every noxious weed, and so is inconsistent with cleanly and thorough tillage. I know that the same acres will feed far more stock, and keep them in better condition, if their food be cut and fed to them, than if they are sent out to gather it for themselves. I know that the cost of cutting their grass and other fodder with modern machinery need not greatly exceed that of driving them to remote pastures in the morning and hunting them up at nightfall. ”

“ But there is danger that the producing-power of the land may not be safeguarded, and all the people, East as well as West, must have concern for use of Western land. The very fact that irrigation-farming is intensive increases the danger. From an agricultural point of view, the greatest weakness in this farming is the fact that the animal, or live-stock, does not occupy a large place in the system. Other systems of maintaining fertility must be developed. ”

“ He also replenishes his soil with nitrogen-producing legumes, along with corn planting and with summer fallowing. He engages in the raising of chickens, hogs, cattle, and horses. This diversification saves him from total loss in case of a bad year in one line. The farmer does not carry all his eggs in one basket. A bad year with one kind of crops may be a good year with some other. Diversification also makes farming an all-year occupation, every part of which is bringing a good return, instead of being a job with an income for the summer and an outlay for the winter. ”

“ Within the economy of soil cultivation there is room for two alternatives only. Either the landowner must himself farm his land, or he must lease it with sufficient fixity of tenure and farming equipment to secure to his tenant the prospect of being able to pay a fair rent.
Agriculture in this country has very largely failed through an attempt to drive a middle course between these two alternatives. The landowner, usually one possessing a large area and hitherto a pastoralist, has seen, or has thought he saw, a larger profit to be earned by turning his soil to agriculture. ”

“ In fact, the soils of many of the older countries have been permanently injured by continuous cropping, with nothing returned, practiced through centuries. Even in many of the younger states, continuous cropping to wheat or other crops for a generation or less has resulted in a large decrease in the crop yield.
Practice and experiment have shown that such diminishing fertility may be retarded or wholly avoided, first, by so working or cultivating the soil as to set free much of the insoluble plant-food and, secondly, by returning to the soil all or part of the plant-food taken away. ”

“ To-day the situation is changing, many western farms have been robbed of their virgin fertility by uneconomical and short-sighted farming, and the eastern farmer is daily finding new opportunities for profitable agriculture. Dairy farming, stock raising, horticulture and market gardening are more and more attracting his attention. Scientific methods are being adopted; renewal of soil fertility is the first care. The 'good' farmer is one who makes a profit at the end of the season, and who also preserves unimpaired the fertility of the soil. ”

“ Nor do I believe that there are many acres so fertile that they would not produce more Indian Corn, more Hemp, more Cotton, and more of whatever may be their appropriate staple, if judiciously fertilized. If there be farms or fields originally so good that manure would not increase their yield, I am confident that the first half-dozen crops will have taken that conceit out of them. Prairies and river-bottoms may yield ever so bounteously; but that very luxuriance of growth insures their gradual exhaustion of certain elements of crops, which must needs be replaced or their product will dwindle. ”

“ Large tracts of country about here once laid out for arable are now converted into grazing grounds, for the number of cattle is yearly on the increase. Dairy-farming is found to be more profitable and less risky than the raising of wheat and barley in a land where one night of frost sometimes destroys the result of a whole year's patient care and labour. The land is cleared for cultivation by felling and burning, and it is then ploughed in primitive fashion and sown, but only one harvest is generally gathered on one spot. ”

“ If the land is cheap we can suffer it to lie idle without much loss. But when we raise crops, whether on high-priced 109 land or on low-priced land, we must raise good crops, or the expense of cultivating and harvesting them will eat up all the profits. In the dairy districts, I believe land, in proportion to its quality and nearness to market, commands a higher price than land in the grain-growing districts. Hence it follows that high farming should be the aim of the American dairyman. ”

“ Either method will furnish about as much nitrogen as would be taken from the soil by a 50-bushel crop of wheat, a 75-bushel crop of corn or a 100-bushel crop of oats per acre. The decision by the individual between live-stock farming and grain farming should be based upon preference and profit rather than upon the erroneous teaching that farm manure is either essential or sufficient for the maintenance of soil fertility in this country. ”

“ The available supply of land can be increased by several methods. Irrigation, reclamation, and dry farming increase the available supply of farm land. The fertility of land may be retained and increased by manuring, rotation of crops, and careful husbandry. Improved agricultural machinery will also enable land to be used in larger quantities and in more productive ways. And while we do not think of man as actually creating land, the draining of swamps and the filling in of low places increases the available amount of both farm and urban land. ”