VOL. LXVIII
INDIANAPOLIS, JUNE 28, 1913
NO. 26
Why Indiana Needs Mor^ Live Stock
Of the 215,485 farms in Indiana 88.5
per cent range in size from 20 acres
up to 290 acres. The average Indiana
farm is neither large nor small, the average for all farms of the State showing
that each farm, were all of equal size,
would comprise 98.8 acres. Of all the
land area of the State, tne recent year
book of the United States Department
of Agriculture shows 92.3 per cent to
be in farms, and 74.7 per cent to be in
an   improved  condition.
The time for expansion in the size of
farms in Indiana is past. But a small
area of the State is not at the present
time in farms, and of that small percentage, no doubt the greater part is not
adaptable to agricultural purposes. If
Indiana is to continue to produce ever
increasing total yields of farm crops, it
is highly essential that every acre now
under cultivation be made to produce
in even greater abundance than it has
in times past.
A study of the statistics relative to
the increase of population of the United States reveals the fact that we are
approximately doubling our population
every twenty years. With a present
population of ninety millions of people, this would indicate that when a
score more of years have passed, we
shall have a population of approximately 180,000,000 people. Twice the
number of people to feed and clothe.
Is it not imperative that the crop yields
of the State and of the nation be increased on every acre of productive
soil? Is it not doubly imperative that
the best methods of con'erting the bulk
of these crops into meat, dairy and
poultry products be studied assiduously
to the end that every bushel of produce be used to the very limit of its
feeding and fertilizer constitutents? Indiana has passed through its periods of
expansion, and is now entering an
epoch of more intensive farming.
Increase    in     Quality     and     Quantity
Needed.
A proper regard for the conservation
of the soil fertility and the necessity of
converting the roughness of the general farm into marketable produce demand that live stock T>e kept in comparatively large numbers. A study of
the statistics relative to the live stock
at present upon Indiana farms reveals
the fact that the average Indiana farm
does not at present have a great many
head of live stock upon it. Were all
the live stock of the State equally apportioned among the farms of the
State, the average size of which Is 98.9
acres, there would be the following
Lumbers of live stock of the various
elates upon each farm: Hogs, 18.7;
sheep 6.3; horses 3.8; mules, .38; milch
cows, 2.9; cattle , other than milch
cows, 3.2. The average value per head
of the above would be as follows:
Hogs, $7.70: sheep, $4.20; horses, $118;
mules, $124; milch cows, $41; cattle
other than milch cows, $24.50. A
glance at these figures shows that the
live stock on farms at present is not
numerous, nor is it of exceptionally
high    average   value.        Improvement
//
By D. O. Thompson,
Animal Husbandry Extension, Purdue University
should be made in quality as well as in
quantity.
The manifold advantages of live stock
in a system of permanent farming demands that more live stock be maintained on Indiana farms. Feeding live
stock conserves soil fertility.    The  old
striking Illustration of the truth of this
statement is that continuous cropping
experiment which has been conducted
at Purdue during twenty years. A
plat of ground, yielding originally 61.1
bushels of corn per acre, cropped continuously    to   corn,     with     everything
Lecturing on More and Better Live Stock for Indiana from Agricultural Train.
adage, "fattening cattle fattens the
land," should be a part of the creed of
every farmer in the State. Continuous
cropping to corn, or the cereals, including no legume in the system of cropping
and returning nothing in the way of
manure of crop residues to the soil, reduces the  productivity of  the  soil.    A
taken from the field and nothing returned, yielded at the end of twenty
years at the rate of 26 bushels per acre.
When corn ana wheat were alternated
during 'be same period of time, under
the same system of treatment, a crop
yield of 50 bushels per acre was reduced
to  25.4  bushels,  with  a    corresponding
I      . ■'. r •* ^ ! i j
decrease in the yield of wheat.
Market Your Crops Through Stock.
A conservative estimate of the waste
of farm roughness, such as corn stover,
straw, hay and other crop residues,
would put the average annual waste at
about $20,000,000. Intensive farming
demands that these be conserved both
in their feeding and in their fertilizing
values. Through the medium of live
stock properly managed a great amount
of this waste can be converted Into
cash. Under the present method of
farming on many farms it is positively
impossible to harvest the entire corn
crop, making the best use of the corn
stalk. A more reasonable system of
crop rotation, using more non-competl-
tlve crops, should not only enable the
farmer to find time to harvest his entire
corn crop, but would give a better system of rotation, and would provide
what is highly essential to live stock
husbandry, an abundance of leguminous roughages.
A study of the experimental feeding
work which has been conducted by the
Animal Husbandry Department of Purdue Experiment Station reveals the fact
that crops can be marketed through the
medium of live stock at an advance
over the market price that could be received at the elevator. Charging the
565 head of steers which have been fed
at the station during the past six years
with all the feeds they have consumed
at elevator prices during the same period of time, reveals the fact that they
have been fed at an average profit per
head of about $10. Sixty-one trials
with hogs shows that the average cost
per 100 pounds of gain has been $4.39,
while the average selling price on the
Chicago market during the past six
years has been $6.83, showing that
corn and supplements can be marketed
through hogs at a material advance
over the market price for the feeds consumed.
Returning Plant Food to the Soil.
An Ohio experiment shows conclusively that the use of manure upon the
farm materially increases the net profits that may be made upon the farm.
Four 160 acre farms were used in this
experiment. Upon one no fertilizer of
any sort was used. Upon the next,
commercial fertilizer was used. Upon
the third, barnyard manure was used;
and upon the fourth, barnyard manure
reinforced with phosphate was used.
The following table shows the cost of
operating the gross income and the net
income per farm:
A Fine Bunch of Young Stock Raised on a Jackson County Farm.
Gross
Net
System
Cost
Income
income
No fertilizer
$1,050
$1,390
$   340
Fertilizer
1,290
1,977
687
Manure
1,440
2,610
1,170
Manure treated 1,505
3,335
1,830
While the production and application
of manure and treated manure materially increased the cost of operating,
the net Income in each case much more
than compensated for this extra ex-
Continued on page 16.