Missouri State Board of Agriculture. Compliments of Thirty-Eighth Annual Report OF THE MISSOURI State Board of Agriculture A Record of the Work for the Year 1905 ALSO VALUABLE INFORMATION ON BREEDING AND FEEDING LIVE STOOK, IM- PROVING THE FERTILITY OF THE SOIL, GROWING CROPS. DAIRYING, AGRIOOLTURE AND LIVE STOCK STATISTICS. ETC. PUBLISHED 1906. LIBRARY NBW YORK HOTAMCAL uAkDEN. TBE HUGH STEPHENS PRINTING COMPANY JEFFERSON CITY, MO. Y ^ n r 5 ^ If ^5 LIBRARY '^EW VORK BOTANICAL Officers of State Board of Agriculture, 1906. President — S. H. Prather, Tarkio, Vice-President — S. W. Hudson, Buckner. Secretary — Geo. B. Ellis, Columbia. Assistant Secretary, Miss J. B. Rector, Columbia. Crop Statistician — L. F. Childers, Columbia. Treasurer- — W. A, Bright, Columbia. State Veterinarian — Dr. D. F. Luckey, Columbia. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. S. H. Prather, Tarkio. W. C- Howell, Ulman. S. W. Hudson, Buckner. C. F. Afflick, Clarence. H. J. Waters, Columbia. M. B. Greensfelder, Clayton. W. C. Hutchison, Jamesport. EX-OFFICIO MEMBERS. Governor of Missouri — Jos- W. Folk. Superintendent of Schools — W. T. Carrington. Dean Agricultural College — H. J. Waters. CORPORATE MEMBERS. Cong. ' dist. Name. Residence. County. (Term expires July 20, 1906.) I Charles F. Afflick Clarence Shelby. 4 S. H. Prather Tarkio Atchison. 7 Frank C. Hayman Houstonia Pettis. 8 Wm. C. Howell Ulman Miller. 15. . . .John J. McNatt McNatt McDonald. (Term expires July 20, 1907.) 6 John Deerwester Butler Bates. 9 J. A. Potts Mexico Audrain. ID M. B. Greensfelder Clayton St. Louis. II Norman J. Colman St. Louis City. .Holland Bldg. 12 W. R. Wilkinson St. Louis City.. 212 N. Main St. (Term expires July 20, 1908.) 2 W. C. Hutchison Jamesport Daviess. 3. . . .Allen M. Thompson Nashua Clay. 5 S. W. Hudson Buckner Jackson. 13 Emmett E. Swink Farmington St. Francois. 14. . . .Ferd J. Hess Charleston Mississippi. 16. . . .A. T. Nelson Lebanon Laclede. OFFICERS OF STATE FAIR DIRECTORY, President — A. T. Nelson, Lebanon. Vice-President — Frank C. Hayman, Houstonia. Secretary — J. R. Rippey, Sedalia. Treasurer — Chas. E. Yeater, Sedalia. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE STATE FAIR DIRECTORY. A. T. Nelson, Lebanon. Norman J. Colman, St. Louis. John Deerwester, Butler. E. E. Swink, Farmington. Frank C. Hayman, Houstonia. C. F. Afflick, Clarence. A. M. Thompson, Nashua. STATE VETERINARIAN AND DEPUTIES. D. F. Luckey, State Veterinarian Columbia Logan Allen, Deputy State Veterinarian Columbia Horace Bradley, Deputy State Veterinarian Windsor E. Brainerd, Deputy State Veterinarian Memphis W. L. Berry, Deputy State Veterinarian Joplin L. D. Brown, Deputy State Veterinarian Hamilton Henry Boettner, Deputy State Veterinarian Perryville James Cullison, Deputy State Veterinarian Charleston Chas. Doerrie, Deputy State Veterinarian Boonville H. V. Goode, Deputy State Veterinarian St. Joseph E. M. Hendy, Deputy State Veterinarian Jefferson City R. B. Love, Deputy State Veterinarian Springfield R. C. Moore, Deputy State Veterinarian Kansas City H. M. McConnell, Deputy State Veterinarian Marshall F. W. O'Brien Deputy State Veterinarian Hannibal R. P. Poage, Deputy State Veterinarian Shelbina J. H. Slater, Deputy State Veterinarian Richmond Sam Sheldon, Deputy State Veterinarian .Trenton Stanley Smith, Deputy State Veterinarian Columbia T. E." White, Deputy State Veterinarian Sedalia H. H. Wolf, Deputy State Veterinarian Maryville Associate Organizations. IMPROVED LIVE STOCK BREEDERS' ASSOCIATION. President — T. J. Wornall, Liberty. Vice-President — A. M. Thompson, Nashua. Vice-President — Hugh Elliot, Estill. Vice-President — L. E. Frost, Moberly. Vice-President — J- W. Boles, Auxvasse. Vice-President — J. H. McCulloli, Creighton. Secretary — George B, Ellis, Columbia. Treasurer — Clarence Ragsdale, Moberly. Executive Committee — W. P. Harned, Vermont; Benton Gabbert, Dearborn, and above officers. MISSOURI CORN GROWERS' ASSOCIATION. President — E. E. Laughlin, Rich Hill. Vice-President — C. O. Raine, Canton. Vice-President — Geo. H. Sly, Rockport. Vice-President— G- M. Tucker, Blodgett. Vice-President — P. E. Crabtree, Hannon. Vice-President — V. L. Rehin, Crocker. Secretary and Treasurer — ^M. F. Miller, Columbia. MISSOURI STATE DAIRY ASSOCIATION. President — Dr. Geo. C. Mosher, Kansas City. First Vice-President— J. M. Smith, Brookfield. Second Vice-President — Thos. Shields, Eureka. Secretary — R- M. Washburn, Columbia. Treasurer — D. B. Matthews, Kirksville. LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL. state Board of Agriculture, OfHce of the Secretary, I Columbia, Mo., March 1, 1906. f To His Excellency, Joseph W. Folk, Governor of Missouri : Sir — I have the honor to transmit herewith copy of the thirty-eighth annual report of the State Board of Agriculture for the year 1905. The year 1905 was a fairly prosperous year for Missouri farmers, and their prosperity has contributed largely to the general prosperity of the State. The farmers each year are manifesting a greater interest in improved scientific methods ; and the work of the Agricultural Col- lege, Experiment Station and the Board of Agriculture seems to be appreciated more and more each year. Besides the minutes of the an- nual meeting and the annual reports of the Secretary and State Vet- erinarian, and the crop statistics for the year 1905, this report contains a number of practical papers treating of various topics of interest to the farmers, live stock breeders and others wanting to learn of the agricultural progress of Missouri. Trusting that our humble efforts may result in increased prosperity, not alone to the farmers, but to all other classes of the people of this great State, and that our work may be a contributing factor to the success of your administration, I remain, Yours Respectfully, GEORGE B. ELLIS, Secretary. TABLE OF CONTENTS. Annual Meeting. Secretary's report — 15-30 Treasurer's report 31-32 Veterinarian's report 33-39 Farmers' Week. Corn Growers' Association 47-96 Soils and Fertilizers 97-159 Live Stock Breeders' Association 160-241 More Important Insects Injurious to Corn 242-335 Missouri State Dairy Association 336-399 The Silo, Its Uses, How to Build 400-439 Analyses of Feed Stuffs 438-439 Miscellaneous Papers 440-453 Agricultural and Live Stock Statistics 454-465 Tabulated Veterinary Reports 466-478 ANNUAL MEETING. MINUTES OF PROCEEDINGS. State Board of Agriculture I Office of the secretary, Columbia, Mo., Dec. 19, 1905. f In compliance with the provisions of the law, the State Board of Agriculture convened in the Secretary's office in 41st annual session at 7:30 p. m. December 19, 1905. The Board was called to order by the President, and upon call of the roll by the Secretary, the following member? were present. Ex-officio — W. T. Carrington and H. J. Waters. Corporate Members Present— C. F. Afflick, W. C. Hutchison, Al- len M. Thompson, S. H. Prather, S. W. Hudson, John Deerwester, Frank C. Hayman, W. C. Howell, M. B. Greensfelder, Norman J. Colman, E. E. Swink and A. T. Nelson, Those absent : Ex-officio — The Governor, Joseph W. Folk. Corporate Members — J. A. Potts, W. R. Wilkinson, Ferd J. Hess, and J. J. McNatt. Upon motion of Mr. Carrington, the Board took a short recess to allow a meeting of the State Fair Directors. Board called to order after the recess at 8 :20 p. m. Upon motion of Mr. Waters, the reading of the minutes of the last meeting was dispensed with and the minutes adopted as printed in the 37th annual report. The Secretary read his report, and upon motion of Governor Col- man, the report was approved and ordered printed in the 38th annual report. The State Veterinarian read his report, and on motion of Mr. Carrington, the report was accepted and ordered printed in the an- nual report- Moved by Mr. Carrington that the recommendations made by the State Veterinarian, with reference to the appointment of one or more assistants or deputies, be approved and the Executive Committee be lO MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. authorized and instructed to carry the suggestions into effect. Motion carried. The State Veterinarian submitted the following order and asked for approval of the Board : "The Missouri State Board of Agriculture hereby authorizes the State Veterinarian to issue a permit to any re- sponsible butcher firm in the State of Missouri to handle southern cat- tle for immediate slaughter; provided, that upon examination of the plant by the State Veterinarian the pens and chutes are found to be so constructed and arranged as to be safely used for handling southern cattle ; provided further, that the person or firm who secures the permit shall first enter into a bond with the State of Missouri to the amount of $1,000.00 to comply with the rules prescribed by the State Vet- erinarian for handling the southern cattle, and to the amount of $5,000.00 to indemnify anyone for the loss of any cattle which may result from the non-compliance with such rules. In addition to this, the person or firm to whom the permit is granted by the State Veterinarian shall, before the permit is delivered, file with the Secretary of the State Board of Agriculture a plot of the plant shownig all pens and chutes in con- nection therewith." After a full discussion of the subject, Mr. Hayman moved that the recommendation of the State Veterinarian, relating to granting slaughter permits, be referred to the Executive Committee, who are granted full power to act in each particular case. Motion carried. Mr. Waters called up for discussion the recommendation of the Executive Committee relating to additional help for the Secretary. After some discussion. Governor Colman offered the following motion : That the Executive Coinmittee be empowered to employ the necessary office assistance for the Secretary. Motion unanimously adopted. The Agricultural College Committee submitted the following re- port : REPORT OF COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE COMMITTEE. We, your committee appointed to examine into the affairs of the College of Agriculture and Experiment Station, beg to submit the following report: The College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts consists of the following schools : a. School of Agriculture. b. Experiment Station. C. School of Engineering. MINUTES OF PROCEEDINGS. II The School of Agriculture is divided into the following depart- ments : 1. Agronomy; one professor, one instructor, two assistants. 2. Animal Husbandry;' two professors, one assistant professor, two assistants, one herdsman. 3. Horticulture; one professor, one assistant professor, one in- structor, one assistant. 4. Entomology; one professor, one instructor, 5. Veterinary Medicine; one professor, one instructor- 6. Agricultural Chemistry ; -one professor, one assistant professor. 7. Dairying; one professor, one instructor, one assistant. 8. Botany; one professor, two instructors, one assistant. 9. Domestic Science; which at the present time is without a head. The Experiment Station is divided into Agronomy, including soil fertility, plant propagation, crop rotation. Animal Husbandry, including investigations in animal nutrition and animal breeding. Horticulture, including the entire range of plant production, fruit growing, orchard management and vegetable growing. Entomology, including a study of the life histories and methods of combating insects. Veterinary Medicine, including a study of the important contagious diseases of the live stock of Missouri. Dairying, including the manufacture of butter and cheese and the handling of city milk supplies. Agricidfural Chem- istry, including the fertilizer control work, and the soil survey, which is a co-operative effort between the Departments of Agronomy, Ag- ricultural Chemistry and Geology, intended to point out ultimately the exact chemical composition, value, adaptability to different crops, and productive capacity of each type of soil in Missouri, and to point out the best methods of handling the same. The officers of the Experiment Station are, in the main, the same as the officers of the College of Agriculture, and divide their time between instructional work and research work. Their salaries are paid in part from the funds of the Agricultural College and in part from the funds of the Experiment Station, provided by the Federal Government. We find the buildings, grounds and live stock in good condition. We find a new, commodious and excellent cattle barn just being completed for the use of the beef breeds of live stock. We find the old dairy barn of a character unsuited to the uses and needs of an Agricultural College, and strongly recommend that the Board of Curators include in its next request to the Legislature an 12 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. item sufficient to provide adequate accommodations for the splendid dairy herd the College now owns. The experimental work in beef production now being conducted by the Experiment Station in co-operation with the United States Gov- ernment is especially to be commended, on account of its magnitude, its practical plan, the important problems involved, and the excellent quality of the cattle in use. We desire further to especially commend the Soil Survey of Mis- souri recently inaugurated by the Experiment Station, and to urge upon the Legislature the importance of its continuance and the necessity for providing adequately for its support. We congratulate the Board of Curators of the University upon securing the services of such a capable corps of investigators, instructors and assistants. We find the facilities for work in Veterinary Science and Animal Diseases wholly inadequate and not in proportion to the importance of the department or to the equipment of the other departments of the College, and we would strongly urge the Board of Curators to request an appropriation from the next Legislature of at least $50,000 for a suitable veterinary laboratory and hospital. We especially commend the co-operative effort between the College of Agriculture and the Teachers' College of the University in the prep- aration of teachers to give instruction in Agriculture in the public schools of the State, and we recommend that the Board of Curators employ a special man, whose sole duties shall be to encourage the in- troduction of agriculture and other industrial subjects into the pub- lic schools. Very respectfully submitted, S. W. Hudson, A. M. Thompson, W. T. Carrington. The report was unanimously adopted. REPORT OF AUDITING COMMITTEE. The Auditing Committee submitted the following report: We, the undersigned committee, authorized to examine the books and accounts of the Secretary and Treasurer, beg leave to submit the following report : We have carefully examined the vouchers authorized by the Ex- ecutive Committee and the corresponding warrants issued by the Pres- ident and Secretary of the different funds of the Board as follows ; MINUTES OF PROCEEDINGS. 1 3 DISTRIBUTION ANNUAL REPORT FUND. We find that vouchers Nos. 117- 124, inclusive, for a total amount of $600.00, have been approved and corresponding warrants issued and paid, leaving no balance in said fund. MONTHLY CROP REPORT FUND. We find that vouchers Nos. 322-356, inclusive, for a total amount of $834.32, have been approved and corresponding warrants issued and paid, leaving a balance in the hands of the Treasurer of the Board of $125.39. EXPENSE OF MEMBERS FUND. We find that vouchers Nos. 582-612, inclusive, have been approved to the amount of $468.67, and corresponding warrants issued, leaving a balance of $396.25 in the hands of the Treasurer of the Board. farmers' INSTITUTE FUND. We find that vouchers Nos. 617-692, inclusive, have been approved for a total amount of $3,333.32, and corresponding warrants issued, leav- ing a balance unappropriated of $369.51. In this fund the Treasurer's statement shows that warrants Nos, 684, 686, 688 and 689, for a total amount of $297.05, have not yet been presented for payment, leaving a balance in the hands of the Treasurer of $666.56. When these warrants are paid there will be an exact agreement with the books of the Secre- tary and Treasurer, i OFFICE EXPENSE FUND. We find that vouchers Nos. 534-574, inclusive, for a total amount of $45540> have been approved and corresponding warrants issued and paid by the Treasurer, leaving a balance of $103.33 ^^ ^^e hands of the Treasurer. STATE VETERINARY FUND. We find that vouchers Nos, 1 607-1718, inclusive, for a total amount of $6,250.45, have been approved and corresponding warrants issued, leaving a balance unappropriated of $609.66. In this fund the Treas- urer's statement shows that warrants Nos. I7i2and 1713, for the amount of $134.85, have not yet been presented for payment, leaving a balance 14 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. in the hands of tlie Treasurer of $744.51, When these warants are paid there will be an exact agreement of the books of the Secretary and Treasurer. The above statement shows an exact agreement as to expenditures and balances between the books of the Secretary and Treasurer, except the unpaid warrants, as above noted. All of which is respectfully submitted. F. C. Hay MAN, W. C. Hutchison, John Deerwester. The report was unanimously adopted. election of OFFICERS. Mr. S. H. Prather was nominated for President. Upon motion of Governor Colman, the rules were suspended and the Secretary was in- structed to cast the unanimous ballot of the Board for S. H. Prather for President. Mr. Prather was declared elected President. Upon motion of Governor Colman, the rules were suspended and the Secretary was instructed to cast the unanimous ballot of the Board for S. W. Hudson as Vice-President. Mr. Hudson was declared elected. Upon motion of Mr. Carrington, the rules were suspended and the President was authorized to cast the unanimous ballot of the Board for Geo. B. Ellis for Secretary. Mr. Ellis was declared elected. Upon motion of Dean Waters, the rules were suspended and the Secretary was authorized to cast the unanimous ballot of the Board for Miss J. B. Rector for Assistant Secretary. Miss Rector was de- clared elected. Mr. Hayman stated that he was authorized to say to the Board that Mr. H. H. Banks, the Treasurer, was not an applicant for re-election. Upon motion of Mr. Nelson, the Secretary was authorized to cast the unanimous ballot of the Board for W. A. Bright for Treasurer. Mr. Bright was declared elected. Upon motion of Mr. Carrington, the following members were elected members of the Executive Committee: S. H. Prather, S. W. Hudson, H. J. Waters, W. C. Howell, M. B. Greensfelder, C. F. Afflick and W. C. Hutchison. There being no further business, the Board adjourned to meet in the office of the Secretary on January 11, 1906, at 4 o'clock p. m. Geo. B. Ellis, Secretary. C. F. Afflick, President. REPORT OF SECRETARY. 1 5 SECRETARY'S REPORT. Gentlemen of the Board of Agriculture : You are now assembled in the forty-first annual session of your honorable body that you may hear the reports of your officers concerning the work of the past year, and also that you may deliberate and plan for the future welfare and development of the agricultural interests of the great commonwealth of Missouri. There has perhaps never before been a time when all classes so fully realized that agriculture is the mainstay of the country as they do now, and there has probably never before been a time when the general average condition of our farmers was more prosperous than it is today ; and I am gratified to record the fact that Missouri farmers have a full share in that prosperity. Missouri, containing only one-fiftieth of the land area of the United States, has this year produced one-eleventh of the corn and one-twentieth of the wheat of the entire country, and had it not been for unprecedented storms, which swept the State during the months of August and Sep- tember, we would have made a much better showing for the industry and thrift of our farmers. With our bountiful crops, and prices for grains and live stock fairly remunerative, the farmers of the State are able to enjoy to a greater degree than ever before those things which make a people better, happier and more intelligent. That our farmers are an intelligent and progressive class of people is, I think, clearly proven by the fact that during the last four years the yield of corn, our prin- cipal field crop, has been greater than for any previous consecutive four years in the history of the State. The total yield of corn for the last four years has been 13 1.4 bushels per acre, or an average yearly yield of 32.8 bushels. This shows that our farmers are at least maintaining at par the fertility of the land. In making up this average, it should be stated that many of our counties make a much larger yield, and that this average includes every acre of the poorer districts of the State not so well adapted to corn cultivation. For the same four years — 1902- 1905, inclusive — the average yield of corn in Iowa, one of the greatest corn states in the Union, was only 31.8 bushels, or one bushel less than the average yield in Missouri. In Nebras- ka, another great corn state, for the same period, the average annual yield was 30.9 bushels, or 1.9 bushels less than in Missouri; and in Kansas, on the west, another border state, the average yield was only 26 bushels, or 6.8 bushels less than our own farmers have produced. The only state l6 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. among the leading corn states of the Union showing a greater average yield per acre, during the last four years, is Illinois ; but while this com parison is very favorable to Missouri farmers, we, as their representa- tives for improved agriculture, should not be satisfied until every acre in the State is made to yield a maximum crop. By applying well-es- tablished scientific methods, the average yield of corn in this State ought to be raised to at least forty bushels per acre — many farmers in the dif- ferent counties produce a much larger yield State Farmers' Conventions. — One means through which this de- partment has been able to accomplish much good is through the State conventions that have been held annually for the past several years under the auspices of the Board of Agriculture. It has been thought wise to establish these State conventions in a permanent home; so, for the last two years they have been held in the Agricultural College. State Corn Growers' Association. — The second annual meeting of the Missouri Corn Growers' Association, which convened in this build- ing January 12, 1905, has resulted in creating widespread interest in the possibilities of corn improvement in Missouri. Through this con- vention, and by means of the work that has been done in the regular Farmers' Institutes, hundreds of farmers throughout the State are mak- ing a scientific study of corn breeding and a practical application of the scientific methods of tillage and the use of fertilizers. The Board of Agriculture costs the State of Missouri about $20,000 annually, and yet, if the work we are doing in corn improvement will add but two kernels to each ear, we will have added to the wealth of the State for this year alone $177,000 — a sufficient sum to maintain the entire work of the Board for several years. The next, or third annual meeting of this Association, will con- vene in the Agricultural building, January 9, and promises to be the most successful of any meeting yet held. The officers of this Association should be commended for their patriotic spirit; they are giving their time and of their means without any remuneration whatever. Improved Live Stock Breeders' Association. — The eighth annual meeting of the Improved Live Stock Breeders' Association was held under the auspices of the Board of Agriculture in the Agricultural Col- lege, January 12, 13, 1905, at which time a splendid program was ren- dered, copy of which was published in the thirty-seventh annual report. Missouri has the soil, the climate, the water, the great variety of nutri- tious grasses and other feeds, and the intelligent class of farmers neces- sary to make her the greatest live stock country of the world — a position she is approaching very fast. One object of the Improved Live Stock Breeders' Association is to eliminate the scrub-bred animal from the REPORT OF SECRETARY. I7 State, and make the quality of our stock such that the fact that an ani- mal is bred in Missouri will make it standard everywhere the world over. The ninth annual meeting of this Association will be held in the Agricultural College during farmers' week, January 9-12, 1906, and the reputation of the men on the program is a sufficient guarantee that a rare treat is in store for those who will attend the meeting. I would like to suggest the advisability of the Board of Agriculture convening in a body during farmers' week in the Agricultural College and lend their assistance to the work that is being promoted by the different state conventions. The officers of this Association, like those of the Corn Growers' Association, give their time, their talent and of their means to the support of the organization without any hope of remuneration whatever. State Dairy Convention. — The State Dairy Association, while not directly under the auspices of the State Board of Agriculture, has, for the last five years, been given every possible assistance that we could render. The fifteenth annual meeting of this Association was held in Brookfield, February 15-17, 1905; and, I am pleased to say, was the most successful meeting of the Association held up to this time. Large- ly as a result of that convention, the last Legislature enacted a law pro- viding for the appointment of a State Dairy Commissioner and Assistant. The Governor made these appointments last June, and since that time these officers have been occupied in the up-building of the dairy business of this State. With the proper encouragement from our State Legis- lature, Missouri is destined in the near future to become the greatest dairy State of the Union. The sixteenth annual meeting of the State Dairy Association was held November 15-17, 1905, in Jefferson City, and a most excellent program was rendered ; and the proceedings of the convention will be published in bulletin form and distributed from, this office to the far- mers of the State. State Poultry Association. — I am pleased to say that the differences between the factions, existing in the State Poultry Association, have been settled and that organization is now on a good working basis. We have this year lent the assistance of this office to the officers of the State Poultry Association by giving financial aid from our Institute fund for the holding of a State Poultry Institute at Kirksville, December 12-16. In my opinion no better use of the State's money can be made than for the encouragement and support of the different agricultural associations. A -2 1 8 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. Farmers' Institutes. The general interest in the Farmers' Insti- tute work has been equal to that of previous years. We find, as a rule, the very best and most progressive farmers of the neighborhood at- tend the meetings and take a deep interest in the discussions. One notable feature of the great interest taken is that in many places the public schools — more especially the high schools — have been dismissed for one session that the pupils might hear the institute lectures. Another means of reaching the young people has been to have the lecturers visit the schools where the meetings are held and deliver talks adapted to the schools on practical agricultural topics. The good efifect of this work is usually shown in the increased number of letters received from these communities asking for bulletins and other information. Agricultural Education. — Last year I made, the suggestion that an organized effort be made to bring about the establishment of a system of county and district agricultural schools throughout the State. While I would renew that suggestion now, I realize that many difficulties are in the way toward bringing this condition about at once, and it may require several years to inaugurate a general system of rural agricul- tural high schools. There is one other suggestion that I would add to the above, and that is that the Board take the necessary steps to have es- tablished in our Agricultural College a two years' course to which stu- dents shall be admitted directly from the rural schools of the State. Some other states have established such a course in connection with their agricultural college, and I believe it would be a wise movement to provide for it in our own agricultural college. State Veterinary Work. — I do not deem it necessary to go into detail as to what has been accomplished in this department, as the State Veterinarian will report on the work of his office. The general live stock sanitary conditions in the State are good, and with proper precautions on the part of our stock men ought to remain so. During the year 235 calls have been made by the State Veterinarian and deputies, as provided for by section 10545, R. S., 1899. Of the total number glanders was found to be the cause of 96 cases with 112 horses or mules aflfected. Seventy-four of this number were in Kansas City, where most of the glandered horses have been found for the last three years, and only 29 cases, including 43 animals, were found in the State outside of Kansas City. This is a very considerable decrease in the number of cases outside of Kansas City, and a small de- crease in Kansas City. If it were possible to do so, I think it would be a wise provision to establish a more rigid system of inspection for Kansas City and use more drastic measures for cleaning up the infection there. REPORT OF SECRETARY. I9 Live Stock Inspection. — At your last annual meeting the Secretary was authorized, by resolution, to discontinue the services of the live stock inspector when in his judgment the services of the inspector were no longer required. Upon the authority of this resolution and at the urgent request of the State Veterinarian, I notified Dr. Robard, the inspector, that his services would be discontinued after April i. Early in June the State Veterinarian, after a personal investigation of conditions in Southwest Missouri, recommended to the Executive Board the appointment of an inspector to look after the Texas fever infection in Southwest Missouri, and upon the recommendation of the State Veterinarian, Mr. I. H. Collier of Christopher was appointed to that position. Mr. Collier assumed the duties of his office on May 15, and has been continued up to the present time. The table on another page gives the number of cattle quarantined by Mr. Collier on account of Tex- as fever during the year 1905. The figures show a very large increase of the number of infested cattle above the previous year and indicates the necessity for vigorous measures to prevent the spread of the in- fested area in the future. Last year there was practically no infested territory, the area being confined to a limited area in three or four town- ships. This year the infestation has spread to 21 townships. All except one, however, are found south of Joplin and west of a line drawn north and south through Pimeville and Neosho. As long as Southeastern Kansas, Northern Arkansas and Indian Territory are infested with fever ticks, it will require diligence on the part of this State to keep the infested areas completely under control. Nezv Legislation. — Your Board having been made by law guardian of the agricultural interests of the State, it will be wise for you to take such necessary steps as you think prudent that will bring about legis- lation that will protect and promote agricultural development. I would call your attention to what seems to me an urgent need for a law pre- venting the fraudulent sale of adulterated human foods and stock feeds. A law should be enacted along the line of the present fertilizer law that would give ample protection to the people of the State. The develop- ment of the dairy and poultry interests is causing the placing on the market of a great many concentrated feeding stuflfs, and it is of ex- treme importance that the farmers should have some safeguard against adulterations of these high priced feeds, else the development of these important industries may be greatly retarded. An important part of the work of this office is the gathering, com- piling and publishing of statistical data in regard to crops and live stock. While we think we have a system now established that is reasonably accurate on an estimate basis, yet it would require but little cost to 20 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. place the system upon a more accurate basis, if we could secure a State statistical law such as is in force in some other states requiring the as- sessors to furnish official information each year to the Board of Ag- riculture. The great advantage to the State from a law of this kind would come not only because of the attention it would attract to our resources from the outside world, but in a few years the report would furnish valuable data upon which to base scientific investigations. Another law that would be of inestimable value to the live stock interests of the State is a breeders license or inspection law. Some of the foreign countries have their standards for improved live stock established by such laws. It would take some years to put a law of this kind into full operation, but it could be brought about gradually without injury to any individual and would be of great advantage to the State. At first it might be necessary to offer the services of the veterinary de- partment of the Board of Agriculture for the purpose of examining the pure-bred animals as to their soundness, similar to what is now being done by the State Veterinarian with cattle in regard to tuberculosis. This inspection should eventually be extended to and including the breeding and individual conformation of the animal, and in time only such male animals as receive the State's approval should be licensed for breeding purposes. With such a law put into force in this State, during the next few years Missouri could easily surpass the world in the quality of live stock, and it would be worth millions to our far- mers each year. Office Assistance Needed. — The work of this office has so in- creased that it is now impossible to take care of the work in an efficient manner without additional help. This matter was fully discussed by the Executive Committee at their meeting held in this office October 3, and the following resolution was adopted : Resolved, That it is the sense of this committee that the work of the Secretary's office has increased during the past few years to such an extent as to require help of a character that is able to assume some of the responsibilities of the office. It is, therefore, recommended to the full Board that if it is possible within the limit of the funds of the Board that such assistance be provided. Legislative Approval. — We are flattered to believe by the many commendatory letters received from the farmers of the State that we are accomplishing some good by our work through this office. We are also pleased to note the fact that our work is appreciated to a greater degree than ever before by the Sta-te Legislature. Last year, at your annual meeting, you recommended the same appropriations that were made for tlie previous biennial period. Without any solicitation REPORT OF SECRETARY. 21 on th€ part of the Board or officers of the Board, the Legislature in- creased the appropriation for the publication of the annual report 25 per cent. The increased demand for the report has more than kept pace with the increased number published, and the entire edition will be exhausted before a new edition can be published. Respectfully, Geo. B. Ellis, Secretary. First prize corn at Olarltsville institute, 1905. 22 MISSOURI AGRICrLTURAL REPORT. SECRETARY'S FINANCIAL SIATEMENT. To the Board of Agriculture : I beg leave to submit the following exhibit of the financial trans- actions of the Board for the year beginning December 19, 1904, and end- ing December 19, 1905, which shows the balances on hand at the begin- ning of the year, the requisitions drawn on the State Auditor, the war- rants drawn on H. H. Banks, Treasurer of the Board, the balances in the Treasury of the Board, and the balances in the different funds remain- ing in the State Treasury: DISTRIBUTION OP ANNUAL REPORT FUND. Date. War. No. I Name. Dr. Cr. 1905. July 5. Aug. 1. " 1. " 1. 1. Sept. 1. " 1. " 1. " 1. U7 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 To requisition By S. H. Ellfins Pacific Express Co American Express Co Missouri, Kansas & Texas R. American Express Co , I'aciflc Express Co Missouri, Kansas & Texas R. R S. H. Elliins R. $600 00 $140 00 71 16 56 34 36 83 77 39 174 33 33 72 10 23 $600 00 $600 CO MONTHLY CROP REPORT FUND. Date Name. Dr. To balance $159 71 By H. H. Banl£3 Missouri Statesman Missouri Statesman Missouri Statesman S. H. Bll^lns S. II. Ellcins Missouri Statesman National Paper Co National Paper Co S. H. Elldns .. Columbia Tppewrlter Exchange.. S. H. Elklns S. H. Elklns G. F. Troxell To requisition By Columbia Statesman Missouri Statesman S. H. Elklns S. H. Elklns Columbia Statesman S. H. Elklns To requisition By S. H. Elklns National Paper Co Columbia Typewriter Exchange Colnmbla Statesman S. H. Elklns To requisition , Cr. 300 00 100 00 100 00 $5 00 4 00 49 30 49 00 10 00 5 94 39 50 50 00 5 00 10 ro 33 90 20 00 2 91 19 50 10 00 2 00 20 00 5 6S 78 30 14 13 11 11 18 17 13 85 52 50 24 88 REPORT OF SECRETARY. 23 MONTHLY CROP REPORT FUND-Oontinued. Date. Check No. Name. Dr. Cr. Oct. Nov. I )ec. 3. 3. 3. 3. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 19. 347 348 349 350 3.il 352 .^S £54 355 356 By S. H. E'lkins Columbia Statesman S. H. Elkins To requisition By S. H. Elkins S. H. Elkins Columbia Statesman Pacific Express Co.. S. H. Elkins S. H. Elkins Columbia Statesman To requisition By balance 100 00 200 00 8 25 98 50 20 00 15 10 38 00 4 00 24 bJ 5 00 J5 00 48 00 125 39 $930 "1 $959 71 EXPENSE OF MEMBERS' FUND. Date. War. No. Name. Dr. Cr. 1904. Dpc 19 "" ES2"" SS? 584 585 586 587 588 589 590 591 592 593 594 595 586 597 598 599 600 601 603 603 604 605 G06 To balance $464 92 " 21 By F. C. Hayman $12 00 " 21 W. C. Howell 15 CO " 21 " 21 .T. .T. Conrad N. J. Colman 27 45 ]-' CO " 21 John Deerwester 14 45 " 21 C. F. Afflick 12 50 S 73 REPORT OF SECRETARY. 27 STATE VETERINARY FUND, Date. War. No. Name. Dr. Cr. 1904. Dec. 19. " 21. " 21'. " 21. " 21. " 21. " 21. 1905. Jan. 2. " 3. " 2. 2. " 2. " 2. 2. 6. 6. 6. 6. 6. 6. 6. 6. 6. 6. 6. Feb. it Mch. April May 4. 4. " 4. " 4. " 4. 4. " 4. " 4. " 4. " 4. " 4. " 4. " 4. 4. " 4. " 4. June 8. " 8. " 8. " 8. July Aug. 5. .5. 5. 5. 5. 5. 5. 5. 5. 5. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. X. 1607 1608 1609 1610 1611 1612 1613 1614 1615 1616 1617 1618 1619 1620 1621 1622 1623 1624 1625 1626 1627 1628 1629 1630 1631 1632 1633 1634 1635 1636 1637 1638 1639 1640 1641 1642 1643 1644 1645 1646 1647 '1648' 1649 1650 1651 1652 1653 1654 1655 1656 1657 'iess' 1659 1660 1661 1662 1663 1664 1665 1666 1667 1668 1669 1670 1671 1672 1673 1674 1675 1676 1677 1678 1679 To balance By E. M. Hendy H. V. Goode Jesse Robards . . . . R. B. Love W. F. Berry E. F. Ammerman Nora K. Hall . F. W. O'Brien Love . . . Poage . B. P. R. R. D. F. Luckey S.- H. Ward H. H. Banks Nora K. Hall S. H. Elkins Nora K. Hall Missouri Statesman Nora K. Hall Missouri Statesman F. W. O'Brien H. H. Wolf • Samuel Sheldon T. E. Wlilte Stanley Smitli R. P. Poage E. F. Ammermasn H. V. Goode Missouri Statesman Columbia Typewriter Exchange James Cullison Nora K. Hall J. H. Slater E. M. Hendy Jesse Robards National I'aper Co W. F. Berry R. C. Moore D. F. Luckey Horace Bradley Horace Bradley D. F. Luckey To requisition By R. C. Moore R. B. Love Columbia Teleplione Co H. V. Goode I. H. Collier Stanley Smith S. Sheldon W. F. Berry D. F. Luckey Nora K. Hall To requisition By D. F. Luckey R. C. Moore Columbia Statesman Stanley Smith H. H. Wolf Horace Bradley F. W. O'Brien Nora K. Hall I. H. Collier T. E. White B. F. Ammerman R. C. Moore H. V. Goode S. H. Elkins D. F. Luckey I. H. Collier W. F. Berrv F. W. O'Brien R. B. Love Nora K. Hall Jaa. Cullison L H. Collier To requisition $860 11 $2,000 00 1,000 00 1,000 00 $8 00 10 25 121 25 43 50 16 60 4 32 50 00 44 99 5 00 19 60 221 36 10 00 25 00 50 00 21 20 50 00 3 00 50 00 3 75 23 31 8 00 8 40 6 10 26 15 8 50 9 17 53 29 2 50 12 03 20 30 50 00 7 28 19 50 398 05 4 00 21 50 125 00 528 76 64 70 20 84 227 11 17 00 116 41 7 95 21 59 82 20 24 50 9 15 18 80 262 07 30 00 186 19 46 00 2 00 8 50 13 00 8 00 17 70 50 00 75 00 15 30 4 01 31 50 16 00 56 00 180 45 41 60 17 50 29 00 54 50 50 00 26 94 125 35 28 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. STATE VETERINARY FUND-Contlnued. Date. War. No. Name. Dr. Cr. Sept 1 1680 1681 1682 1683 1684 1686 1686 1687 1688 1689 1690 1691 1692 1693 1694 1695 1696 1697 1698 1699 By Nora K. Hall 50 00 D. F. Luckey 170 Ss '• 1 Columbia Statesman 50 40 1 I. H. Collier 116 35 1 E. F. Ammerman 2 91 " 1 M., K. & T, R. R. Co 12 05 1 S. H. Elklns 20 00 Oct. 3 R. C. Moore 105 50 3 Nora K. Hall 50 00 " 3 Chas. Doerrle 29 10 " 3 J. H. Slater 17 25 3 W. F. Berry 20 50 3 J. B. Tiffany 13 50 3 .Tas. Cullison 19 36 3 Stanley Smith 8 50 3 Horace Bradlev 29 27 3 H. V. Goode 15 35 " 3 I. H. Collier 119 40 " 3 D. F. Luckey 252 95 " 3 Columbia Statesman 29 50 3 To requisition 1,000 00 Nor. 1 1700 1701 1702 1703 1704 1705 Bv R. C. Moore 40 65 1 H. V. Goode 17 72 1 S. Sheldon 18 15 1 .Tas. Cullison 30 52 1 D. F. Luckey 243 52 1 Nora K. Hall 50 00 " 1 To requisition 1.000 00 Dec 1 1706 1707 1708 1709 1710 1711 1712 1713 1714 1715 1716 1717 1718 By Blanche Robertson 20 00 " 1 Stanley Smith 16 75 " 1 H. F. Boettner 34 16 " 1 S. Sheldon 14 00 " 1 . . Tillev & Hatton 9 00 " 1 .Tas. Cullison 46 22 " 1 W. F. Berry 26 60 " 1 I H. Collier 108 25 " 1 Nora K. Hall 30 00 " 1 D. F. Luckey 266 44 " 1.. .Tas Cullison 26 38 •' 1 R. C. Moore 42 50 " 1 S. H. Elklns 10 90 " 19 Bv balance 609 66 $6,860 11 $6,860 11 The above report is a true copy of the financial records of this office. Respectfully submitted, GEO. B. ELLIS, Secretary. REPORT OF SECRETARY. 29 SUMMARY OF SECRETARY'S FINANCIAL STATEMENT. Printing and Distributing Annual Report Fund Data Dr. Cr. December 19, 1904 1 To balance in treasury Board of Agriculture. ^^^^^j. ^j appropriation By warrants drawn for distributing an- nual report April 17, 1905, December 19, 1904 to December 19, 1905 December 19, 1905. December 19, 1905. amount paid for printing and binding annual report, account witli Print- ing Commission balance in treasury Board of Agricul- ture balance in State Treasury $0,000 00 18,000 00 $8,000 00 $600 00 3,462 21 $000 00 3,937 79 $8,000 00 "Monthly Crop Report Fund. December 19, 1904 April 17, 1905 December 19, 1904, to •December 19, 1905.... December 19. 1905. December 19. 1905. To balance In treasury Board of Agriculture, amount of appropriation By warrants drawn on Treasurer Board of Agriculture balance in treasury Board of Agricul- ture balance in State Treasury $159 71 2,000 00 $2,159 71 $834 32 125 39 1,200 00 $2,159 71 Expense of Members' Fund. December 19, 1904 April 17, 1905 December 19, 1904, to December 19, 1905.... I To balance in treasury Board of Agriculture. I amount of appropriation December 19, 1905. December 19, 1905. By warrants drawn on Treasurer Board of Agriculture balance in treasury Board of Agricul- ture balance In State Treasury $4&i 92 $1,200 00 $1,664 92 $468 67 396 25 800 00 $1,664 92 Farmers' Institute Fund. December 19, 1904 April 17, 1905 December 19, 1904, to December 19, 1905.... December 19, 1905. December 19, 1905. To balance in treasury Board of Agriculture, amount of appropriation By warrants drawn on Treasurer Board of Agriculture balance in treasury Board of Agricul- ture balance In State Treasury $1,002 83 10,000 00 $11,002 83 $3,333 32 369 51 7,300 00 $11,002 83 Office Expense Fund. December 19, 1904 Aoril 17 1905 To balance in treasury Board of Agriculture amount of appropriation $158 73 1,00000 December 19, 1904, to December 19, 19(K By warrants drawn on Treasurer Board of Afirriculture $455 40 December 19, 1905 balance in treasury Board of Agricul- ture 106 33 December 19 1905 balajice In State Treasury 600 00 $1,158 73 $1,158 73 30 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL. REPORT. State Veterinary Fund. Date. Dr. Cr. Deceml)er 19, 1901 Anril 17 1905 To balance in treasury Board of Agriculture amount of appropriation $860 11 16,200 00 December 19, 1904, to December 19, 1905 By warrants drawn on Treasurer Board of Agriculture $6, 250 45 December 19, 1905 balance in treasury Board of Agricul- ture 609 66 December 19 190G balance in State Treasurv 10,200 00 $17,060 n $17,060 11 REPORT OF TREASURER, 31 TREASURER'S REPORT. To the State Board of Agriculture : I, H. H. Banks, Treasurer Board of Agriculture, submit the follow- ing report of the amount of money received from State Treasurer, in- cluding balances, and the amounts paid out on warrants presented against the several funds of the Board of Agriculture, and the balances now on hand, all for the year beginning December 19, 1904, and ending December 19, 1905 : Date. July 5, 1905. Distribution of Annual Report Fund. To State warrant By warrants paid and canceltid. Dr. $600 00 $600 00 Or. $600 00 $600 00 Monthly Crop Report Fund. December 21, 1904 To balance $159 71 May 4 State warrant 300 00 July 5 State warrant 100 00 September 1 State warrant ... 1 100 00 October 3 State warrant 100 00 December 1 . State warrant 9f\i'\ fin December 19 . By warrants paid and canceled $S34 32 balance 125 39 $959 71 $959 71 Expense of Members' Fund. December 19, 1904 To balance $464 92 100 00 300 00 August 1, 1905 State wari'ant December 1, 1905 vState warrant December 19. 1905 By warrants paid ai balance id canceled $468 67 3% 25 $864 92 $864 92 Farmers' Institute Fund. December 19, 1904 To balance $1,002 83 500 00 1,000 00 1,200 00 June 8, 1905 State warrant October 3, 1905 State warrant November 1, IdO^ State warrant December 19, 1905 By warrants paid and canceled $3, 036 27 balance 666 56 • $3,702 83 $3,702 83 32 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. Secretary's Account. Date. Dr. Cr. December 19, 190i By error account R. M. Washburn, Oct. 12, 1904, No. 71 .01 December 19 1904 To balance $1,258 71 30 07 December 1, 19(^ warrant No. 692 on Farmers' Institute Fund December 19 1905 Bv warrants oald and canceled .' $1,288 77 $1,288 78 $1,288 78 Office Expense Fund. December 19 1904 To balance $158 73 100 00 100 00 100 00 100 00 May 4, 1905 State warrant .Tune 8, 1905 State warrant September 1, 1905 State warrant December 1, 1905 State warrant December 19 1905 Bv warrants nald and canceled $455 40 December 19 1905 ba.la.nce 103 33 $568 73 $558 73 State Veterinary Fund. December 19. 1904 May 4, 1905 June 8. 1905 August 1, 1905... October 3, 1905... November 1, 1906 December 19. 1905 To balance State warrant State warrant , State warrant , State warrant , State warrant By warrants paid and canceled balance $860 11 2,000 00 1,000 00 1,000 00 1,000 00 1,000 00 $6,860 11 $6,115 60 744 51 $6,860 11 Respectfully submitted, H. H. BANKS, Treasurer. REPORT OF STATE VETERINARIAN Missouri State Board of Agriculture : Gentlemen — A table on other pages of the annual report gives an account of the visits made by all official veterinarians in doing State control work. Where it has been impossible for me to attend to the control work in person, and in cases where the mileage and per diem of a deputy amounted to less than my mileage, it has been our policy to have the work done by a deputy. During the year I have tried to do all the control work coming in my section of the State, a report of which can be found with the tabulation of the work of other veterina- rians. In addition to doing the control work in my immediate section of the State, I have had occasion at various times to go to extreme portions of the State to make investigations. Aside from the work reported in the table, I have prepared, during the year, a bulletin on the tuberculin test, an account of which is given further on, and have done as much of the tuberculin test work as I could possibly find time to do. During the year I have attended farmers' institutes four weeks, giving special prominence in my lectures to the subject of the tuberculin test and the prevention of tuberculosis among cattle. In reviewing the State work for the past year, I am able to re- port that there has been no unusual outbreak of any contagious disease among the live stock of the State. We have had about an average or probably less than the average amount of the various contagious dis- eases, and I think as little as could possibly be expected, considering the amount of live stock traffic in this State. There is a continual shipment of sheep, cattle and hogs in this State for feeding purposes from the south and west. 'We are so situated in regard to the horse mar- ket that a great number of horses and nmles are annually shipped into and out of the State. For years the State of Missouri has been a leader in the production of registered cattle, and for the development of herds large numbers of registered cattle have been imported from all direc- tions, without the consequent spread of any disease except a limited infection of tuberculosis. The dairy interests of the State are today developing rapidly, and while most of the herds are made up A-3 34 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. of cattle picked up from the locality in which the dairy is started, the improvement of the herds will depend largely upon the importation of well-bred dairy cattle. This will undoubtedly result in the introduc- tion oftuberculosis into our herds, and probably, in a limited way, other contagious diseases. While we have no means of knowing definitely just what amount of contagious diseases exist in this State, we gain a reasonably ac- curate idea of the existence of various contagious diseases from our various sources of information in regard to them. It has been the law and custom for years for an investigation to be made by the veterinary service on the receipt of a petition signed by ten freeholders. This privilege is well understood by the laymen of the State and is one of the principal sources of our information in regard to the existence of a contagious disease among any sort of live stock. Four years ago the Board of Agriculture established a precedent of recognizing letters and telegrams from qualified veterinarians over the State notifying us of the existence of contagious diseases, and as a result we have enjoyed the general co-operation of the veterinarians of this State in locating and suppressing contagious diseases. The help that the veterinarians have rendered in this line has been of especial value during the past year. By arrangement with U. S. Bureau of Animal Industry, we re- ceive, by return mail, a notice of the arrival at any of the public stock yards of any live stock in a diseased condition from this State. During the past year we have received notices of the shipment to the public markets from this State of 150 cars of hogs affected with hog cholera; 24 cars of sheep affected with scab, and 7 cars of cattle affected with scabies. It being impossible to do anything in the way of controlling the hog cholera by tlie ordinary methods of quarantine, no investigation of the source of the infected hogs has been made. In tlie case of sheep and cattle scabies, the investigation has been ordered of the origin of every shipment. The stock pens from which each shipment was loaded were quarantined and required to be disinfected. The veterina- rian making the investigation has invariably quarantined all the in- fected animals found in the neighborhood from which llie shipment originated. SHEEP SCAB IN LACLEDE COUNTY. There is one exception to this rule, and that is in connection with tlie shipments from Laclede county, where sheep scabies is so widespread among the sheep all over the county that a single visit by a veterinarian would accomplish very little. It will take from 4 to 6 weeks for a man to quarantine all the scaby sheep in Laclede county, and no headway REPORT OF STATE VETERINARIAN. 35 can be made in this work until all of the sheep are gotten up off tlie range. This work can best be done between the first Of January and the 15th of April. It will be necessary, in order to handle the out- break of scabies in Laclede county properly, to employ a competent man to go there and remain until all of the sheep have been quaran- tined and dipped. TICK FEVER. Arrangements have been made with tlie Federal government where- by the Bureau of Animal Industry furnishes men to guard the southern border of the State against the introduction of fever ticks during the closed season, and attend to the inspection during the inspection season. Our policy has been to attend strictly to the eradication of the fever ticks at points within the State. There is not enough of this work to justify the board in keeping a man permanently employed for this work alone. The important part of this work falls during the month of Jviy, and if a competent man were on the ground during July he could doubtless find and quarantine all of the infected cattle and pastures in the State. The subsequent examination and releasing of quarantines would require an occasional return to the infected areas by a deputy. It seems that it would be much more economical to put a competent man on the ground during the month of July and leave the subsequent part of the work to be done by deputies, from whom only a few visits would be required. Any man who is selected to look after the fever infection should be a well qualified veterinarian who not only under- stands tick fever, but who has a thorough knowledge of the nature of other contagious diseases. We cannot hope to get the best results from the employment of laymen for doing control work of any kind. THE TUBERCULIN TEST. As was explained to the Board at the last annual meeting, the most important line of work falling upon the State veterinary service at the present time is the proper control of tuberculosis among cattle. As was also explained at that meeting that the August bulletin of 1905 would be devoted to the subject of the tuberculin test. This bulletin, while not treating in detail of tuberculosis, gives a brief review of the symptoms of the disease and explains the difficulty in discovering its presence in any herd by any ordinary examination such as could be made by a stockman. It also explains in detail the use that can be made of the tuberculin test, and gives the method of applying it. In the bulletin is announced to the breeders of registered beef cattle and 36 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. to the dairymen of the State that the State Board of Agriculure will undertake a veterinary inspection of their herds, including the tuber- culin test, upon their request, without cost to them. A good many more applications from cattle men have been received for this test than we have been able to answer up to the present time, and it will be necessary for the Board to employ competent help to do this line of work which we are able to do with our present supply of funds. While the application of the tuberculin test is apparently a very simple matter it is necessary, in order to be sure of making a success, to em- ploy the most skillful man that it is possible for us to get to assist in doing this work. Conditions arise in connection with the test which requires the veterinarian using it to have not only an intimate knowledge of the nature of cattle but of the various temperatures and of the symptoms that animals show as the effect of other diseases. CENTRAL SLAUGHTER HOUSES. While the matter may not be strictly in line with the preventing of contagious diseases among live stock, the question of sooner or later pro- viding for a system of inspection of meat and milk in the larger towns of the State seems to be an important one. Nothing could be more beneficial by way of promoting the live stock interest of the State than the assurance on the pari of the public that our meat was whole- some and free from disease. Investigations of the matter at the present 'time will show that the meat which is slaughtered at home towns, say of 4,000 inhabitants, is often killed at as many as three or four or even a half dozen little slaughter houses located some distance away from town. As a rule the country slaughter houses are so filthy as to be considered a nuisance, and are not usually permitted to be maintained within or near the city limits. There is usually not enough of killing at any one of these houses to justify the owner in keeping it clean. Any one who will take the trouble to investigate the matter will find that even though healthy animals are slaughtered at these places, it is next to impossible to dress the carcass without them be- coming more or less filthy. In addition to this, there is no restraint whatever at such slaughtering houses upon the killing of diseased stock. During the past year there were 150 cars of hogs sent to the public markets from this State diseased with cholera. Lumpy jaw and tubercu- losis and other diseases which would render meat unfit for use are more or less prevalent over the State. There is no telling how much of this diseased stuff is killed at the country slaughtering houses. As they are conducted at the present time, there is no greater argument for the use of dressed meat which comes from the trust packing houses, REPORT OF STATE VETERINARIAN. 37 where all the diseased stuff is condemned by expert" meat inspectors. All kinds of food animals are shipped from the various towns of this State to the central markets, slaughtered and shipped back again. If some arrangement could be made for more slaughtering to be done at home the freight on the live animal and on the dressed carcass could be saved. It seems to be a well established fact that the dressed beef that is shipped into the interior of the State by the packing houses, while being free from disease, is inferior in quality to that dressed at home. It seems that it would be a valuable thing if the Board of Agriculture could formulate some plan of encouraging a suitable central slaughter house for each of the larger towns of the State. Such a consummation would doubtless result in good in several different ways. If the killing of live stock at any good sized town could all be done at one plant, only one set of hands would be required to do the killing, and a lot of time would be saved which is now wasted by from three to a half dozen sets of hands going a mile or two to the country to dress just one or two animals each. If there were four slaughter houses in a town, a central slaughtering plant would save the expense of three sets of hands. Another source of economy would be the pos- sibility of utilizing the by-products if all of the animals at an ordinary sized town were killed at one plant. Valuable by-products are thrown away and wasted as the slaughtering is now done, and the loss of these, with the freight to and from the public markets, must come out of the pockets of cattle producers. Another good reason for central slaughter- ing plants is that the premises would naturally be used more and be better equipped for handling the carcass in a cleanly manner, and it would be kept in a more wholesome condition. Still another advantage is that in an ordinary sized town, with comparatively little expense, a competent inspector could be provided by the city, whereby the live stock could be inspected before and after slaughtering and the public supplied with meat free from disease, and which had not been deteriorated in quality by long cold storage. Another reason for encouraging the slaughtering of live stock at home is to provide a greater number of markets for cattle which would naturally tend to increase the prices that the pro- ducers would get. There are a number of things that the Board of Ag- riculture could do to help in the development of the plan of central slaughtering houses in all of the larger tow^ns of the State, but no one thing would lend more encouragement to the proper course in this mat- ter than the extending to such plants the privilege of handling for im- mediate slaughter cattle from south of the tick fever quarantine line. At various centers in Soo^ithern Missouri, for the lack of this privi- lege, southern cattle are shipped, in some cases, 150 miles, dressed and 38 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. returned for retail. Either the consumer or the producer must pay the extra freight. In the northern part of the State this privilege would not be so essential, but at certain times in each year there is a shortage of fat cattle in many neighborhoods and for a plant of any dimension to run successfully it must have access to fat cattle at all times. It is with a view of supplying cattle in an emergency that the privilege of shipping in southern cattle would be especially convenient to a slaughter- ing plant in the northern section of the State. It is not probable that southern cattle would be used to any extent if it were possible to secure natives for slaughtering. It might be contended that the shipping of a car of southern cattle now and then into any town in this State would have a tendency to depreciate the value of the natives of that vicinity. While at first glance this seems to be the case, it is not really true. At any point in the State where southern cattle are liable to be handled, dressed meat is freely shipped in. Thousands of southern cattle slaugh- tered in the central packing plants are sent to such points and sold in competition with the cattle produced at home. There is no way of escaping such competition, and I cannot see that the privilege of hand- ling a few southern cattle at any point in the State could be of any especial detriment. The benefit growing out of the extra number of markets thereby established would outweigh any objections that could be urged against the central slaughtering plants having authority to handle southern cattle. As things exist at the present time the country slaughter house is rapidly going out of existence, and most of the slaughtering is done at the central markets where the buyers are so closely organized that they pay whatever prices they choose for live stock. As to the safety of handling cattle from south of the fever line, I will say that I should not advise it if I thought there was any danger whatever. It is just as safe to handle southern cattle at the slaughtering plants in the interior of the State as it is to handle them at the public markets, and nothing further need be said along that line. RECOMMENDATIONS. (i) In view of what has been said in regard to the prevalence of sheep scab in I^cledc county, the extra amount of tuberculin test work, and the tick fever investigation in Southwest Missouri, I wish to recom- mend to the Board, if suitable talent can be obtained, the employment of one, and when necessary, two men to be engaged permanently by the month in doing these lines of work. As has been said, either in tubercu- lin test, sheep scab or tick fever work the man must not only have a good scientific education but must have combined with it considerable busi- ness ability. The work in all of these lines will keep one man busy, if h^ REPORT OF STATE VETERINARIAN. 39 can attend to all of it. If he has any time to spare he can be of valuable j-ervice to the Board in attending farmers' institutes, and I therefore rec- ommend that the Board ought to employ for the coming year, at least, one competent man as Deputy State Veterinarian, and in case of an unforseen rush of work, the employment of an additional man. As a further reason for this course, I will say that we find it impossible to get any of our deputies to leave their practice for more than a day or two at a time, and it is impossible to keep up with the State work without the services of another man. The funds provided by the last Legislature are ample for carrying out this plan. (2) That the State Board of Agriculture make the following order, to stand as a part of the policy of the veterinary service: The Missouri State Board of Agriculture hereby authorizes the State Veterinarian to issue a permit to any responsible butcher firm in the State of Missouri to handle southern cattle for immediate slaugh- ter; provided, that upon examination of the plant by the State Veter- inarian the pens and chutes are found to be so constructed and ar- ranged as to be safely used for handling southern cattle ; provided fur- ther, that the person or firm who secures the permit shall first enter into a bond with the State Veterinarian to the amount of $i,ooo to comply with the rules prescribed by the State Veterinarian for handling the southern cattle, and to the amount of $5,000 to indemnify anyone for the loss of any cattle which may result from the non-compliance with such rules. In addition to this, the person or firm to whom the permit is granted by the State Veterinarian shall, before the permit is delivered, file with the Secretary of the State Board of Agriculture w plot of the plant showing all pens and chutes in connection therewith. (3) That the State Board of Agriculture arrange, if possible, for the manufacture at the Missouri Experiment Station of all the tuber- culin needed in the State work. Respectfully submitted, D. F. LUCKEY, State Veterinarian. Farmers' Week in Agiiciiltiiral Colleofe. January 9-12, 1906. Third Annual Meeting Missouri Corn Growers' Association and Ninth Annual Meeting Missouri Improved Live Stock Breeders' Association. (Held under the auspices of the State Board of Agriculture.) An Abstract of the Addresses Delivered. Opening Session. ADDRESS OF WELCOME. (Dr. J. O. Jones, Acting President, State University ) Mr. Chairman, Gentlemen of the Farmers' Convention : In the absence of our President, Dr. Jesse, who, on account of his health, has retired for a brief season from the duties of the University, it becomes my pleasure and my privilege to welcome you to the Uni- versity of Missouri. In the first place I want to welcome you to your University ; it is in every sense the University of the people of this State — supported by them both in regard to money and patronage and from the farmers' sons and daughters by far the larger part of the student corps has for many years been made up and is yet made up and I hope this condition will continue for many many years. I welcome you to your University that within a month I think (perhaps in a shorter period of time) will enroll more than 2,000 students. I welcome }T>u to the University that has all the consolation of age, because it is not a youth and yet has farmers' week in agricultural college. 41 all the vigor and all the enterprise of youth; to the University with a splendid academic department, the famous schools of law and med- icine ; to an excellent and marvelously growing engineering school ; to a young and yet vigorous teachers' college, and to something that v;ill be of most interest to you — to an Agricultural College that in use- fulness to the State is unsurpassed by any agricultural college in all this land. We shall be very glad, indeed, to have you visit all the departments of the University during this convention; every day from 10 to 10:30 we have what we call an assembly of the students in the auditorium. If you are interested in attending this assembly and seeing the students assembled in a body, we shall be very glad to have you present at the time of this assembly. I hope you will not go away from Columbia without inspecting the work of the University. No one ever comes here and goes away, after looking carefully into what the University is do- ing for the citizens of this State, that he is not pleased with it and proud to know we have such a University in this imperial commonwealth of Missouri. I think it was Bill Nye who said (at least we can put the remark ofif on him as he is not present) that farming is a very suc- cessful and profitable occupation if you can afford it. Now, evidently, when he made that remark he was not thinking about the Missouri farmer and the Missouri stock grower. He must have been thinking about the New England farmer ; not the Missouri farmer who can grow everthing on his soil under the influence of the gentle rains and soft sunshine alone. He evidently did not have in mind the Missouri farmer with his broad fields of grain, with his fertile meadows, with his bountiful harvests. The Missouri farmer of this day is certainly a happy man ; and in that connection I am reminded of a story that was told in Columbia re- cently — so recently, in fact, as perhaps to be remembered by some of you — of a king who was afflicted with nervous prostration — a disease that seems to lie in wait for kings and those who have nothing to do ; and his physician told him if he wished to get relief from this dreadful disease he "must wear the shirt of a happy man ;" so he sent out into all parts of his kingdom to search for a happy man in order that he might procure his shirt and be relieved from this terrible disease. His mes- sengers searched throughout '!ie kingdom, and at last they found the man who claimed h." was ' appy — perfectly happy. He was a beggar at the city gate; but w'-'C" rl .y found him it was still impossible for the king to secure the c r . .\ 1 Ji he so much desired, for lo, this beggar didn't have any sliirl. ^ nat a pity the Missouri farmer did not live in that man's kingdom, f jr tlien he would have h?x4 iM> diffiulty m ^nx^ng 42 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. a happy man with not only one shirt but with, I dare say, at least two. The Missouri farmer is not only as happy as a king— he is a king. His farm is his kingdom and his flocks, his cattle and his horses are his subjects, his family is his cabinet, and his wife his prime minister. He has subjects that never revolt, and a cabinet that never leaves him under stress of circumstances; and if he wants to talk about his prime min- ister when his prime minister doesn't do exactly what he wants done, he can go out and talk to his subjects without any danger of having the conversation repeated. The Missouri farmer is certainly a man to be envied. It is a trite remark enough that agriculture is the basis of our wealth. That is undoubtedly true, but in looking at that truth, in emphasizing that truth, we have lost sight of one far more important, and that is this : That agriculture is not only the basis of our wealth, but agriculture is also the basis of our morality. It is the conservator of our virtues and the safeguard and bulwark of our republic. It is a fact that if we look back over the history of our world for 2,000 years, we can scarcely find a subject upon which our ideas have not materially changed. In the science of medicine Ave no longer believe that a man can be cured of epilepsy by swallowing the eggs of a snake, or of fever by cutting up the entrails of a frog and taking at intervals. We no longer believe that the quaking of the earth is caused by the imprisoned giants under- neath trying to be free ; in religion we no longer believe that God is appeased with bloody sacrifices or rich gifts ; but it is an interesting fact that on one subject our ideas have not changed in the slightest de- gree, and that is this : That the farmer, the man who lives in the country, the agriculturist, is, as I just announced, the preserver of our morals, our virtues and our religion. Two thousand years ago the old Emperor x\ugustus was so much impressed with this fact that he in- structed his court body to sing the praises of agriculture. He saw that the old Roman virtues had disappeared, that the virtuous Roman char- acter was no longer to be found there, that manhood was gone and virtue was gone, and he was wise enough to know that these things had been preserved by the sturdy Roman who lived in the country, and he said "sing the praises of the farm ; sing of the beauties of nature ; sing of the songs of country life and make it so attractive that these sub- jects of mine will no longer live in towns and cities, but will go back again to the country which was the nurse of all the old Roman virtues." Now, what that old emperor saw was true, is true today ; and I want to impress this thought on you. because it seems to me to add a nobility and dignity and value to your calling. I would say to you men gathered here this morning, that you are engaged in an occupation that FARMERS WEEK IN AGRICUI.TURAL COLLEGE. 43 is not only the basis of the wealth of our nation in a large measure (especially of the middle west), but you are engaged in an occupation that is now and is to be for many, many years the preserver of the purity of our lives, of our morals, the preserver of our religion, the preserver of this republic. It is one of the bad signs, one of the dangerous signs of the age, to see that our population is gradually drifting away from the farm into the towns and cities. The family from the farm that goes into the city is swallowed up and disappears completely in three years — statis- tics show that — they are swallowed up and wiped off the face of the earth as completely as if the earth had opened wide its gaping mouth and swallowed them up ; but in the country these families endure from generation to generation. Now, I hope each one of you will recognize as never before the importance of your occupation to this country not only in a material way, but from a moral standpoint ; and I am sure that when you do recognize this you will be conscious that you are en- gaged in a calling which is not surpassed in dignity, which is not sur- passed in worth, which is not surpassed in value by any occupation in which man is engaged from one end of this mighty land down to the other. It is for this reason — not only because you are engaged in an occupation that forms the basis of our wealth, but that you are en- gaged in an ocupation that means as well the preserving of the purity of our lives — it is for this reason that I am glad to welcome you to this institution of learning, which has been founded here for that very purpose by the people of this State. We are all co-laborers, and as such we welcome you to this University. In the name of the faculty and the students of the University of Missouri, I extend to you a most cordial welcome. ADDRESS OF WELCOiME. (Dr. H. J. Waters, Dean Agricultural Oollege.) Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen : You will observe by the program that you are to be welcomed here by a number of different people, and on behalf of a number of differ- ent classes of people or constituents, and this I take it is because every- body in this community and everybody in this State wants every man or woman who attends this convention to feel absolutely at home here and, as has been pointed out by the President of the University, you are meeting in your own house, in your own building — you are in fact 44 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. at home ; and there is really no necessity for anybody to extend you a A", elcome to your own palace. Certainly, if the farmer owns or dominates any part of this insti- tution with which you are this week affiliated, it is the department which has for its special purpose the upbuilding and fostering of your pro- fession ; and while in the past the farmer has not felt, perhaps, the in- terest that he should have in this department, and if he has been dis- posed to send his sons • and daughters into other departments of the University to fit them for other professions, that has been because primarily it was the fashion and the custom for the young men and women on the farm to leave the farm and to go to some one of the so- called learned professions, where it was supposed there were greater opportunities and greater success, and, perhaps, less drudgery ; or in other words, it is the old story well illustrated by the answer that was given to a lecturer on social economy when, by way of introduction, he asked "why is it that a married man lives longer than an unmarried man," and some weak, hen-pecked man in the rear of the audience said "they don't — ^it just seems longer." It is human nature to imagine that the good fishing is all on the other side of the stream, that the romance is all in the other man's life ; that trials and troubles and trib- ulations are all immediately around us ; that the landscape far ahead is beautiful, and that immediately before us is full of blemishes and scars and shadows and pitfalls and dangers ; but that is not true — it only seems so. There is just as much romance in your life as you put there ; and how many times have we crossed the stream, perhaps at some peril, to find the water only six inches deep on the other side, while you have left good fishing ; and how many young men have left the farm with good opportunities for success and have gone to the cities and towns to find, as the President of the University has so clearly pictured here, only disappointment and ruin in other professions. The truth is today, that there is no other business that offers the certain success that is so free from dangers, moral, financial and physical, as farming. There is no other business that is growing in importance like farming; no other property enhancing in value like real estate, and no other kind of property that is so valuable ; and the Missouri farmer who owns Missouri real estate and makes the mistake of alienating his title to the same, of selling it without immediately buying more of the same, is making a fundamental mistake. I do not believe in the Euro- pean system of handling the land ; but if it were possible (looking at it from a purely selfish standpoint) to prevent that land from going out of the hands of your children, you would be making one of the best possible investments for your family. If you go into any part of FARMERS* WEEK IN AGRICUI.TORAL COLLEGE. 45 Europe, the only gentleman there is the land owner — ^he is the man who dominates everything — politically, socially and financially. He is the only man who possesses real wealth; and while agriculture — the ethics of agriculture — our conceptions of the nobility of the calling have not changed in the last two thousand years, as shown by President Jones, yet the practice of agriculture has changed materially and is. yet chang- ing, so that the man who was a successful farmer 25 or 30 years ago (unless he has kept busy studying and thinking and progressing) is not a successful farmer today; and while I am certain that the Missouri farmer wears the shirt of a happy man, he at the same time wears the shirt (at least this audience) of a successful corn grower and corn breeder, and those of you who have been in this movement from its be- ginning will appreciate, when you see that exhibit of corn in the other room, what progress has been made in the last five years in this State. Missouri really began this subject in earnest less than five years ago, and she is now taking the place as a corn breeder that she has so long held as a stock breeder. iMissouri herds have been famous the world over for many years. Ever since Kentucky went out of the business, she handed over to the Missouri farmer that distinguished position ; and now it is not to be expected that Illinois will go out of the corn-breeding business, but Illinois will have some good company, now that Missouri has started in the business ; and you, gentlemen, who are breeding corn, must earn for Missouri that same reputation that she has for many years held for her live stock ; and you will be conferring as great a favor on the State and improving agriculture just as much as the improved live-stock breeder has in the past, and I congratulate you, gentlemen, on the ex- hibit you are now making. I have seen all of the corn shows held in this country for many years, and there is more improvement manifested here in this exhibit than I have ever seen in that line in the same length of time ; and I say I congratulate you ; and now I want to say to you, gentlemen, I extend you a hearty welcome on behalf of the Agricultural College. I want you to feel at home, to feel that this is your institution and that you are absolutely urged, and if we can com- pel you, we will force you to see this department of Agriculture, to meet all of the teachers and the students, and worm out of them all the information you can get ; and if you find anything here that does not seem just right, then I want you to say so. I want you to feel that this is your institution, that you are aiding in its development, and that you are behind it, and when we have the farmers behind this institution it is going to suceed ; if they are not interested, all the strength that can be put into it from the University side cannot make it a success. 46 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. You will find the students of agriculture a live body. I want them to get acqainted with you ; I hope you will find the faculty a live body ; if not, I want you to stir them up, and I will help you. I hope you will find the Board of Curators a live body; if not, I hope you will stir them up also, and when you make them feel that you, gentlemen, are alive with your importance, then you will have done the College of Agri- culture a great deal of good. I thank you for your presence here and hope it will be an annual events and that we I'^ay come together on such an occasion as this every year. Sweepstakes, 20-enr Kxliibit, iStiiti' Uorii Sliow, IWW, SESSION Missoviri Corn Growers' Association Tuesday, January 9. PRESIDENT'S ANNUAL ADDRESS. (E. E. LaughliD. Rich Hill, Mo.) It is with a degree of self-applause we, the Missouri State Corn Growers' Association, meet in third annual session ; applause of victory, still not conquerors, on the field of battle for good corn. In these campaigns for good corn we find poorly bred samples, which means we must still agitate the doctrine "Missouri Corn," "In- crease the Yield," "Improve the Quality." First prize white corn. State Corn Show, 190(3. To stimulate these local corn shows, the Association this year gave prize ribbons'. These shows have been very complimentary to our efiforts. These ribbons have put men to thinking and will do much good in the future. As long as farmers are willing to show corn either for prize or honor, there is a chance for improvement. In fact, everyone should be proud of his corn, always ready and willing to show. Else, if we are ashamed, we should discard our present seed stock and adhere 48 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. to better methods of seed selection and breeding, following closely the propaganda instituted by the Missouri State Corn Growers' Associa- tion. These local corn shows should be carried on each year, to keep in touch with improvement or deterioration in seed stock. Much good literature has been printed for the Association. The Tvlissouri State Board of Agriculture has given us an audience of thou- sands. On every hand we see and hear the good. Mr. Geo. B. Ellis has been the champion for good corn many years, and has done more for good corn than any other man holding a like position , being tireless to make our Associations successful. Those who were on the institute force three years ago, judging the corn samples for the World's Fair prizes, going over this same territory this year in every case note the great im- provement in samples shown. This movement for good corn is the most rational scheme for higher development in agricultural and live stock improvement ever in- augurated. It costs but three dollars to buy a bushel of good seed corn. When the crop is grown and we feed this well-bred corn to scrub stock, we soon become "sore" on the stock. Thus the round begins that starts good farming with small investment at first; and at last a betterment to the whole. Our leaders in agricultural education are pushing this one subject, corn, knowing well the effect in the future. The Missouri State Corn Growers' Association score card was first formulated since our last meeting. This is a move in the right direc- tion, as it sets the rule by which we measure samples at corn shows, but more especially in seed selection. Every seed corn grower, particularly the members of this association, should commit to memory these rules. These rules are short and if learned along with the disqualification we can soon select what constitutes a good seed ear and will be more chari- table toward it. Those who are the enemies of the score card are general!} tiie casual readers. lUit as the types develop, the points of scoring can be changed. It is to be assured the score card is the blighting enemy to careless selection. Let every member, one and all, of the Missouri State Corn Grow'ers' Association heartily support this plain simple rule by which corn in all parts of the State can be judged. It is imperative that we outline types prevalent in Missouri. While we have much good corn in the State, still we have a multiplicity of varie- ties, and as this farm seed problem is new to many in our. State, let us say that our present cattle could not have been improved if we had bred promiscuously. Just think, only four beef types are found that are general improvers. While many have tried mixing to get all the good qualities, yet with no future good. We need seed corn types that are as well estab- CORN GROWERS ASSOCIATION. 49 lished as these cattle, that will be as easily told by the average farmer. This can be done. Anyone who ever grew Reid's Yellow Dent can al- most tell at a glance the field -without the sight of the ear. St, Charles White has its characteristics just as these cattle. But all are not grow- ing these or other pure bred corns but a mixture undoubtedly with a view of improving, as some do in live stock breeding, but in each case failure is the final outcome. Many carry on this breeding under a false conception of the whole and in a few years change seed because of run out qualities. Our great plant breeders cross varieties to get sports. These sports in a majority of cases are very inferior and only one in thousands is equal or superior to the parent plant. We are getting to understand better the laws that have bettered live stock than of years back. It is this : Closer selection in varieties. The deterioration in seed com is not in in-breeding so much as from faulty selection or out-crossing. At these corn shows corn has been on exhibition that was in the hands of one grower twenty or more years and is prized as pure, while in these ten ears two or three cobs were of a different color from the class. Indeed, these two red cobs in a sample where the others were white is a poor pedigree of twenty years' standing.' The greatest pedi- gree is in the samples themselves, and uniformity almost to a fault is what all must breed. So if we in the State can have standards, we have gained much. This will benefit the farmer if by pestilence, storm or accident the seed is lost ; he will know where to get seed acclimated, whereas if sending north or east several years are lost with getting up the yield or quality settled to his localitv. Many from other states have bought Missouri corn for seed, but as all Missouri corn is not the same, it is proper for us to get types that can give us a note of standing. Our new members should, in buying seed corn, buy some of the standards that are Hsted as Missouri corn. So if you wish to make sales of seed corn later, there will be but one standard to advertise — ^yourself. The classes already outlined embrace almost all the principles of good corn, and, as in all new corn, extrava- gance is often indulged in which you cannot afford. Since the organization of the Missouri State Corn Growers' Asso- ciation, Farmer seed-corn men have become more popular. Ear-corn is taken in preference to shelled with an advance price. Last year one Missouri seed corn grower, from i6 acres, grew two hundred bushels seed ears and sold at two dollars per bushel; but had to return more than a hundred dollars "with regrets, out of seed." There is room for many such in our State, and there is no more lucrative business than rais- A-4 50 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. ing good well bred seed corn. The Association is ever ready to assist such efforts. While the Association has made an effort to make each corn grower in the State feel he must better his seed for the next year and done much that can never be eft'aced from the annals of good agriculture, still we have problems that must be solved in the future in a scientific way. Some are storing and testing seed, exterminating of pests, soils and manures in the different phases. All these will come through the proper channel — the Experiment Station, Our station' has taken up corn and I am assured more will be done in the future. Let us all grow well-bred seed corn, each becoming enthusiastic. Study corn from spring till spring. It will expand the mind, it is a clean upbuilding subject — one that we can learn from each year. When we consider we have no really up-to-date corn book in print, that the information has developed so rapidly that past editions have become obsolete, it behooves us all to be on the alert, going over the subject that we may be in the present, farming with the greatest grain crop, the greatest commercial crop Missouri has. The Missouri State Corn Growers' Association is no experiment, and it stands first among associations for good, and we hope will con- tinue the speed from the impetus received the past three years. "Missouri Corn" — "Increase the Yield" — "Improve the Quality." SOME ESSENTIAL FACTORS IX CORN PRODUCTION. (Dr II. J. Waters, Dean Agricultural College.) The corn breeders here will discuss one very important and, up to this time, very much neglected factor in corn growing, and that First prize yellow corn. State Corn Show, 190t). CORN GROWERS ASSOCIATION. 5 1 is the breeding of corn, and I shall therefore not touch upon that, but shall discuss very briefly what might be termed some of the factors in successful corn production, aside from the seed. Feed the Corn to Live Stock. — The most fundamental and most im- portant factor of all is to establish such a system of farming that you will feed every bushel of corn you produce, except what you sell for seed at high prices, to high class stock on your farm. With all the effort and intelligence that the Missouri farmer or corn breeder can put into his business, it will be impossible to produce high and profitable yields on land that is poor ; and there is no other very profitable way, as a whole, to keep your land up than by feeding all of the corn and all of the other crops of that sort which you produce on the farm, and so arrange your feeding lots and sheds and racks that the plant food, the droppings from the animals, shall not be carried into the Gulf of Mexico by the first rains that come. It is too often the case that the farmer will not move his manger from one year to another; and you will find a spot there for about one hundred yards around that manger so rich that it will produce nothing, or weeds which are even worse than nothingj while other land in the neighborhood of the manger is starving for food. Then, too, he will put his feed rack on some rocky point that is not worth anything because it is too stony and dry and hot in summer ; and in that way there is a prodigious waste of plant food on the farm out- side of the selling, even when a man is pursuing this policy of feeding. So this I need only mention as one very important factor in successful corn production— feeding the land continually and keeping up the fertility. Rotation of Crops — Then I would have a systematic rotation, and this is the first time I think I have ever advised that. I have always advised the contrary ; and to the man who would follow the other prac- tice I would say it is undoubtedly better, provided one will put the neces- sary intelligence into it, but the danger is he will not follow any rotation at all. The Eastern farmer is a slave to rotation, as was his father and his grandfather. It is one of the greatest barriers to progress among the Pennsylvania farmers that they have that rotation on their hands which they cannot abandon. It is as much a part of their traditions as anything else in their whole lives. They will not adopt new methods of production or a new system of farming if it in any way interferes with that rotation. They are in a rut. But the Missouri farmer is sinning or erring in another direction— he has no rotation at all. It would be better, for a while at least, for him to get into the rut of this system of rotation. I would advise a rotation of which clover or cowpeas would be 52 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. used freely ; so freely indeed that every acre of tillable land would be in clover at least once in four years and in timothy as little as possible. That is another very essential factor in the production of corn — grow less timothy and more clover on your land and in your rotation. Commercial Fertilizers. — It is very doubtful whether or not you can afford a commercial fertilizer on the rich black prairie soil of North- ern and Western Missouri. There are other soils, however, naturally thinner, but which produce a good deal of corn, and which, after corn is grown once in two or three years, are left considerably impoverished ; and on which, in the absence of a liberal application of barnyard manure, an application of commercial fertilizer might yield a good profit. This does not mean, necessarily, that the increased yield in the corn crop the first year would pay the fertilizer bill and leave a profit ; but that before the four or five-year rotation has ended the increased yield of corn, wheat, clover and grass might pay a very good profit on the amount invested in commercial fertilizers. As to just what sort of fertilizer to use, of course, it will depend much upon your soil and its previous treat- ment, but I believe a reasonable quantity of phosphorus in some cheap form, like finely ground rock and perhaps a small quantity of potash, will pay a profit, provided you will use plenty of clover or barnyard manure, or both, in order to furnish humus to the soil and to supply the nitrogen. Preparation of the Land — As regards fall and spring plowing, it has been found, as the result of experiments conducted here, and elsewhere, that there is little difference, and that this difference varies so much from season to season, that we may safely say the difference is not so large as the seasonal difference, and that it is more a matter of con- venience with the farmer than it is a matter of good or bad policy, pro- vided the land is not rolling enough so that there will be serious loss from washing. In that case, I would not plow in the fall. I should plow late, so as to prevent the soil from running together, and if the land is thin and shallow I would plow deeper in the fall than I would dare to plow in the spring. That is, by throwing up some of the unweathered soil in the fall to be acted upon during the winter you are really ac- complishing one of the main beneficial results of plowing. As to depth of plowing, that depends upon the soil. In the spring, as I have just in- dicated, somewhat shallower plowing should be done than in the fall. We started out a good many years ago with the idea that we should plow deep, and Horace Greeley wrote a book on agriculture, which he dedicated to the man who would invent a plow that would turn the soil to a depth of three feet and cover twenty acres a day. I do not think anyone has yet claimed the dedicatory honors of that book ; and we have CORN GROWERS ASSOCIATION. 53 found that this deep plowing, like siibsoiling, makes a good theory and has many theoretical arguments in its favor, but has not been proven practical. Depth of Planting — The old theory was that in this country, where corn suffers from drought, it is a good idea to plant the corn deep so the roots will be where the moisture is when drought comes. We made some" experiments along this line some years ago and found that no benefit whatever was secured by planting the grain deep, as far as the depth of the roots was concerned. They occupied the same area they would have anyhow, and we went to all the expense of putting our corn deep down into the soil and ran a very great risk that it would not come up on account of being put in a soil that is cold and wet, especially if cold, wet weather follows planting, only to get the roots in precisely the same soil area that they would have occupied if planted the normal depth. Thickness of Planting — This is an old question. Very much will depend on what you are going to do with your corn — more will depend on the soil you have and still more on the season — as to what thickness would give the largest returns. The thinner the land and the drier the season and the larger the corn, the thinner it ought to be planted. The smaller the corn, the richer the land, and the wetter the season, the thicker you should plant. Then the use to which this crop is to be put, i. e., whether to be husked or fed whole, cut up or hogged down, etc., will affect very materially the thickness to plant. There is no question but that one can get a larger number of bushels of corn per acre by planting somewhat thicker than is customary in the average season. By so doing, however, you so reduce the size of the ear, at the same time, of course, increasing the number of ears, that the small increase in yield will be more than oft'set by the increased labor and cost of husking the same, provided that method of harvesting is to be followed. In such case thinner planting, so as to give good-sized ears, will be best. If one is going to feed it as fodder, ear and all, so as to put it in the silo — and we do a lot of unnecessary work in taking the ear from the stalk and putting it in the crib or pen somewhere and then later' uniting stalk and ear again in almost the same proportion — the thick planting will give the larger return. That is, if you are going to feed it as fodder corn you can follow a somewhat thicker planting than you can afford to if you are going to husk it. The proper thickness must be determined by each individual farmer. The Effect of Suckers on Yield. — In this connection is the matter of suckers which a great many farmers inquire about. The development of suckers is intimately associated with the thickness or completeness 54 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. of the stand. It is also influenced more or less by the season. The corn plant, so far as we know, was originally a very much branched plant, sending up a number of stalks from one grain, much as wheat and oats yet do. By selection of the largest ear for seed, we have to a very great degree eliminated the branching tendency or the tendency to develop suckers. That is, we have selected the largest ear for seed, which means that we have taken the ear from the stalk that had not branched badly. Among the conditions favoring the development of suckers may be mentioned a very thin stand and a very favorable season for growth. The development of a large number of suckers indicates that you have not a full stand for your land and for the season. Some very interesting experiments along that line have just been reported by the Nebraska Experiment Station, and I will give you figures here showing the influence of the thickness of planting upon the development of suckers. As an average of several years of experiments — lOO plants, planted four stalks in the hill, developed 8 suckers. lOO plants, three stalks in the hill, produced 25 suckers. 100 pants, two stalks in the hill, developed 76 suckers, 100 plants, one stalk in the hill, produced 198 suckers. Thus as we progress toward a thinner stand the tendency of the plant to cover the ground completely by the development of those suck- ers was very manifest. The question arises what is best to do with those suckers when they are numerous enough to become a menace. For instance, during the time of a drought when the water supply of the soil is drawn upon heavily to develop a crop, these suckers arc in the way there just as much as additional stalk would be ; indeed, they oftentimes become that. What was originally a sucker becomes another stalk — a little later in coming on it is true — but another stalk with an entire root system. What shall be done with these suckers? Shall they be removed or be allowed to remain? The data and experiments on this point are very limited. Some experiments made at the Nebraska Experiment Station covering three seasons, too short a time for a safe conclusion, indicate that tiiere was no benefit to be derived from the removal of suckers. That is to say, the injury done to tiic plant in the removing of the sucker was of more consequence than allowing the suckers to stay there. This will need further confirmation, and more experiments will need to be made before we can say that this will be true in the majority of seasons. I should say in passing that some varieties tend much more to produce suckers than do others. The sweet corn, as vou all know, CORN growers' association. 55 has a very great tendency in that direction; flint corn has the same tendency, more or less ; dent corn not so much because we have developed it in size by selection. There are varieties, however, of dent corn that tend much more to suckers than others, and I should discard varieties that tend in that direction. Corn Tillage. — If we had some way to keep the weeds down one of the chief reasons for tilling would be removed. The functions of tillage for growing a crop like corn are two-fold : First, to keep down the weeds; and second, to conserve the moisture in the soil by preventing the evaporation of the moisture from the surface. A third function that was supposed to be performed by tillage was to stir the soil so the roots could penetrate and develop. If the land has been properly prepared before planting, that third use of tillage does not exist since the soil will be porous enough to permit of the fullest development of the roots. There is no necessity for tilling the land during the growing season to the depth that the roots will grow, and by so doing you are doing your corn, your team and yourself an injury. There is nothing better estab- lished in the growing of corn than the fact that root-pruning of corn is a very injurious process to the plant. There is no time in the life of the plant when the roots can be pruned to the benefit of the plant, and there is no time when you can prune those roots without seriously in- juring the plant. The drier the season and soil are and the larger the plants, the more injurious the pruning. Growing corn plants require an enormous amount of water, and at the time from tasseling on to maturity they are growing more rapidly than any other plant we know anything about. This means that it needs a greater root system and greater feeding area than it can possibly have if we are stirring that soil up with a cultivator where the roots are in such a way as to cut these roots and at the same tmie dry out the soil. There is nothing better established in corn growing than the fact that shallow and level tillage will, if you keep the v/eeds down, produce one season with another a larger yield than will deep tilling or ridged culture. The difficulties in the shallow tilling are two-fold : The difficulty of killing the weeds and still keep the ground level. Many times there is no practical way to kill the weeds except by covering them up, and in that case the land must be ridged. You need some piling of the dirt around the stalks or ridging to a limited amount in order to keep the corn from falling down. You will get enough of that under an ordinary system of tillage without trying particularly to do it. In spite of anything you can do, you will have your land somewhat ridged. As I said before, nothing is 56 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. better established than the fact that shallow tillage and level ground will produce a larger yield than deep tilling. The main difficulty, how- ever, is that so far we have no entirely successful shallow tillage imple- ments. No one implement nor method nor system will answer for all sea- sons and circumstances. The safest rule to follow would be to till just as shallow and keep the land just as level as is possible, at the same time seeing that the corn is kept clean and a dust mulch is maintained on the surface to prevent the evaporation of the moisture. To accomplish this most profitably and cheaply will require at one time a very different imiplement from that required at another time or season. Sometimes the smoothing harrow or an implement like the Hallock weeder will suffice, at other times nothing short of the ordinary cultivator will do. DISCUSSION. Mr. : Which would you recommend, drilling or planting, so as to cultivate both ways ? Dr. Waters : The experiments thus far made are conflicting on that point, but they indicate that aside from the questions of keeping the corn clean, etc., drilling is preferable. That is, you had better distribute your plants, one in a place, along the row, than to bunch them together. Mr. : In land that is inclined to be wet, isn't it an ad- vantage to hill the corn, throwing up the dirt very high ? Won't the ad- vantage that will be to the land in drying it out overcome the advant- ages in level cultivation? Dr. Waters: No, not at that season of the year. That is not a season of the year when we suffer from excessive rains. Mr. : I mean for the good of the land afterward. Dr. Waters : In only very flat lands, yes. Those are limited in Missouri. For very excessive flat lands, that would be the case. Mr. : It would put more life in the land, wouldn't it? Dr. Waters : Yes, it would aerate the land better. If the land is rolling, it washes badly, and it would be a very serious mistake on that kind of land. The hilling of the land used to be done with the ordi- nary diamond plow. That has gone out of practice now. It was a bad thing for conserving the moisture. It did not go very deep. That old practice of throwing the soil up, whether the corn needed it or not, was, of course, a bad way to grow corn, and I don't know but that we are fortunate that the diamond plow has gone out of use ; but you take some of these other implements in use now, and they throw up as much dirt as the diamond plow, and pile it up unnecessarily. You will re- CORN GROWERS ASSOCIATION. 57 member you have to put that dirt back. You have the labor of throw- ing it up and throwing it back. You are wasting your effort and your horse-power. Mr. : In a series of years, don't you think we have more trouble with drought than with too much water? Dr. Waters: Yes. Mr. White: Would you recommend burning off the ground? Dr. Waters :. No ; I would use fire sparingly. Mr. : I would like to ask if any harm can result from turning under the sod in the winter time when very wet? I went over my field a few days ago where the men had not plowed. The sod was wet, and I figured that it would not be dry probably until June, so I turned it under and took my chances. Dr. Waters : That would depend largely upon the amount of humus in your soil. Mr. : I would like to ask as to the killing of cut-worms by fall powing? Dr. Waters : You undoubtedy turn them up and freeze them out. Mr. Wing: I was very much interested in that paper, especially the part which speaks of rotation. I believe you people here are old enough in the business that you will admit that the basic principle of ro- tation is a good crop of clover. I want to call your attention to our farm in Ohio, which we started about twenty years ago. We tiled and underdrained it first. Then, by growing clover and alfalfa on that land by rotation, we succeeded in growing 80 bushels of corn to the acre, and we did that two years in succession. The first year we got 66 bushels to the acre ; then by rotating and putting on a slight spread of manure and sowing it back to corn again, we got 80 bushels to the acre. This was on clay soil. We have grown alfalfa on this field for five or six years. Think we could get four crops of alfalfa a year off that land. We have taken off an average of five tons to the acre during the past five years. I was interested in what Dr. Waters said about tile-draining. We have found that true. They did not seem to draw until we got a lot of manure worked through that land, and after that those tile drains worked first-rate. I just know when I break a field whether it will grow good crops or not. I can tell it the way the black- birds follow along after me when I drop the corn ; and if they don't fol- low me, I just scratch my head and say I have got to get more humus into that soil. Mr. Plackmeyer: I plow the ground thoroughly from 7 to 9 58 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. inches deep. We plant corn both ways and use the cultivator mostly. We generally plow four or five times and cultivate fairly deep. Mr. Scott: This is the first time I have attended one of these meetings. Of course, I am simply in the primer class. I am here to learn. I can tell you a little about how we do in our county. We list with two row listers and use five or six horses ; and we cultivate the same way. The opinion of our farmers is divided in the matter of list- ing. Some think they can do better by listing, while others do not. After listing, we follow with the planter. That makes it so your rows are same width apart, and you can use a two-row cultivator to culti- vate it. We cultivate first with the disk-harrow and use four horses. We throw the dirt out, away from the corn. This makes a broad place where the sunshine can get in to the corn, and it kills the weeds. We have a small attachment to the disk that stirs up the ground and makes it loose, and we turn right around with that same tool and turn the rows back in. In some parts of Missouri, where the land is not rolling and hilly, you do not need the lister so much, but in our neighborhood we all use it. Mr. Sly : Mr. Scott and myself are from the same county. Now we list our corn. Some of you don't know what a lister is. It is simply a plow that throws the dirt both ways. In Mr. Scott's part of the county they use a two-row lister, while we use single-row tools. We use the lister in our part of the county almost altogether. We list the ground for planting about four inches deep, throwing up the dirt and making a ridge about eight inches high ; we plant the corn in that furrow about two inches deep, which you see will be under the level surface about six inches. We disk twice with the double-disk. We plant our rows about three and a half feet apart. Of course, if you cultivate it more, it is still better. I use a two-horse cultivator; 1 do that before anything else, and then list it. A good many don't do anything, but I do it to stir the ground up thoroughly ; and then it is the cheapest way to raise corn. About the same plan of cultivation is used through- out our county, only some use two-row listers and some single-row listers. We use the cultivator first before anything else and follow with the harrow. Then cultivate it twice afterwards. This plan gets your corn down to a depth where there is no danger of it blowing down. By the time you have your corn laid by, we have ours down in the ground eight or more inches deep. Of course, that would not be practicable in some parts of the State. Mr. Weeks: I live south of the Missouri river. We follow about the same plan the others have mentioned. We trv to do a good deal CORN GROWERS ASSOCIATION. 59 of cultivation before we plant the corn, and a whole lot afterwards. The most important plowing is the first plowing, because if you leave a strip there not plowed good the first time you will never get the weeds thor- oughly cleaned out of that strip ; that's the reason I plant corn both ways; I never leave that ridge there. If a man is going to hire any corn plowed, he should hire it plowed the second time and plow it himself the first time. The second time, of course, you generally plow cross- ways from the first time. I use a steel harrow with slant teeth if the ground is dry. After a hard rain I plow it first — the harrow doesn't do any good. I use a walking cultivator for this reason : I hire a good deal of my plowing done, and have never yet found the man who would get down from the cultivator when riding and remove the clods ; some of them will not even use a stick. Several years ago, before I was rais- ing corn for myself, I was raising it for my father. One year I re- member the corn was away up here, pretty high, and it got dry and be- gan to burn. Father hired a man, and we had to hitch up the mules to the garden cultivator and go over that corn in that hot weather. I thought it was all foolishness. Thought I knew best. When we got to the end of a row, it was so hot we could hardly get our breath ; but the corn that we plowed that way grew right along during the dry weather. But the corn that we did not plow that way all burned up. I be- lieve that is a good idea. Don't stop — just keep right on cultivating. We cannot do just what we always want to do. There is a whole lot in cul- tivating corn ; one of the things is to keep the weeds down ; we cannot kill them if they get started ; keep them down at the first. This matter of covering up weeds is slow work ; they grow as fast as you can cover them up. Mr. Laughlin : I would like to hear from some one about detassel- ing corn. Mr. McFarland, do you consider it a success or a failure for a practical farmer? Mr. McFarland : I find it a very particular thing to do. You have got to go over it every day. If you neglect it a day or so some of it will be in bloom. Mr. Laughlin: I tried a row this year and found it an absolute failure. It killed the stalk, it seemed to me. I tried it for a couple of weeks without success. What about storing seed corn? We often find men storing their seed corn in barrels. Has anyone a good plan of storing seed corn? Mr. Plackmeyer : I have a way of putting it away where the rats will not get to it. I put it in a dry cellar, and have never failed to have a stand yet ; it always keeps good and dry and always germinates well. 6o MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. Mr. Terrill : I have a room in the garret for my corn. I spread it across that room in rows about eight inches apart, and have ventila- tion from the window. Mr. Laughhn : I read the other day of a nice plan, where galvanized wire netting was used arid put around the crib ; that made it mouse proof and at the same time let the air through. Mr. Weeks: I do not think it makes much difference where you put your seed corn, just so you have it thoroughly dry. It makes no difference how cold it gets, if your corn is thoroughly dry when put away — just so you have a room with a current of air passing through it. Mr. Johnson : I have a small seed house where I store my seed corn for myself and that which I send out to those who want to buy. I have a door hung on hinges that I can open up when I want to and shut when I want it shut. I have a galvanized wire netting, such as J\lr. Laughlin spoke of, to keep the rats and mice away. Dr. Waters : I would like to ask some of these corn breeders what their experience has been with kiln-dried seed corn? Prof. Miller : I have been in touch with a great many corn breeders recently and find that nine out of ten do not kiln-dry. They don't seem to know exactly how to do it. You simply keep a stove in the room and keep the air warm. Up in Iowa, in the Agricultural College, I noticed they had an electric fan in the room ; but, of course, that would not be practicable for the ordinary farmer. Mr. Hervy : I think you are getting right down to a practical proposition now when you speak of kiln-drying. You will find that all the leading seed corn breeders practice that method. If you have a fur- nace you can kiln-dry by the furnace, but if not, use a stove. If you havn't a room, then use the kitchen. Get your corn thoroughly dried out before freezing season, and then keep it above freezing temperature. Mr. Leffler : Most of you are practical farmers. Now, if there is a way that we can dry this corn, just by ordinary means, by gathering it early and putting it in the barn, or something like that, we would rather get along without this kiln-drying. I have a frame for my seed corn that I hang up in the top of my barn, that is floored. It is sus- pended so that the rats cannot get to it. I have no trouble about the corn germinating. Mr. Weeks: I tested several samples last year of corn that T gathered early and placed in a large room in the barn, and took no precautions but to see that there was a good roof on the building, and that the windows were tight ; and I kept a window open part of the time so as to have a current of air through the building, and every sample I CORN growers' association. 6i tested was 98 per cent or over. I took two or three grains from different parts of the ear. If corn is thoroughly dry before freezing sets in in the central part of Missouri, it is all right. It is impossible to keep it above freezing temperature in our section of the country. It got pretty cold there last winter, and went away below zero, but it did not hurt the <;eed corn. Mr. Boles : I have a plan of storing my seed corn that has proven successful. I gather a lot of it very early. I have a place up in the eaves of my buggy house where I put it, and it dries out thoroughly. Had left some there for two years, and I tried that, and at least 80 per cent of it came up. Mr. Crabtree: I have no objection whatever to my seed corn freezing after it is thoroughly dry. I miake no attempt whatever to keep my seed corn above freezing temperature, and it always germinates well. HOW CAN THE PRACTICAL FARMER SECURE GOOD SEED CORN. (Mr. Geo. H. Sly, Rockpart, Mo.) So much has already been said on corn, the manner of selecting seed, testing, cultivation, etc., that I hardly feel it worth while to at- tempt to discuss it at any great length. However, I desire to say a few words on "How the Practical Farmer Can Secure Good Seed Corn." In the first place, we already know that in order to grow a good crop or to grow good stock, we have to have good seed or good stock to start from. In order to get good seed we have to make the best of what we have at hand, get it from a neighbor who may have better than we have, or purchase it from someone who is making a specialty of pure- bred seed. The one object we should have in view in growing corn is to grow the greatest number of bushels at the least expense, and in order to do this we must increase the yield per acre, and I consider the seed we use one of the great factors to be used in bringing about such results. What we want is a corn of high yielding quality and of good feed- in? value, and to get this we must use the best type of corn that we can get. I believe in a great many instances that farmers already have on their farms corn that will produce greatly increased yields if proper attention be given to the selection of seed. There are two very practical ways by which this can be done. One, by having a seed 62 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. plot in which each ear is planted in a row by itself ; each alternate row being detasseled, so as to cross-fertilize, all barren and undesirable stalks to be cut out. The other way (and I believe more practical for the farmer) is tc select more closely about eight or ten of the very best ears and plant in a square in the field, on the east or southeast side, as it would be less liable to be pollenized from the rest of the field. The seed ought al- ways be tested before planting. There are different ways of doing this, but everyone should have some way of knowing that his corn will grow before planting time. The manner of planting and cultivation, which differs very materi- ally in different parts of the State, is familiar to everyone, so it is not necessary for me to give it here, only to say, give it the best you possi- bly can. There is not much danger of giving it too much care. About the time the corn begins to tassel it should be gone over and all barren and undesirable stalks should be cut out — not detasseled, but cut out. It is not good policy to let undesirable stalks absorb the nutrition that should go to develop better corn. It will be necessary to go over it several times to do good work. Don't undertake too large a square, as it is liable to be neglected. After the corn is thoroughly matured it should be gathered, and all the best should be put in a good, airy, dry place, free from rats and mice, and either put in racks or not piled very deep, so as to admit of free circulation of air ; and get it perfectly dry before freezing weather. The corn should be thoroughly matured before gathering. Except in case of very early corn, I do not believe in our part of the State it should be gathered before about November i. If, on the other hand, the farmer does not have the corn he would like to have, then he should go to his neighbor who has good corn, and get seed, or send to some good, reliable seed corn grower and get a small amount of some good variety that has stood the test, has been well bred, and invariably get it in the car, so you can see what it is. I would let all so-called new varieties alone, as lliere are plenty of good, reliable varieties that have been carefully bred, of excellent feed- ing value, that can be had, and the farmer cannot afford to take the chance of getting something that will prove to be of no value. But, I believe a better plan, and the plan that farmers will adopt sooner or later (or should* adopt, at least), will be to establish corn- breeding farms throughout the State. Let the farmers of a certani locality organize and have some one of their number, who will give corn his particular attention, grow seed for the whole community, the others agreeing to pay a price for the seed sufficient so he can afford CORN growers' association. 63 to get the best corn available. This, I believe, is the only sure way to keep corn pure. But I fear it will be a hard matter to get the farmers of any given locality to see the benefit of following such a plan, which, in the end, would be of great benefit to everyone. Let us hope that the farmers of this great commonwealth will profit by the mistakes of the past, work more zealously to bring her agricultural resources to their full capacity, and greater prosperity to all her people. CORN BREEDING METHODS. (Hon. J. D. Funk, Bloomington, 111.) Gentlemen of Missouri: I was with you about two years ago, I think, at a meeting similar to this ; and I want to say that since that time there has been a great improvement in Missouri's State meeting. At that last meeting I attended a few men were gathered together and we discussed problems of great moment among ourselves, and we could talk in whispers and be heard by the entire audience. I can see that this influence for betterment has been exerted by your Agricultural School and by Mr. Ellis ; and Missouri, for hundreds of years, cannot pay this institution and this gentleman too high a tribute. They have done a wonderful work. I am very glad to see it. I have attended many other state meetings of a like character to this, and have never seen more in- tense enthusiasm and interest than is shown here. To all the well-informed farmers it is quite unnecesary, I am sure, to go into details and explain to you the great strides that have been made by plant breeders of the United States and abroad, or to explain the great work that is being done by such men in America as Hays in Minnesota with his wheat, his variety of wheat, No. 65, I believe it is, that raises six bushels more to the acre by its great power of produc- tion than the average wheat in Minnesota ; and the great Dr. Weber of the Department of Agriculture, in his breeding of an orange-hybrid, in which he is trying to establish a hardy variety of oranges that will extend the orange belt two or three hundred miles north of the present orange belt. You have all heard of Burbank of California, the wizard of plant-breeding, who has done marvelous things along the line of flowers and fruits. He is making wonderful progress in the development of plants. You are all familiar with his work, I know. But let me im- press this fact upon you, that plant breeding in America will bring further and more diversified benefits, comforts and more prosperity to the Amer- 64 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. . ican people, and humanity in general, than steam or electricity has ever produced. We are only beginning to understand the vast possibilities of plant breeding. We are only dampening our feet in the great sea of knowledge. We know very little about it, and what we do know places us in somewhat the same position as were the mariners who sailed with Columbus, who, when they returned to Spain, knew that they had struck land ; but that was about all they knew ; they knew nothing of the con- tinent discovered. And the plant breeders of America have struck land. We know we can do something, and something useful, but where it is going to lead to, we don't know. It is unknown as yet. I want to say to the American farmer that there is no question that they should get closer to than plant breeding. They should learn all they can about the principles of plant breeding, especially the breeding of cereals. And to the farmers of the Mississippi Valley, I will say that nothing stands them in hand so much as to get close to corn breeding. I heard it said here this morning that corn was the backbone of your finances ; it fur- nishes 50 per cent of your annual income. By acquainting yourself with corn breeding, you make it possible to increase that income. When I speak of corn breeding, I do not refer to novel or odd developments of certain characteristics of the corn plant. Corn breeding with us means, as an ultimate result, utility. Utility resolves itself at once into the great question of yield. Corn is not sold over the dry goods counter — it does not have to be pretty ; it does not have to ap- peal to the esthetic taste. We want quantity and quality. The breeder must take this into consideration first ; 90 per cent of his selection de- pends upon yield. I say 90 per cent ; that is simply approximate. But yield must be his greatest aim. Of course, he must note the position of the ear on the stalk, the standing ability of the corn plant and a few other points, but yield is the great question. There are two influences in all nature — two principles, life prin- ciples. One is the external life principle ; that is, the environments surrounding a certain individual from infancy to maturity, from the em- bryo to maturity. The other principle is the inherent life principle. The corn grozver should deal exclusively with the external life prin- ciple. He should leave the inherent life principle to the corn breeder. We cannot all be corn breeders. It would not be profitable for us all to be corn breeders, but we can all have a knowledge of it, and this knowledge will help each and every farmer in America in selecting his seed. But the corn breeder should deal only with the inherent life principle — by that I mean the influences exerted by the past generations on the next progeny or rather the coming generation. The first step of CORN GROWERS ASSOCIATION. 65 the corn breeder is to establish the breeding block. Next he must make his selection of ears. Let us take, for instance, a man who has deter- mined to make his life-work corn breeding ; he has mapped that out for himself ; he has only one place to start, and that is at the beginning. He has to make his selection of mother ears. He selects them to the best of his knowledge; say he selects loo of them. He next plants them in rows in his breeding block, of say, three to five acres in extent, each row representing a mother ear. He knows the rows and he knows the ears, and he sets them down in his record. Ear No. i is planted in Row No. I, and so on. He makes as complete a record of this mother ear as he can. There are a great many things he could say about her that are needless. What he is after is what that ear is going to do in the way of yield, not what it looks like so much, only as a reference when he is selecting the progeny from that ear. Well, he plants his loo ears, and during the season of growth he must take notes as to germination. He must know the germination. Let me impress this on you — (all the corn breeders here know it, but there may be some laymen among you) — that weakness and strength are just as inherent in corn as they are in live stock. Poor germination is inherent. Germination is not af- fected so much by its inheritance as it is by poor curing, or poor storage, but it is inherent, and he must take into account the germination that every mother row makes. He must take into account the growth of that mother ear, the growth of that whole row. He must take notes all during the growing season as to its vigor of growth, as to its amount of foliage, as to its standing ability, as to the placement of the ears ; in short, all characteristics that he cannot get at the harvest time. He must have every mother ear on the same amount of ground ; now that's a hard thing to do. He must make his rows of equal length, and must ascertain at harvest time the amount of ground taken up by each mother ear. He must count his stalks and his hills and ears. He must weigh his entire row, and then he will find corn production per stalk and average weight of ear ; they are two different things. He can com- pute from these the approximate yield per acre that each mother ear makes. That must be his basis for selection the first year, taking the other items into consideration that I have spoken of. From this row that proves to be the grand champion of the block, and from several other rows, say eight or ten, that are the highest yielders in the block (we may call them the eight or ten champion rows), rows that have made the tests and are qualified for champions, he must select his breed- ing ears for the next year. He plants these again in his breeding block. A -5 66 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. Now, when he has planted his first year's breeding block, he should save about four rows of corn on the cob of each mother ear. I would suggest two rows from each side. The saving of this corn on .the mother ear is very important, because the next year he must plant the remnants of the eight or ten champion ears in a small breeding plot ; he mates them together. In this way he brings together the cham- pions and crosses them — and when I say he crosses them, I do not mean he breeds from one variety to another, but he, of course, keeps within the variety. Corn is an open fertilized plant ; it thrives under that con- dition ; under crossing, if you please. That's the nature of it. Now, I don't say that in-breeding is disastrous to corn — that is, confining the family — but I do say that in-breeding to the extent of self-fertilization is very disastrous in corn. By self-fertilization I mean the falling of the pollen from the same stalk on to the silk produced by that stock. I think under that sort of fertilization your corn soon retrogrades. Now, in crossing, these ten mother ears that you have identified as champions in production and other qualities, make five pairs, mating two individuals together, and use one of the two ears that you mate the next year as a sire ; use the other as a dam. To use it as a dam you have to detassel it. Let me illustrate this a little. Say ears No. i and 50 prove to be the best champions in your breeding block ; they have been high in standing ability, and placement of ear has been right, and foli- age right, and yield the most. Plant ear No. i as your sire in the odd rows ; leave the tassels on it. Plant ear No. 50 in the even rows and detassel it. Then, using ear No. 50 as your dam and ear No. i as your sire, save all your breeding corn of these two champions from your de- tasseled corn from your even rows. They will not be self-fertilized. You have eliminated the liability of that disastrous effect of self-fertili- zation. You can be sure on that point at least — that all of your corn has been fertilized from an ear that we know has proven to be a champion, botli as to yield and all these other qualifications. Then take your breeding ears from your even rows and confine the family. Breed it in a block by itself. Now, after you select eight or ten mother ears and cross them in this way, you will select breeding ears from four good mother ears of two years before. Do you see what I mean? You will cut your selection down to only one-half of the number of champion ears that you had in igo4.. In 1904 you proved these ten mother ears; in 1905 you mated these ten mother ears that were champions ; and in 1905, when it came to selection time, you cut that number in two and only saved five of them, the five used as dams, and in a small field- say 20 acres — make five different plots, and plant your four ears that CORN growers' association, 67 were used as dams. This is in 1906. Plant your five ears that were used as dams in 1905, and propagate for more seed. From ear No. 50 of 1904, referred to before, plant as large plots as you have good breeding ears out of the small plot of 1905. Now you are crossing here. Guard against self-fertilization. In-breeding to the extent of second cousins is not disastrous ; this has been demontrated. But detasseling your even rows in these blocks, or if you have not time to detassel all the even rows in that 20 acres, detassel some in each plot, enough so that you can select seed for your general fields. Here again you must keep track of the amount you plant from one strain of corn. This is now a strain of corn, bred from ear No. 50. It has been bred for three years. Save seed from that, if it proves to be the best yielder in the block. Select it from detasseled rows. Go through it the last of September or the first of October and select considerable of the seed from the stand- ing stalks and hang it up in the top of the seedhouse, where it will get good ventilation and dry out eafly; and it will be all right there if the weather does not get to 28 or 30 degrees below zero. It may absorb some moisture previous to the cold, and if so, it will have damaged kernels. Here again apply the old test ; the second time we must prove our dam; we must prove that she is champion in all respects. Then again, if you can get enough seed in one strain to plant all the rest of your farm, so much the better. If not, then select from two or even four of your plots. Now in your small breeding block in 1905, in mating these ears, you have to identify the power of production in these strains ; then you have to control the infiuence exerted on the progeny ; you have to control the influence in both parents, in both the sire and dam. In 1905 the sire has proved himself to be a champion ear; but there are individual differences in these odd rows, and they may vary greatly. There is nothing in nature that varies like corn, and if it were not for that variation, corn breeding would be impossible, because it is on account of that variation that we have the great opportunity for selection. These individual plants used as sires vary up and down, and we take the ones that vary up if we can. By up I mean they produce better characteristics. There will be variations in these even rows, and you cannot tell whether this ear produced on an odd row of corn that looks to you to be the best of the block— you cannot tell whether she has been fertilized from a poor individual or a good one; you don't know whether the influence is for good or bad; so you must resort to the most technical practice in corn breeding. This is the real work of the corn breeder. He must control the influence of the sire and the dam and he must be able to identify that influence. Now, he must hand- 68 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. pollinate ears in these odd rows from individual stalks in the even rows. To perform this task you cap the ear before the silks appear and also cap the tassel before the pollen commences to fly ; and you take the pollen from the capped tassel and apply it to the silk of the capped ear. Call the capped tassel plant No. i and call the capped ear plant No. 2. Now you know that the sire of ear No. 2 is plant No. i. You know exactly what kind of an ear this plant produces ; you know what it has done ; you know the influence that is going to be exerted on the progeny. You can count on what these kernels will bring forth. You cannot perform this fertilization as well as nature can, but you can tell what will be the general conformation of ear, whether she. will be a good one or not. You will have to use dis- crimination in this, but it is very seldom that you will do the work as well as Nature. You will have to make different pollinizations three or four times, say two days apart, about the" last of July or the first of August, usually the first of August ; most all the pollen flies at that period. There are million of grains of pollen produced on a little bit of tassel, and this is so fine that you can hardly see it. You must fertilize a good many of these ears from even rows onto odd rows. You cannot tell what will be a good sire or dam ; you must make a good many crosses and you will hit it in some of them, and when you do, you have ^n ear of corn worth any other 500 bushels on your farm. When you find an ear that has been fertilized by a plant that has a breeding ear on it, and that ear is a breeding ear in itself and they both came from champion rows, proven to be champions in yield and other qualifications, you have an invaluable ear if you intend to farm any longer than that year or long enough to get enough corn from that ear to plant your farm. DISCUSSION. Mr. Wing: How far out should the silks be? Mr. Funk: You should get to them just as soon as you can after they appear. Mr. Wing: Do you think heredity has anything to do with kernel selection? Mr. Funk: No, I don't. Every one of these kernels inherits a likeness of the dam. You must take the ear as a unit. The sires may have been good, but their influence upon the dam is imparted to everyone equally, and in this kernel selection you arc going to have to know the sire to make an intelligent selection. CORN growers' association. 69' Mr. Wing: Don't you think the influence of the sire would be manifest the first year to some extent in the growth of that kernel? Mr. Funk: Oh, yes, certainly. Dr. Waters: How do you tell when you have made that crossing a success? How do you know when you have got a good thing? Mr. Funk: The only way we know is by breeding it down. We know we have the influence of the sire here because this ear was ferti-- lized from a plant that produced a big ear. Now, when you are trying to improve the ear, what do you do in the corn field? You simply in- crease the average .size of ear. You raise the production of corn per stalk. That is the only way you can increase your yield — that is, by plant breeding. Dr. Waters : You take all these ears you have proved to be champions and grow them in plots next year? Mr. Funk : Not all of them. We eliminate a part to start with ; 95 per cent of our work is lost ; but that is the only way we can get the influence of a good sire on to a good dam. Dr. Waters: Let me ask you further — in your selection and in your breeding work, how much importance do you attach to the conformation of the ear itself? Mr. Funk : I am sorry you asked that question. The score card is an excellent thing, and it is going to serve a great purpose, and has served a great purpose already, but I don't pay one bit of attention to the score card when I select my breeding ears. It is what the ear has done that I am after. It is the inherent value and not the apparent value. Now don't misunderstand me. You must have capacity ears. By capacity I mean store house room on the cob for the corn. You must have that; but I don't pay any attention to the rest of the score card. But as a commercial breeder of corn I have to for this reason: That if I send you seed corn and the rows are all twisted and look as if the kernels had been put on with a shot gun, you say "what are you sending me?" It is not so much what you ought to have as what you want ; so I have to pay some attention to it myself. Now I have got a strain No. 99, bred from the Reid corn, a very smooth corn like the old- fashioned Reid corn. Now, we are not trying to breed a smooth corn because it does not give you the capacity that a rough corn does. I mean a surplus seed coat. When you have a smooth corn your seed coat is filled up ; you have no surplus of seed coat. Now, your corn fills this kernel up full, and when your season of drying comes on, it is maintained to some extent ; it becomes rough. You have a surplus of seed coat. I always try to select a seed coat with roughness on it. 70 MISSOURI agkicultukal" report. Dr. Waters : Do you find in your breeding that the tendency to- wards flintiness is associated with a tendency towards shallowness of grain, and that the tendency towards roughness is liable to be associated with deepness of grain ? Mr. Funk : Yes, with some exceptions. But as a general thing, that holds true — that in smooth corn there is a shallow kernel, while in rough corn there is a longer kernel ; but there are exceptions to that. Mr. Weeks: After you get a strain started, and get enough seed to plant the whole farm, you have got to plant that with a planter, and if you don't have good ears of that strain you will not get uniform re- sults. / Mr. Funk : That's a great point. One of the greatest points of utility. One of the greatest points with a strain would be its uniformity, not only of the ears, but of the kernels. Just as long as we have to plant corn mechanically by a planter, we have to have corn that will drop kernels as much alike in size and shape as we can get them ; that is, for uniformity. Mr. : Do you recommend the grading machine? . Mr. Funk: Yes, I do. Mr. Weeks: Doesn't the season have something to do with the 'size of the cob ? Mr. Funk : I rather doubt it. It may have something to do with the length of your kernel — soil and season both ; but as to the size of your cob, it may have, I don't know. Mr. Weeks: I find that the seed corn taken from high land and that taken from bottom land — the same strain invariably has a larger cob on the bottom land than on the high land. Mr. Funk: Is that so? I didn't know that. Mr. Crabtree : Do you find it to be a fact that in producing an ex- cessively large cob that .so much longer season is required to do that? Mr. Funk: If it is the nature of your corn to have a large cob, that corn will be of a later maturity. I would like to grow a corn that will take all my season and no more to mature thoroughly — just take all that season and get ripe ; and then I want as big an ear as i can grow, as much kernel as I can grow. Dr. Waters : How much stress in your breeding do you lay upon proportion of grain on the cob? Do you insist on the ears having a very high percentage of grain? I mean, suppose you have an car of corn that you think will make a mother ear? Say it was a big ear, but did not have quite as high a percentage of corn to the cob as you would like, but had other things in its favor. Would vou discard that for an ear CORN growers' association, 71 that had a high percentage of corn to cob, but did not have so many other points in its favor? Mr. Funk: No, I would not. I would have a line, of course, but would not consider those that had the other points over-balanced. Mr. : You have been breeding corn for quantity; now have you been breeding it for quality f Mr. Funk : Yes, we have fertilized everyone of our mother ears both for oil and for protein. Now I am not talking about mating ot mother ears. We have what we call a protein block and an oil block of certain varieties of corn, and in one of them we strive for oil properties and in the other for protein properties. Whether it will be practical or not, we do not know. Of course, we feed all of our cattle upon corn we think best adapted for feeding value. The normal percentage of oil in corn, I believe, is about 4 1-4, and of protein 10 1-4. We have strains that average in the plot — taking a five or ten-acre plot and mak- ing a selection of five or eight hundred ears out of the block — 13. i pro- tein and 5.56 oil. Now the German balanced ration has about 13 1-2 per cent protein ; but I do not think that is the balanced ration in corn, because I know if we feed such corn to hogs they will not grow with that thrift that they should have. They will fatten, but not with the thrift they should have. Now, whether crude oil is more fattening than carbo-hydrates, I don't know. About 80 per cent is carbo-hydrates. Whether the crude oil has a tendency to overcome so much of the protein, I don't know. I hope to produce a corn sometime that three bushels of it will go as far towards fattening and finishing cattle as four bushels of the common corn does now. I think it can be done. Mr. Crabtree: Do you think it wise to produce a balanced ration in corn rather than to feed the corn for its oil and balance that ration with protein? Mr. Funk : I think high oil is better than high protein. There is nothing that will feed like corn oil unless it is more corn oil. THE GERMINATION TEST. (O. O. Raine, Canton, Mo.^ Having made a proper selection of seed, a crate is made of some light material, so as to be easily handled, and should be about 20 inches square, with an inch frame around the side. Cover this with a heavy piece of paper, over which place a white cloth, marked into 100 sections or squares, and dampen well before using. These sections will ^2. MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. be sufficiently large to hold 6 or 8 grains each. The work of placing the corn in the crate is begun with ear No. i, by catching the ear with one hand, and with the knife (always use the back of the knife) re- move two grains each from the butt, middle and tip and place in sec- tion No. I. This operation is repeated until crate one is filled. Now cover this with a piece of muslin and dampen well to hold seed in po- sition ; this should be covered with a heavier cloth, such as will retain moisture, and over this place a heavy piece of paper, or such material as will retain heat and moisture. During germination the crate should be kept in a room of even temperature, or as nearly so as practicable. It would be well to dampen the crate each day, as the moisture evapor- ates rapidly, and when not given due attention the results due from neglect at this time will be quite disappointing. From 8 to lo days will be necessary to test each crate. In some instances the center or sides are the last to show signs of life ; this will depend largely on the amount of heat given the center or the lack of moisture at the sides. The judging of the test is one of interest and requires that we examine closely each grain, as it will be found that the butts, the mid- dle or tips of some ears wall test well, while the rest of the ear will be unfit for use. This defect can hardly be detected before putting to the test, as from all outward appearances the grain is sound, and this, no doubt, in many instances is the cause of a poor stand of corn. Again, it will be found that some ears are slow to germinate and are weak and appear to be as much inclined to grow down as up, and what is meant by this ? That after the seed has started a day or two the vi- tality of the plant is arrested, and it seems to be battling with nature for existence. All such seed should be discarded, as in most cases, unless under very favorable climatic conditions at the time of planting, the plant would make a slow growth and produce a light crop of very inferior quality. In discusing this subject, some of the results per- haps would be admissible. From a test of 1,400 ears it was found that a fraction of over one- half of one per cent was unfit to be used in planting. This was of the Leaming variety of late planting, but well matured. It made a vigor- ous growth from the start and maintained itself in good order through- out the season. From a test of 900 ears of the Reid's variety fully 50 per cent was thrown out of one lot, and from the lot retained for planting a very poor stand was secured, not sufficient to replant, mak- ing it necesary to plant again, causing a delay of from 6 to 10 days. From a third lot in which a test of less than 2 per cent was thrown out of the last named variety and planted the same time as test No. 2, a uniform stand was secured and produced about 50 bushels per acre of CORN GROWERS ASSOCIATION. 73 good, marketable corn, while that of lot No. 2 gave only about 30 bushels of a very inferior quality. It must not be inferred that because the seed germinates that it will do to plant, as it often occurs that the root germ will make a vigorous growth, while the stalk germ will be weak and often will cease to grow after the first two or three days. It would be well to plant only those ears that make a vigorous growth from the start, as when the seed is placed in the earth nature will not nourish it so gently as when under cover in a room of even temperature. GROWING CORN IN THE OZARKS. (Mr. E. O. Weeks, Eldon, Missouri.) I have lived on a farm all my life, and I have raised a crop of corn every year but 1901 ; I made a mistake that year ; I had in ten acres of corn and hired a couple of men to take care of it ; and the first night they went home they took every ear in the field. If I had har- vested it myself, would have saved the crop, but as it was, I lost it. i^Up until the winter of 1903 I had thought all there was to growing corn was to plow and plant and plow, but that year, in January, 1903, I went to an Agricultural College to take a short course in live stock judging, as I was becoming interested in the breeding of pure-bred stock. Well, after I had been there for a day or two, I kind of lost out on the stock judging and became interested in the corn judging business. I got interested in the most interesting subject there; the more a man studied it the more he wants to learn of it. After I had been home for a few days I was very much surprised to get notice from the College that I had won first prize for the best corn judging. Until that time I had never seen a good ear of corn ; had never seen an ear of pure-bred corn. The next spring I purchased some pure-bred seed, and the three years since that time I know I have increased my yield 30 per cent with the same land, same cultivation and same strain of corn; possibly I gave it a little better cultivation, as I was more in- terested ; I think we all do that ; the more we know about a subject the more pains we will take in it. In estimating the crop, I am positive I have averaged 30 per cent more corn during the last three years than any preceding three years I have been growing corn. Up until 1903, I never raised over 40 bushels to the acre. Now, I wish to say here, that I do not farm river bottom land. But the last three crops I have raised I have measured parts of the field, weighed the corn, and esti- mated the whole field carefullv, and I am satisfied that I have made an 74 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. average of 60 bushels to the acre for the entire three years. I haul all of my manure on to the land I intend to plow for corn ; then I put in the corn, and follow the corn with oats, and as soon as I thresh the oats I start to plow for wheat ; and after the wheat I put in clover and timothy; and I am satisfied that it is a practical plan, and that all my crops are getting better. Last year I had ten acres in corn, and it made over 60 bushels to the acre. This year I threshed even 250 sacks of oats from the same ten acres. It is now in wheat and looks very fa- vorable. I have used commercial fertilizers on wheat alone — never on corn or oats ; have used it on wheat alone for five years, and I know that in that five years I have saved enough grass seed — that is, I have had a stand of grass, clover and timothy, every year for the last five years ; and before that time I lost enough grass seed during the same number. of years to pay for all the fertilizers I have ever used, and I have made an average of 25 bushels of wheat for every acre grown since using fertilizers. I always try to plant my corn as soon as the ground gets right and the weather gets right. This year I knew the ground was right and thought the weather was right, but I was mistaken. I never planted corn any nicer than I did that. I fall-plowed the sod, worked it up loose, disked it, harrowed it, and planted the corn in good shape ; well, for three weeks it stayed in just the condition I planted it; but after a while it began to come up and got a very fair start. I thought then that I was all right. But one day I went out and thought that there was something working on that corn, but did not think much about it then. I went out the next day and knew there was something working on that corn. I had 45 acres of it, and before I got over that 45 acres I was getting excited. I soon saw that worms were working on that corn; I sent some of them to Professor Miller and he turned them over to Professor Stedman and he wrote me he did not think there was much cause for anxiety. The next day I started after the worms ; started after them hard ; and in a few days after I got his letter the worms were all gone. So you see what that letter did. However, I think there is a little moral to that. I have made it a rule in growing corn never to wait until the condi- tions get just right; if you do, something is going to happen. There is an old man down in our county who says the conditions are never just right except when he is gone to dinner — too wet in the forenoon and too dry in the afternoon. The best thing to do is to do the best you can and get everything as near right as you can. Why, here is the ground, the soil and the weather and a whole outfit of signs ; and then the moon and the sun, and, of course, the farmer, to get ready; and if CORN growers' association. 75 they all get ready at the same time, things are quite likely to result the wrong way. This last spring I planted 50 rows from individual ears and made a record of the ears ; I got quite a lot of figures and became very much mterested. I picked out the best fifty ears that I had — those I thought were the best. I find we must not rank our seed too high ; they will not all be perfect. Next year I will breed ears from the rows that produced the most corn this year. And if those ears again next year produce the champion rows, then I will begin to think I am getting started in a good line of breeding and that I am going in the right direction. I have kept a record. Ears No. 7 or 8 had 22 rows. I thought that every ear in that row would have 22 rows ; but they had the same number of rows that the general crop had — from 18 to 24; and I began to study that a little more ; saw it was not possible unless the whole patch had been planted for several years with ears of 22 rows ; because it is impossible not to get a cross fertilization in there from ears that had more than 2.2. rows; and even if that was the case, it would probably breed back and get some ears with a different number of rows. I made a mistake last year, cutting my corn too soon. Had been used to cutting my corn by hand. I always began just as soon as I could and put up half shocks ; had to do this or it would get too dry ; but this year I used a corn harvester with four mules. If you are not careful you will get up too large shocks in a bundle. We had very wet weather and the corn damaged considerable. I think it is a great mistake to start to cut too soon ; I am satisfied I would have been many dollars ahead if I had waited until later to cut my corn. DISCUSSION. Mr. Henderson : Has any one present tried a four years' rotation of corn, wheat, clover and timothy. We do not find it a very profitable one in this section of the State; the objection being that we have to plant our wheat after corn, and cannot always get the ground in proper condition after cutting our corn. I would also like to ask what kind of fertilizer has been found best suited for this section when putting in wheat? Mr. Smith : I will tell you some of my experience. In 1900, the dry year, was my first experience in raising wheat on corn land. I went in with my disk harrow in the spring and disked the ground, giving it a double disking; and on the 14th of September I sowed 40 acres of wheat. When I harvested that 40 acres I got 28 bushels to the acre on land which it was said would not grow wheat ; then I planted that 40 acres 76 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. to wheat again. The best wheat crops I have gotten have been on corn land. This year I have 385 acres of wheat growing and half of it is on corn land, and is looking fine. Mr. Boles : I want to emphasize one point which Mr. Weeks made in his talk. He said that after he came back from school he felt as if he took more interest in the cultivation of corn than he did before he went. Now, the point is this : the more knowledge we have of a thing the more interest we take in it, and that's the secret of the whole busi- ness, to take an interest. If we learn what corn is good and what is not, then we will not plant the scrub corn. And this will hold good in everything. I will say to these students, the more you know about a thing the more useful it will be to you. Mr. Laughlin: How do you cut your corn? Mr. Weeks : I set the binder to tie as small as possible, about one dozen stalks to the bundle. Mr. Laughlin : How many stalks do you put in a bundle ? Mr. Weeks : That depends on condition of corn at time of cutting ; if it is green, cut smaller bundles than if dry. Mr. Laughlin : How do you shock your corn with these binders ? Mr. Weeks : I used the binder this year for the first time, I shred- ded the fodder. Taking ever}i:hing into consideration, you can get the fodder ready to shred much cheaper. This is not an expensive way to cut corn. Mr. Laughlin : I have a jack twelve feet long with the legs bolted on; an open place is left in the center, and you can put in about 20 bundles. You will have to tie the bundles or they will fall down -when you pull that jack out. Mr. : I would like to ask if you can cut ten or twelve acres a day with one binder? Mr. Weeks : I have never tried it a whole day at a time ; but I have cut about eight acres in three-fourths of a day, using four mules. Mr. : I have had some exf)erience with a corn binder for cutting fodder. A great many men object to the expcnsiveness of this manner of cutting corn ; and I thought at first when I began using the binder that it was as expensive as the old-fashioned way of cutting with the corn knife ; but this year it was too muddy to cut corn on my farm with a binder ; and I was driven to the necessity of employing men and cutting it by hand ; it cost me about $35 to cut my corn this year by hand and set it up, and I know that it was poorly done. It should not have cost me over seven or eight dollars (barring cost of team and binder) to have harvested that corn with the binder. CORN GROWERS ASSOCIATION. jy Mr. : I have found in the past seven years of my ex- perience that corn can easily be cared for either by holding it a week or having it placed in shocks ; it will keep. I have rotated for the most part with four-year rotations, following corn stubble with wheat. I only use corn on the same land one year at a time; and owing to the fact that in past years it has been very difficult to get help to cut my corn by hand, I have bought a binder; was very much dissatisfied with the work at first, but after becoming acquainted with it and understanding better how to handle it and regulate the size of bundles, and taking into consideration the fact that I cut my corn in such a way that the stubble is mostly out of the way in preparing the land for wheat, I concluded it was the cheapest way in which I could remove the ■corn for the purpose of sowing wheat. It is true that some ears are knocked off once in awhile, but they are gathered and fed at once. Mr. : How many bushels to the acre do you knock off ? Mr. : If corn is taken too green, a great deal is knocked off, but if it is just right, it would probably knock off from three to four bushels. That was my experience. I have been following this four-year rotation ever since 1881 ; the first time I knew of it in the spring I put in a crop of oats. After that time I did not attempt to sow oats after corn stubble, except in a very limited way. I follow my corn stubble with wheat and sow timothy and clover in the spring. I tiever have used any fertilizers. Have had crops of wheat all the way from practically nothing up to 40 odd bushels to the acre. I find that much depends on the character of the preparation of the soil. I never plow my corn stubble. I always disk it thoroughly, and after I am through (unlike a great many of the farmers) I always harrow; and I have experimented along that line and think I see an advantage in harrowing after the drill. Mr. Sly : Some farmers think it cheaper to cut by hand than with harvester. I think the corn harvester is away ahead. It is not always the expense you must consider. It is the condition you get it done in. With the harvester you can cut it in a few days, when by hand it will take so long you can not get it done in as good condition.. The plan Mr. Laughlin spoke of could not be used in our part of the State because, unless you put up very large shocks, the snow blows in that open space in the winter. 78 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. THE PRACTICAL SIDE OF CORN IMPROVEMENT. (P. E. Orabtree, Hannon, Mo ) It would seem, from Avhat we have heard this afternoon and the interest taken in the discussions that followed various talks on this corn question, that there would be nothing left to say at this time. However, in assigning this subject at this time, it appears (at least the managenxent thought) there would be something to be said particularly along the line of the practical side of corn improvement that has re- mained unsaid. After listening to the subject as- handled, I feel chat it is next to impossible for me to handle this subject without overlappin^i;- or encroaching somewhat on the subjects of speakers who have gone before me. However, I shall endeavor to carry out this part of '.he program. Mr. Ellis has told you that the addition of two grains to the ear of the corn production of Missouri at the present time would amount in increased yield to a valuation of $200,000. I will say that that will be most easily reached — that we can entirely surpass that point, and I will call your attention to one thing (it applies to the majority of the corn that we produce at the present time) that will save many times two grains per ear: That one thing being simply the matter of h-wing more solid, firmly set corn on the ear. Where is the farmer who can handle his corn without wasting — dropping or shelling off — an average of more than two grains per ear? That is noticeable in some of the varieties in particular that we handle. I will say that in institute work, in which I have assisted to some extent this fall, I have noticed some varieties that shell very easily that have been on exhibition. One of them which I recall now is the Cartner corn ; a very pretty tapering corn, but very loose on the ear and has to be handled very carefully in order to make a creditable show on exhibition. If we can add to the value of the corn crop of Missouri so much money in excess of the $200,000 per year in that one way, what must we be able to add to it in the various ways that are outlined and that will in future be out- lined in the matter of practical corn production? The farmer is interested very largely in the matter of the amount of shelled corn that he is able to produce per acre. It might suggest itself to one person that a large grain would be a very good thing per- haps ; to another, that a large ear was a good thing ; to still another (who hasn't given the matter much thought), that a particularly large stalk was a desirable trait of character in this plant. Those things. CORN growers' association. 79 the most of them, have been given due thought, I beheve, by the various corn associations throughout the corn belt, and they have come to an opinion in regard to those various requirements of the corn plant. How closely those opinions agree is one of the important things that we might wish to learn. I believe it will be interesting for me to read to you from this chart which I have prepared outlining differences in the score card for corn, gotten out by the Agricultural Experiment Stations for the states of Ohio, Nebraska and our own State, compared one with the other. UNIFORMITY. Ohio 15 ■^Missouri , 10 Nebraska 5 SHAPE AND SIZE OF KERNEL. Ohio 15 Missouri 10 Nebraslta 5 MATURITY AND SEED CONDITION. Ohio 15 Missouri 15 Nebraslca 5 (Notice how regularly it is maliing an entire diversity of 300 per cent.) SPACE BETWEEN ROWS AND BETWEEN KERNELS IN THE ROW. Ohiol lO^Missourl 5 Nebraska 5 COLOR GRAIN AND COB. Ohio 10 Missouri 10 Nebraska 10 [(The only thing the three agree on.) UNIFORMITY OF KERNEL. Ohio 5 Missouri 10 Nebraska 6 LENGTH OF EAR. Ohio 10 Missouri Nebraska 10 CIRCUMFERENCE. Ohio 5 Missouri Nebraska 5 BUTTS. Ohio 5 Missouri 10 Nebraska 5 TIPS. Ohio 5 Missouri 5 Nebraska 10 PER CENT OF GRAIN. Ohio 5 Missouri 15 Nebraska 20 (Total difference in extremes of 400 per cent.) Now the thing that comes up before the class of people we have present at this time is this : We need to make an exhibit ear of corn to command all those states. Almost all of the judges who have had considerable experience in the different states all agree upon the in- dividual ear or individual exhibit as being the best one. Then, if that is true, and this is the measure, the basis of our consideration, for those spe- cific requirements, are we not up to that point where we could well afford to devote some time, even considerable time, to the matter of allotting a number of points to those different requirements that would be a little more nearly uniform with each other; otherwise I think they are somewhat misleading. I think work in that line should be carried on by the practical farmer — the man who raises corn for sale by the bushel. I think, to, that a little more detailed work on that line in the experi- menting on the requirements of the score card would be a good line of work to follow out. "Now," one might say, "wherein do those 8o MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. differences exist?" I will say further I believe there are good reasons in some instances for differences existing, and those are differences in location, soil and climate. I think with those differences we can well afford to have a difference in the requirements of the score card; but while all that is true, I think we should adopt some recognized type of corn and let each of the other types fall in the class in which they be- long. I not only believe that to be true as a breeder of corn and as an exhibitor of corn, but I believe it to be true from what I have seen in the holding of these county shows in connection with institute work. It is hard for me to convince a man who lives in the river bottoms and raises that type of corn and says he can raise a larger crop of that corn than by adopting the present corn standard. They will not believe me. They will back up their disbelief by doubting whether there is very much in recognized effort in the line of corn production and still further by remaining away from the corn show. I find the majority of them on upland soil find it more practicable to produce a medium type of corn, not especially large, but a medium-sized ear of corn with good shelling proportions, about 84 to 86 per cent, and would object very seriously to coming down to what I would prefer to call the northern type of corn, which has splendid shelling proportions, has a very small cob, and they tell me, in a majority of localities, is a splendid producer. I firmly believe that producing capacity is the first, and marketable condition the second consideration. And it is to those people we must look for the production of wealth in the way of raising corn in our corn belt. How can we convince these farmers in the river bottom? Can we make some arrangement through which they will raise the type best suited to their section and not have to compete against the type of corn that is more profitably produced on the upland corn ground of the State? Now, in all the various breeds of corn, and varieties of corn, v/e should recognize in each and every one a difference in the manner in which it should be produced, and that each person on his farm select the kind of corn and produce it, in size of ear, type of grain, and all those things that go to make up an ear of corn ; let him have his pleasure in regard to that and yet have the stimulus which is af- forded by competing in our corn shows and winning some of those premiums which he cannot hope to win when his type must compete against another type. Further along that line I will say that there is something more practical in the matter of corn production than the majority of farmers understand. When the farmer undertakes to plant his corn in an up- to-date manner, he has trouble to exceed over 86 or 87 per cent; he CORN growers' association. 8i cannot do it. He cannot secure uniformity of grain; and if a farmer should undertake to shell seed corn from this, I don't think he could shell but a small quantity a day — perhaps two or three gallons. This matter of creating a personal seed corn may not be in reach of all farmers. I believe it is a good thing, but as I surely believe you can take an ear of corn with uniformity of grain represented here (holding up an ear), and that all of the enterprising farmers and the ones who are extremely hard to advise can raise corn similar to that in uni- formity of grain. I do believe, as a farmer, that we have got to get this matter of corn showing down to where we can get in touch with the farmer. I believe, also, that if we can show him that there are some varieties of corn in which there is exhibited a great deal of waste space, that the rows on the ears stand widely apart and there is a loss of space, loss in weight, and invariably a larger proportion of cob than is necessary simply because the cob does not carry enough corn, I believe he can understand that. By the way, there are some things which they don't at present understand. Some time ago on my return home from an institute meeting, a German who lives near me said, "I would like to show you my seed corn; I understand you are interested in corn." I went with him to his corn crib, where he had the husks stripped up and hung on poles, and he picked out this ear (hold- ing up a very large ear), and he said that was a fine big ear. "Don't you believe," he said, "that the larger the ear the bigger crop you can raise?" I told him I would be glad to take that ear with me. I had never seen an ear that exhibited more of the irregularities from a practical point of view than that one ear — in regard to shelling pro- portions and extreme size of cob. You have tried, no doubt, many a time after damp weather and then freezing weather following, to husk such an ear of corn, and you find it impossible to break such a shank. Those are practical features. I believe these matters are pretty well understood generally, but I find some who do not understand them. Now in regard to some of the fads carried out in corn production. I believe too often has it been the case that producing an extremely higli shelling proportion of corn to the ear has led the corn fancier away from practical lines. Among the sixteen kinds of corn with which I have experimented here is one kind (holding up an ear), called "Farm- ers' Favorite." The ambition of the person who introduced this type was to produce the highest possible shelling proportion of corn to ear. When that corn is planted it always stands in an inclined position, and any unfavorable weather in the way of a damp morning that corn would lean over so badly that in cultivation you would break off many A-6 82 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. of the stalks; also, in cultivation, if you injured it the least bit, it would invaribly turn so that in cultivating your field going the other way, \ou were sure to injure it again. Consequently Ix^fore you are through with it you have- a very poor stand. Another thing: Here is a sample of another corn (holding up an ear). See the lost space in it; it has a shaky tendency on the cob. Those things are to be considered in the line of the work that corn breeders and fanciers have to carry out. In the majority of localities I find that the medium-sized ear, the grains tightly and well set on a medium-sized cob, is what most breeders consider a practical thing — a corn that sets well together, when loosened at one end still remains compact on the ear. It seems to be the concensus of opinion among the various persons who have experimented alohg the line, that such a corn will not shell badly; when you pull off a handful of it and then hand the ear all around, the grains will still stay on the cob. I have mentioned those things in leading up to another point. I suggested that I believe that a general corn standard that all of these types might fomewhat nearly approach would be a good thing to be adopted. -If we should subdivide corn, for the purpose of exhibiting it, for the purpose of interesting all the corn growers, into three divisions, my preference would be to call one kind — the quick maturing kind, moder- ately small — ^Northern type; the kind most people would raise I would call Central type; and the slowly maturing corn the Southern type. That is only a matter of distinction between the three, a dis- tinction people would readily take to and understand. I am going to say something that some of you will criticise. When a man criticises a thing you have got him interested and got him to thinking, and if he can think to a purpose, if he is criticising something, he will let some- body else know about it, and this will result in good in the long run. I would not advocate making any particular variety of corn for the North- ern, or for the Central or Southern type. I would let a person take St. Charles White, or anything else, and if he found he could produce the best crop on his land by a manner of planting, or which he would demonstrate to be the best in regard to stand, let him do it with an eye single to those conditions and not have to have one eye, or both, on whether he was raising a variety that would be permitted to enter the show. Gentlemen, when we have reached that point, we have reached a practical point that will get almost every farmer in the country to ex- hibit his corn. What would be the requirements of those different types of corn in making the basis of classification? My notion is this: The size for CORN growers' association. 83 the Northern type would be 6x8 inches; Central 7 1-2x10 inches; Southern, 8 1-4x11 inches. I would favor making a shelling test of the Southern type 80 per cent, the ordinary market standard. I would make the Central type 84 per cent, and the Northern type 86 per cent. Then you can show the farmer why he can compete in the show, and you can also show him that he will not be dissatisfied when the rewards are made. I firmly believe, gentlemen, that when you have got every- body who is interested in the growing of corn deeply interested in how to produce a larger crop per acre, you have solved the most serious problem that can confront the farmer of the corn belt. *THE USE OF THE SCORE CARD IN JUDGING CORN. (M. F. Miller, Professor of Agronomy, Agricultural College.) The value of the Score card in judging corn lies largely in the fact that it calls attention to those characters which go to make up an ideal ear. With practice it also makes possible a more accurate comparison of samples. In the hands of the average farmer it is of greatest value in teaching the good and bad points in ears of corn, thus enabling him to select the proper ears for seed. At local corn shows it serves a most important purpose in directing the judgment of those passing upon the samples and in fixing the attention of exhibitors on the characters in which particular samples may excel or may be lacking. At the last meeting of the Missouri Corn Growers' Association a committee was appointed to revise the score card previously used, since experiments had indicated that certain slight changes were necessary. The changes consist, first, in giving somewhat more emphasis to the uniformity of exhibit, since if corn is to represent a type and show care- ful selection, the ears must be alike in every way. Second, the character of the germ had not been mentioned in the old score card, and since it is the purpose of the score card to give us better seed corn, it was thought best to give more attention to this character. The score card here pre- sented is a revision as suggested by this committee, and will be used as the official score card of the Association for the coming year. For the most accurate comparison of samples, it is evident that in corn, as in animals, each breed variety should have its own score card, but as this association has not yet adopted any particular varieties as standard for Missouri, then it is necessary to continue to use a general score card for *Prof. Miller gave a demonstration in corn judging, but this paper is printed in its place . 84 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. judging all varieties. It will be noticed that this arrangement of points, while maintaining certain ideals as to character of ears, allows of such a general use. MISSOURI SCORE CARD FOR CORN. ; Uniformity of exhibit 15 [■ Maturity and market condition lu Purity (as shown by color) : Of kernels 5 Of cob 5 Shape of ear 10 Proportion of length and circumference 10 Shape and uniformity of kernels 10 Character of germ 10 Butts 5 Tips 5 Space between rows 5 Per cent of corn to ear 10 DIRECTIONS FOR USING THE SCORE CARD. Samples of corn should consist of 10 ears each, and for conveni- ence in judging they should be laid on tables or boards so that the ears of each particular exhibit lie side by side for comparison. This allows of a much more careful examination than where the ears are piled. Blocks of wood may be placed between the different samples, or nails may be driven in slightly at either side of the exhibit to hold it in place. In scoring it is usually simpler to add the number of points cut under each subhead and then subtract the total from 100 than it is to make the subtractions separately. An exhibit cutting the full number of points under any one head should be thrown out. UNIFORMITY OF EXHIBIT (15). The importance of uniformity of exhibit is recognized in the fact that in well-bred corn a particular type must be maintained, and the nearer the ears look alike the better breeding they show. The ears of an exhibit should be uniform in size, color and indentation. Judge the exhibit separately for each of these characters. The 15 points will allow 5 to be given to size, 5 to color and 5 to indentation ; or in other words, each ear will be allowed one half point under each of these heads. • CORN growers' association. 85 For each ear that is larger or smaller than the prevailing type, cut one half point. For each ear that shows a different shade of color from the prevailing type, cut one half point. For each ear differing in indenta- tion from the prevailing type, that is, if it is either rougher or smoother in the grain, cut one half point. Add these cuts together for total cut of uniformity of exhibit. MATURITY AND MARKET CONDITION (lO). It is realized that maturity is not so important in corn grown in this State, especially the southern half, as it is in regions farther north, since seasons are usually long enough to mature even the later varieties. How- ever, corn planted late and for this reason failing to mature will be low in germinating power, and this is to be avoided. Ears should be solid and free from injury or decayed spots. To determine the maturity, twist the individual ears in the hands. Each ear showing a marked de- gree of looseness should be cut i point. For ears less imperfect in this respect a cut of one-half point should be allowed. Corn is expected to be dry when shown, and judges usually assume that if corn is not dry it is immature. If early in the fall, some allowance must be made, and the judge must use discretion in this matter. Ears showing rotten spots or injuries should be cut from one-fourth to one-half point each. PURITY. Well-bred corn must be free from mixture with any other variety; consequently a serious mixture in kernels or a variation in color of cobs cannot be tolerated. A, KERNELS (5). Kernels should be free from mixture with corn of the opposite color. In yellow corn the mixture is shown on the caps of the kernels, in white corn on the sides. For each kernel in an ear showing such a mixture cut one-fourth point. Five ears, cutting i point each for mixture of kernels, shall bar the exhibit, except in mixed corn, where this is not considered. B. COBS (5). Cobs should be of one color ; in yellow corn they are usually red and in white corn white, although there are 'exceptions to this rule, such as the St. Charles White, which has a red cob. For each cob opposite iu color from the prevailing type cut 2 points. For pink cobs cut one- fourth to one-half point, according to the shade of color. Two cobs o^ 86 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. opposite color shall bar the exhibit. This is not considered in mixed corn, except in such varieties as run true to type, such as Calico, Bloody Butcher and Red. SHAPE OF EAR (lo). Ears should be as nearly cylindrical as possible, unless it is a recog- nized characteristic of the ears of the particular variety under considera- tion to be tapering. A cylindrical ear usually means a greater per cent of corn to cob and a larger number of kernels of uniform size and shape for planting. (Leaming is quite tapering, Reid's_ Yellow Dent is slight- ly tapering, Boone Co. White, Silver Mine and St. Charles White are nearly cyclindrical.) Cut one-half point for each ear that tapers too greatly. PROPORTION OF LENGTH AND CIRCUMFERENCE (lO). It is believed that the highest yield of corn per acre will be gotten from ears having a ratio of circumference to length approximately 3 to 4, or the circumference measured at a point one-third the distance from butt to tip should be three-fourths the length. Ears that are too short and thick, or ears too long and slim, are to be avoided. A ten-inch ear should be approximately seven and one-half inches in circumference. A tape line should be used in making these measurements, although a little practice will enable one to judge accurately with the eye. It is recognized that in the southern part of the State corn grows larger than in the northern part of the State, and the same is true of rich lands as compared with thin lands. The same variety will vary some under these different conditions. No definite rules can therefore be laid down regarding the size of ears of any variety when considering the State as a whole. SHAPE AND UNIFORMITY OF KERNELS (lo). The shape and unif<»niiity of kernels is a very important considera- tion. The kernels of the whole exhibit must be imiform in size and shape in order to allow of accurate (h"o[)i)ing by tlic planter. The most ideal type of kernel is one slightly wedge-shaped but not pointed, the length of which is approximately i 1-2 times as great as the width at the widest part. They should have a good thickness carried evenly the length of the kernel and thc\ should be sufficiently wide at the tip to allow of a good development (jf gvrm. Remove three kernels from one side of each ear near the middle, laying them at the end of the ear for comparison. For each car showing kernels of poor shape, or kernels CORN growers' association. 87 which are larger or smaller than the prevaihng type, cut i ponit. Should an ear have kernels deficient in both uniformity and shape, cut the ear 2 points. CHARACTER OF GERM (lO). An inspection of the germ of a kernel of corn will give a fairly accurate indication of its germinating power. For strong germination, the germs should be full, smooth and bright, not blistered, shrivelled or discolored. When split with a knife or broken open, they should show a fresh, brittle, oily appearance. Cut i point for each car showing germs decidedly defective. BUTTS (5). An ideal butt on an ear of corn should be well rounded out with deep, regular kernels solidly and evenly compacted together around a clean, cup shape cavity. The attachment to the stalk for medium varieties should be three-fourths of an inch, or about one inch between the edge of the kernels. The ears should break off clean, leaving no adhering parts on the shanks. Well-bred corn is indicated very readily by the character of the butts, since these arc readily changed by careful selection. Cut not to exceed one-half point for each defective butt. Tirs (5). There should be deep kernels well out to the end of the ear in as regular rows as possible. The ideal tip is completely covered, but if the kernels are deep and regular out even with the end of the cob, no cut need be given. It is realized that the character of the tip is affected largely by season, although selection is an important factor in securing perfect tips. If undue attention is given to covered tips, however, neglecting the proportions of the car, the result is usually seen in a greater number of short ears, since it is usually the short car which has the best tip. Cut onc-lialf point for each tip seriously defective. SPACE BETWEEN ROWS (5). Furrows between rows should be narrow. It is not necessary that they fit perfectly tight together, but there should be no great amount of open space. Cut not to exceed one half point for each ear seriously defective in tliis respect. 88 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. PER CENT OF CORN TO EAR (lo). The per cent of corn to ear should not be under 84. Recent ex- periments seem to indicate, that a higii per cent of corn to ear does not necessarily mean a high yield of shelled corn per acre ; consequently too much emphasis should not be laid on the property of individual ears to shell a high per cent of corn. What is wanted is a large yield of shelled corn per acre, and indications point toward the possibility of this being more easily secured with cobs of fair size than with smaller cobs. The per cent of corn to ear is best determined by selling every other ear of an exhibit and weighing, or it may be done with a fair degree of accur- acy by shelling two representative ears. Ordinarily, where the corn is to be preserved, this per cent can be determined with sufficient accuracy by noting the depth of kernel and the weight of ear in the hand. Cut not to exceed one point for each ear markedly deficient in this respect, or where the ears are shelled and weighed, cut i 1-2 points for each per cent which the sample averages below 85. THE MOST PROFITABLE TYPES OF CORN FOR MISSOURI FARMERS. (Ool. G. W. Waters, Canton, Mo.> The average Missouri farmer is vastly more interested in a type of corn that will yield largely than in one that will score high on the show tables. He has not studied to discriminate as to the. lower feeding values of different corns, as indicated in the varying protein, oil or starch content, but looks only to the bushels of sound shelled corn that any given variety will produce. This is his measure of value, his stand- ard of excellence. And in this he is right. Seek first a maximum yielding corn, and all the other subsidiary requirements may in time be added by judicious breeding. The question then is, what style, size, shape of ear, sort of stalk and blades, what period of maturity and what general characteristics are identical with the best average yielding corn ? T have watched the results in the growth of a great number of types of corn, in length of ear all the way from the "Long John," twelve to fourteen inches long, to the thick, short mastodon in size, from the Giant Normandy, Boon^? County White, and other extra large sorts to the Cartner, and other smaller varieties. As to size of grain, I have carefully observed from the large broad grain of the Hickory King to Shoepeg ; as to number of rows to the ear from the eight-rowed to 30 or even 32 rows ; and as to one car to the stalk, or many ears, as is the so-called "Pro- CORN growers' association. 89 lific" sorts; and I conclude that the medium, between the extremes, gives the best average results, I come to this conclusion first upon the safe theory of the "sur- vival of the fittest." Since I can first remember, at frequent intervals the extreme types have been introduced and tried, but fully 80 per cent of the farmers have swung round to the use of the medium sizes and one ear to the stalk. J. O. Roberts of Clarksville, who has had a wide and varied experience in raising and handling corn, as a farmer on rich bottom land, on medium land and on hill or high upland, also as a miller for a long period, and thirdly as a dealer buying corn from thou- sands of crops, said to the writer, "After all, the most satisfactory kind for all kinds of land and all kinds of seasons, and the safest to plant is a medium-sized white corn." To be more specific, ten inches long should be the maximum. This would mean that a very large percentage of ears grown on average land would fall short of that from one to two inches. The ratio of three to four for circumference to length remains unchallenged. The size of the kernels is of some importance. Having measured many hundreds of samples of high producing crops, I would prefer the fol- lowing dimensions: Length of grain, one-half inch to nine-sixteenths; width of grain, five and a half sixteenths ; thickness of grain, two and a half sixteenths. The shape of grain should be key stone, as nearly straight on edges as possible, thus filling all the space. The rows should extend three-sixteenths of an inch beyond the cob at the butt, and to within three-sixteenths of an inch of end at tip. The evident re- sult of closely fitting, solid, deep grains, and the extension at the butt is to get the greatest amount of corn possible on a cob of a given size. The reason I would not encourage the extension of grains to the ex- treme tip of the cob is that at this point is the most hazardous place to grow corn. It is subject to all the vicissitudes and damages of weather, birds and insects, and energy expended in growing grains at the ex- treme tip is more often than otherwise lost. The only way to guard and protect it is to have the corn shortened so that the shuck will cover it completely. If the size of the ear and the size of the grain are both to be maintained, then it follows that a uniform number of rows must be established. I have found that eighteen rows gives grains about the right size on ears of normal size. Very large, broad grains, as a rule, are rounded and do not fit closely on the cob. On the other hand, the sharp-pointed grain carries too small a germ for strong germinating powers. Thin, flat grains are objectionable from the same cause. A medium thick grain, carrying a deep, large germ, is the better yielding type. 90 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. Having outlined an ideal type of corn that any farmer can pro- duce, let us see what it would mean in bushels of corn planted by check row, three feet eight inches would have 3240 hills to the acre. Two stalks to the hill, each stalk bearing a ten-inch ear would mean over niinety bushels to the acre. I say over ninety, for I have weighed hundreds of sample ears, and they will average over one pound each, and if well filled and matured, will shell out one hundred bushels. What does the farmer want with bigger corn than that? But let us drop to nine inches in length and to 14 ounces each, and we get right close to eighty bushels. Eight-inch ears should weigh 12 ounces, and that would mean sixey-seven bushels. But suppose we try raising nubbins weighing only eight ounces each and get 45 bushels to the acre, and we are then five bushels above the maximum average yield of the State for any one year in her history, and fifty per cent above our ten-year average. It is evident then that our weak point in corn production is not want of size of ears, but want of uniformity. It is safer and easier to get uni- formity in the smaller and medium types than in the large. I once got a package of corn from Washington called the "Giant Normandy." I gave it a good trial. The ears varied in size from two ounces to two pounds. It had no redeeming trait; in fact, it was a sport without any prepotency toward uniformity. If the INIissouri farmer could procure a strain of corn with fixed prepotency to such a degree that every stalk would produce an car, even a ten-ounce ear, it would beat anything he has now. I repeat, the great need of today is uniformity in pro- ductivity. This trait may be bred into the corn by selecting from the rows producing the greatest number of ears of a uniform size. The idea of selecting the abnormal in size is only aggravating the evil. Uniformity in car development can only be had from uniform stalk growth. We often notice great divergence in size and form of stalks all growing along under apparently the same favorable conditions ; some small anrl spindling and others low and stocky. These differences may be due to one of two causes ; first, inherent tendency to variation for lack of fixedness of type, or it may be due, as Mr. Ilolden contends, to variable vitality in seed planted. The spindling dwarf or runty stalks might be ihe result of weakened seed, but the abnormally tall stalks and the tendency to barrenness is more apt to be inherent. In either case, uniformity of grain from typical, uniform stalks, grain strong in germinating power to be had by using grain of good size with full, healthy germ, is a means of securing uniform stand and iuiili.>rni i>ro- duction. In my judgment it would be well if the farmers would discard the greater majority of various types now in use an(l use only two varieties, one of white and one of yellow. Or if for feeding purposes CORN GROWERS ASSOCIATION, 9I only, then one variety is enough. We are relying too much on far-off and much advertised sorts, and not enough on our own ability to modify our own corn to suit our own conditions as to climate, soil, etc. In the foregoing I have described what I deem to be the most profitable type of corn for Missouri, leaving it to the judgment of the reader to de- termine ,which of the varieties now in use best fills the bill. Wishing the Missouri Corn Growers' Association much success and commending their earnest work, I respe.ctfuUy submit this paper. STRO-NG VITALITY IN SEED CORN—HOW TO GET IT. (Hon. E. D. Funk, Bloomington, 111.) I will tell you how we gather our seed corn, and the different methods we have tried. I will tell you how the government is per- forming an experiment which extends over a period of about five or six years on our farm — an experiment of the time of gathering seed corn and the nature of storing seed corn. I will also tell you what the au- thorities at Washington, after a three years' experiment, have decided is the proper way to store seed corn. We gather our seed corn as early as possible, but, of course, the time depends on the season. We gather just as long as we can before a hard storm sets in ; a rain, followed by a hard freeze, or something of that sort, prevents the further gathering of seed corn. We generally expose that seed corn to a natural ventilation, a natural circulation of the air ; or perhaps, we have such a constructed seed house that the ventilation will be forced. You can readily construct a seed house of that sort yourself by making a series of doors along the sides, place your seed house well up from the ground ; and then putting in the cone of the roof especially constructed windows. We use kiln-drying win- dows, which create a suction up; these are used in kiln-drying houses; and you know that if kiln-dried corn ever becomes dampened again, it is spoiled ; consequently there must be a supply of hot air all the time — no moist air can come in. The corn that is gathered about the first of October and stored either in crates, or loosely thrown in, in such a seed house, or hung up on a series of wires along the roof of the seed house, is the very best germinating corn I know of. Now, we attempt to dry the corn as rapidly as possible; we attempt to drive off all the moisture ; and then to keep the seed house at a tem- perature of a uniform heat, usually kept 35 degrees above zero. Dur- ing the winter there are cold snaps where the thermometer will go 92 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. down to 20 degrees below zero ; and we have had instances where corn will absorb moisture, and a freeze will follow, and the germination is lowered and the vitality is hurt very greatly. We have kept our seed houses at such a temperature during those cold snaps that there is no danger of any such results. We have had differently constructed seed houses; we have tried forced ventilation, and circulation without arti- ficial heat, and we find it does not give us as good results as when we keep the temperature above that very low point. I should say we should not let the temperature get below 10 above zero. Now, in our work, I don't know of an instance where it has gotten below 20 de- grees above, but 10 degrees is low enough for the danger point. The government have selected what they call four stations on the farm — one being an open crib, two artificially heated seed houses and one the old type of seed house — that is, the seed house without the arti- ficial heat. They have taken three varieties of corn. They start gath- ering about the middle of September ; they have a man who does no other kind of work on the farm but tiiis ; he gathers twice a week. They have a half bushel of each variety for each station. After gath- ering, the man in charge takes a sample of corn he gathers at that time and also a sample of corn gathered previously, and sends these samples in sealed bottles to Washington, where they are analyzed and the mois- ture content is taken and the germination is taken at that time. You can see that as the season advances this work increases, because he has to take a sample of each gathering he has made previously. Conse- quently, at the end of the season, which last year was about the middle of January, this work means a great deal, takes up all the man's time in taking these samples and sending them to Washington. This year they only made one gathering a week and stopped gathering the middle of December. I will try and give you a few of the results from these different gatherings. The germination of the open crib for the gathering up to the 20th of December was 92 per cent; 94 per cent for the seed house without heat, and 96.8 for the heated seed house. The corn gathered in Sep- tember did not germinate as well as the corn gathered in October ; neither did the corn gathered in December germinate as well as the corn gathered either in October or September. After about the middle of January we received our first blow from the north ; it turned very cold, 28 degrees below zero. At thai point, the germination in the open crib dropped to 64 per cent ; the germination in tlie unhealed seed house dropped to 86 per cent, and the germination in the heated seed house in- creased to 97 per cent ; the germination in the heated seed house re- mained practically fixed — just as good after the hard freeze as before. CORN GROWERS* ASSOCIATION, 93 They have registering thermometers in all these stations, giving thf temperature every hour of the day. The registering thermometer in the seed house without heat went to 24 degrees below zero. In other words, that cold snap brought the germination in the open crib from 92 to 68, in the unheated seed house from 94 to 86, and the germination in the heated seed house remained the same. Now they took ten gather- ings from these different varieties at the four stations and planted them in plots, the gathering extending from the middle of September to the middle of January. In the field the difference in germination was more noticeable than it was in the germination at Washington. Not only was the germination of the open crib very poor, but the vigor with which the corn grew that did sprout was very poor — it lacked vigor and color and strength, and the germination in some of the rows from the open crib went as low as 6 per cent — practically killed it all. The heated seed houses germinated about 94 and the unheated seed house germinated about 80. They are going to continue this experiment, and the data they get later on will be more valuable. I think, however, it will result just about the same as it has. I think the heated seed houses are essential, but I think that the temperature of the corn should not be allowed to drop below 10 or 20 degrees above zero. Mr. Hartley, in a paper read before the American Corn Breeders' Association last year, made this statement: That from the kiln-dried corn (this experiment extends over a period of three years), they received a yield exceeding the natural dried corn over 15 bushels per acre; that is, the kiln-dried corn yielded 15 bushels more per acre than the natural dried corn. Now, I don't know whether he kept the temperature up above the freezing point or not, but that was the statement he made. Now, for the ordinary farmer, I think the best method for him to gather his seed corn is to go out early and pick a few ears that are of the proper size and of the right uniformity, and hang them up above the driveway in the barn, where they will get all the ventilation possi- ble, and before damaging weather comes on place them in the house. You can put them in the house some place where they will be out of the way and where the temperature will be kept normal. DISCUSSION. Mr. : What about that kiln-dried corn yielding 15 bush- els more to the acre than the natural dried corn? What was the reason for that? Mr. Funk : The vitality is stronger and germination more sponta- neous. 94 MISSOURI AflRICUI.TURAI. REPORT. Mr. Wing" : Do you think there is such a thing as getting it too dr)' ? Mr. Funk: 1 think you can apply too much heat, but you can't get your corn too dry. You know No. 2 corn is dry corn, and the per cent of moisture in No. 2 corn is from 12 to 14 per cent. Now, when we analyze our sample of corn, we always take the moisture test. Of course, that which has been dried merely by hang-ing up on racks, the moisture content will run as low as 5 to 10 per cent, or below what they would call dry corn on the market. Mr. Funk: I wish some of you would tell me how you dry your corn here. Mr. : We, in Missouri, have always thought the open crib did pretty well, but if kiln-drying adds so much to the yield, why we would prefer that plan. Mr. Funk : I did not say that it would. Mr. : Do you believe it? Mr. Funk: We should believe everything that Washington says, of course, but we may have our doubts just the same. I think Mr. Hartley is undoubtedly sincere in his statement, and I think that has been his result, but I think he should continue the experiment longer. Mr. : Have you ever tried to carry corn over from one year to another ; does that damage the vatility, Mr. Funk : Yes. The germination is lower ; and in two-year-old corn it is still worse. We have tried five-year old corn, and the germi- nation is about 6 or 10 per cent, starting with the g^ermination of 95 to 98 per cent. Mr. ■ : How had it been kept? Mr. Funk: In an unheated seed house; germination continued to drop through the period of five years until it got to 6 per cent. Mr. : I knew a man who had some corn 17 years old that germinated. Mr. Funk: He must have had an awfull\- vigorous corn in the first place. Mr. Sly: I would like to say that in 1904 I planted two bushels of corn grown in 1901, and had a good stand; made 80 bushels to the acre; it had just been kept in the barn in sacks. Mr. Funk : Of course, we all know that there are times when we have to plant at least one-year old corn, and I think it is safe to do so sometimes ; but I would not follow it as a practice ; I would try to plant new corn, unless very much afraid of its germination. Mr. : Do you test every ear? ^Tr. Funk : No, not with the germinator. But would certainly CORN CROWF-RS ASSnCIATTON. 95 test it. We test every ear we plant ourselves, but we don't test all of the seed corn wc send out. We test the corn in composite samples from each and every lot that is brought into the seed house. Corn deteriorates very rapidly when shelled, and we have had some very sad experiences in shelling corn too early. It absorbs moisture more readily shelled, and if very cold weather follows, the germination is very low. Mr. Wing: While on the subject of corn and the good it does to kiln-dry it, I will say that my average yield of natural dried corn was 25 to 40 bushels per acre. Well, I kiln-dried it last winter, hung it up in the barn and it got very dry (that is why I asked if it could get too dry). I grew alfalfa on my corn land for four years and spread manure on it and plowed it up and planted kiln-dried corn, and had 100 bushels to the acre on some of it, and an average of 75 bushels over the whole field. So it seems that kiln-drying made an increase of about 40 bushels to the acre. Now, something else about corn. I have been wondering whether you are right about growing only one ear on the stalk, because down in South Carolina they grow four to nine ears on the stalk. You need not laugh at that; because the actual yield on one measured acre of land was 240 bushels — ^10 bushels to the shock. I knew the man who planted it and there can be no doubt about it. RESOLUTIONS Adopted at the Third Annual Meeting of the Missouri State Corn Growers' Association. I. Resolved, That it is the desire of this Association to extend to the citizens of Columbia a vote of thanks for their cordial welcome and for the hospitality extended to us. II. Resolved, That we express our hearty appreciation of the aid which the Legislature has given the corn growers of the State, through the Agricultural Experiment Station and State Board of Agriculture, and we respectfully ask that these appropriations be continued. We also wish to commend most heartily the untiring efiforts of the members of the State Board of Agriculture and the faculty of the Agricultural Col- lege in bringing the farmers of the State to realize the necessity for improving the corn crop, pledging at the same time our earnest co- operation in this work in any way possible. III. Resolved, That in as much as the farming conditions are so different in various parts of the State, we respectfully ask the Experi- 96 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. ment Station to establish branch experimental farms in as many dis- tricts as possible for the study of the soil and crop problem. IV. Resolved, That in as much as the closing of any foreign ports to our meat products directly affects the corn growers, let us respect- fully ask our representatives in the National Congress of the United States to use their strongest influence in establishing reciprocal relations with all foreign countries regarding the keeping open of their ports to our animal products. Soil Session. Wednesday, January 10. KliS'i'ORING TPIE FERTILITY OF A RUN-DOWN FARM. (Dr. Ohas. E. Thorue, Director Ohio Experlmeut Station, Worcester, O.) I. yXstronomers tell us that the earth was once a red-hot, molten mass, surrounded by an atmosphere in which the waters of its present seas were vaporized, and which contained, as carbon dioxide, the carbon now found in its beds of limestone and coal and in the vegetation covering its sur- face. In time the surface of this mass had colored until a thin crust had formed, and the vapor began to condense, at first into a boiling sea, covering the entire surface, and overhung by a pall of cloud so dense as to shut out the light. It was then that "the earth was without form and void," for no land had appeared — "and darkness was upon the face of the deep.'' With further cooling and consequent contraction of the interior mass the crust was wrinkled and folded, being lifted into land areas in some places and deepened into ocean basins in others. The seas were shallow at first, and their waves beat upon their shores and ground them to sand, as they are doing today, dissolving out of this sand the soluble portions. It is probable that the earliest living organisms were microscopic, colorless, single celled plants, appearing in the barren, sandy beaches of the primeval seas while the sun was still obscured, obtaining their mineral food from the slowly dissolving sands, their carbon from the heavily charged atmosphere circulating in the upper layers of the sand, and their nitrogen from the same source ; plants similar in char- acter to the bacteria which live under the surface of the soil today, some of which undoubtedly still have the power of fixing free nitrogen, al- though now they may obtain their carbon either directly from carbon dioxide or from the accumulated organic matter of the soil, or indirectly A-7 98 MISSOURI ACfelCULTURAL REPORt. through symbiosis, as in the case of the nodule formefs of the clover roots. With increase of light green plants made their appearance — green algae on the surface of the sands and lichens on the rocks of the ris- ing mountains, just such lichens and algae as we find today in shaded, rocky ravines, and in sandy places where light is dim and moisture abundant, obtaining the mineral elements of their sustenance from sources inaccessible to the plants we cultivate. Having run their allotted course of existence, each generation of these humblest of organisms left behind in the sands of the shore, or of the slowly crumbling surface of the rock, a little additional plant food, wrested from the face of the rocks and sands, and from the inert nitro- gen of the air converted into a form available to plants of a higher order and stored in a substance much more easily soluble than the bare rock, and yet not so readily washed away as are the mineral salts, a substance to which we apply the term humus. In due time the higher plants made their appearance, feeding upon the stores provided for them by the soil organisms, and returning these stores to the soil again in their own decay. To some extent, no doubt, these higher plants have increased the available plant food in the soil by direct action of their root fluids upon the particles of sand and clay ; but it seems probable that this action is comparatively insignificant, and that the actual accumulation of both mineral and nitrogenous plant food in the soil in available form, is still largely the work of soil organisms. This view is supported by the fact that the productiveness of a soil is, up to a certain limit, proportionate to its humus content. The washed sands of the seashore, the wind-sifted sands of the dunes, or the clays brought up from deep excavations, support but a meager growth of vege- tation, until manure or fertilizers carrying soluble plant food, both nitro- genous and mineral, are added. If the function of humus were only that of a nitrogen purveyor, we should be able to restore the fertility of a soil depleted of hunuis by the addition of fertilizers carrying nitrogen only ; but experience has taugiit us that such soils demand some of the mineral elements of fertility quite as urgently as nitrogen. For example : Twelve years ago at the Ohio Experiment Station a soil, depleted of its hunuis by many years of tenant husbandry, was put under a 5-year rotation of corn, oats and wheat, one year each, followed by two years in clover and timothy. One plot in this experi- ment has been fertilized with nitrate of soda, 160 pounds per acre an- nually on each of the cereal crops, or 480 pounds for each 5-year rota- soil, SESSION. 99 tion. This application has increased the i2-year average yield, over that of unfertilized land alongside, by 4.33 bushels each of corn and oats, 1.89 bushels of wheat and 646 pounds of hay. On another plot the cereal crops have received for each rotation 320 pounds of acid phosphate and 260 pounds of muriate of potash, with the result that the yield of corn has been increased by 12.22 bushels, that of oats by 11.43 bushels, that of wheat by 8.68 bushels and that of hay by 997 pounds. In other words, the average increase from the mineral fertilizers has been about three times as great as that from the fertilizer carrying nitrogen only. On a third plot the same quantities of nitrate of soda, acid phosphate and muriate of potash have been combined, with the result that the yield of corn has been increased by an average of 16.18 bushels, that of oats by 18.72 bushels, and that of wheat by 15.50 bushels. This increased yield of corn is practically equal to the sum of the increases from the separate applications of the nitrogenous and mineral fertilizers, but those of the other crops are very much greater than this sum. If we estimate the value of corn at 50 cents a bushel for the grain and $3.00 per ton for the stover ; that of oats at 30 cents a bushel and $2.00 per ton for the straw; that of wheat at 80 cents a bushel and $2.00 per ton, and that of hay at $8.00 per ton, the combined increase from the diflferent crops of the rotation would have a total value of $7.80 for the nitrogen alone, $21.23 ^o'* ^^^ phosphorus and potassium, and $35.88 for the complete fertilizers, thus bringing out very forcibly the need of phosphorus and potassium, as well as of nitrogen, to restore the fertility of this exhausted soil. The humus of the soil is, therefore, the great storage battery of its elements of fertility, mineral as well as nitrogenous. It is in this store, chiefly or altogether, that our crops find their sustenance. When this store is exhausted they starve, and in proportion as it is reduced do they suffer from hunger. This humus is the result largely, if not chiefly, of the growth of miscroscopic organisms, working through eons of time. Under natural conditions it slowly accumulates, but when these condi- tions are disturbed it may be wasted so rapidly that a few years may suf- fice to exhaust stores of fertility that have been ages upon ages accumu- lating. This does not mean that the character of the original rocks, from which a soil's mineral constituents have been derived, is a matter of no consequence. The superiority of soils to whose formation limestones have contributed is a matter of universal experience, and if these lime- stones have contained phosphatic deposits, as in the case of the famous 100 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT, blue-grass region of Kentucky, their owners are fortunate indeed. But it seems probable that the excess of lime in such soils is not required so much for the direct nutrition of the higher plants as for the support of the processes by which the nitrogen of the soil is made available. For instance clover, which stores several times as much lime in its tissues as either of the cereal crops, and which is also dependent upon the help of soil bacteria for the securing of its nitrogen supply, has nearly ceased to grow u\)cm the land useil in the experiments just alluded to, and no fertilizer or manure i)ro(luces a normal growth of clover until lime is added. In these experiments the fertilizing materials are distributed over the three cereal crops, the mixed clover and timothy following without any further fertilizing. Since 1900 lime has been applied to the surface of one-half of each plot, both fertilized and unfertilized, after the land lias been prepared for corn; the lime is plowed under in preparing the land for oats, and plowed up again for wheat, thus securing a thorough distribution. The effect upon clover is given below, in the average weight of the first year's ha\-, chielly clover, for the three seasons, 1903, 1904 and 1905 : Treatment. Yield per acre pounds. No fertilizer, no Unie No fertilizer, lime Phospliorus and potassium, no lime I'liospiiorus, potassium and linio . Fliosphorus, potassium and nitrogen, no lime Phospliorus potassium, nitrogen and lime.. . Barnyard manure, no lime Barnyard manure and lime 1,650 2.800 2,133 3,816 3.369 4.011 3.03.1 4,028 These results (Icinonstratc llir iiccessilx of an abuiulant supply of lime in the soil for tlic production of clover, but the more full)- we under- stand the nature of the forces which make for the maintenance of soil fertility, the greater becomes the relative importance of clover as a pait of a systematic crop rotation; hence a soil which is naturally well stored with lime must have a much greater agricultural value than one in which the lime supply is deficient. Under natural conditions, the herbage which grows upon the soil decays upon it again, thus returning not only the original mineral ele- ments which it has drawn from the soil, but a little more nitrogen than SOIL SESSION. lOl the soil had furnished ; but when the farmer begins his operations he not only stimulates a greater draft upon the soil by cultural methods which cause a larger growth than would otherwise have taken place, but, instead of permitting this growth to return to the land, he re- moves the major portion of it, leaving only the roots and a little stubble. Further than this the cultivation, which enables his crop to secure a larger supply of plant food from the soil, also sets up condi- tions which involve a considerable waste of that supply, unless these conditions are understood and the waste prevented by intelligent man- agement. For example, in the Rothamsted experiments, more than 50 years ago, an acre of land was set aside for a study of the effect of fallowing; half thrs acre being sown in wheat each year and the other half being fallowed, th.e two halves alternating each year. The result has been that the average produce from this acre for 40 years was 8 5- PI" bushels, while that from land adjoining, growing wheat every year, was 12 3-4 bushels per acre, thus showing that a bare fallow may consume half as much fertility as a crop of grain. The explanation of this outcome probably lies in the fact that the processes which we call decay, and through which the roots and other remains of vegetation left in the soil are decomposed and made avail- able for future plant growth, are also vegetative processes, due to the work of micro-organisms, similar in function to those which have already been mentioned. 'J'hese are the so-called nitrifying bacteria. They are constantly at work in the soil when the temperature is above the freezing point, and their work is greatly facilitated by tillage and cultivation. Their function is to tear down and decompose the vegetable debris in the soil, to convert its inert nitrogen into nitric acid, and at the same time to liberate its mineral constituents. If there be a growing crop on the land its roots will absorb the plant food thus set free; but if there be no such crop this available plant food, both nitrogenous and mineral, will be largely carried into the drainage waters, in humid climates and lost, or in case the rainfall does not exceed evaporation, the unused plant food will accumulate in the soil, the nitric acid combining with lime or other alkaline base to form a nitrate salt, thus explaining the great fertility of the soils of the arid regions and the increased crops which have been observed to follow seasons of drouth in humid countries. If the soil be deficient in lime, however, or other alkaline base, the accumulation of nitric acid may possibly cause, or assist in causing, the injurious acidity which is being observed in some of our badly worn soils. 102 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. Of all the bread plants adapted to our soil and climate, none yields so large a quantity of potential food to the acre as Indian corn. A yield of loo bushels to the acre,\vhich is quite within easy possibility, means a total product, exclusive of roots and stubble, of 6 to 7 tons of air-dry matter all of which may be utilized as food by man or beast. A corresponding- crop of wheat would be 40 bushels to the acre, weigh- ing, with its straw, 3 1-2 to 4 tons. 100 bushels of corn with its cobs and stover, will carry from the soil about 160 pounds of nitrogen ; 40 bushels of wheat, with its straw half as much. The loo-bushel corn crop will require about 2 1-2 times as much phosphorus and three times as much potassium as the 40 bushel wheat crop. The corn crop grows during the hot summer months, when the nitrifying bacteria are most actively at work ; wheat makes its growth largely during the cooler weather of the fall and spring. Not only this, but to stimulate the work of nitrification in our corn fields by stirring the soil at intervals during the season, distributing the organisms throughout the soil and keeping them well supplied with oxygen, with- out which that work would cease. At the Ohio Experiment Station an acre each of corn, oats and wheat has been grown continuously on the same land for 12 years. These acres lie side by side, on land uniform in character, and of low fertility at the beginning of the test. Considering the grain alone, and comparing the yields by 6-year periods, the average unfertilized yield of corn has fallen from 26 bushels per acre for the first periol, to 14 2-5 bushels for the second, a loss of 45 per cent; that of oats, from- 28 bushels for the first period to 23 1-3 bushels for the second, a loss of 17 per cent, and that of wheat from 9 bushels for the first period to 7 3-5 bushels for the second, a loss of 15 per cent. The rate of decrease in yield, therefore, has been three times as great for corn as for wheat, and nearly three times as great for corn as for oats. Professor Harry Snyder of the Minnesota Experiment Station has shown that the waste of soil nitrogen may be indefinitely greater than the quantity utilized. For twelve years in succesion he grew wheat on the same land. Tie determined the nitrogen in the soil at the beginning and end of this period, and found that there had been a reduction of more than 2,000 pounds per acre, or 26 per cent of the quantity found in the soil at the beginning of the test. Of this loss, only 450 pounds could be acounted for in the crops taken off the land, showing that nearly 1,600 pounds had been lost mainly through decay of the humus and liberation of the nitrogen. SOIL SESSION, 103 II. When our fathers took possession of the second Garden of Eden, the great Valley of the Mississippi, they found a soil practically un- touched by man since the world began and stored with potential bread for millions upon millions of people. Forthwith they began to plow and sow and reap, and the world was fed. And when they were warned that their soil was not an inexhaustible bank, which could be drawn upon forever without restitution, they hooted at the counsel given and went ahead as before stimulating the soil to its utmost production by the thor- ough tillage which modern implements made possible, implements driven with an untiring industry, and then removing from it the entire crop produced, and if any restitution was made in manure it was so inadequate in quantity and so deteriorated in quality by unwise management as to be but an insignificant factor in staying the course of fertility depletion. In table I is shown the course of corn and wheat production in four states lying in the heart of the corn belt — Ohio,Indiana, Illinois and I. -FORTY YEA.RS OF OORN AND WHEAT. Average yield In bushels per acre. (Period. Corn. Acres grown in census year. Ohio. Indiana. Illinois. Missouri. 1865-1874 36.0 32.3 29.2 34.2 33.0 29.8 29.2 33.2 30.0 27.5 28.3 34.2 30.4 29.1 27.2 27.7 13,860.000 21,538,000 20.711.0C0 25,(65,0C0 1875-1884 1885-1894 1895-1904 Wheat. 1865-1874. 1875-1884. 1885-1894. 1895-1904. 12.0 10.9 11.9 13.1 14.5 13.8 13.3 11.6 13.9 13.9 14.1 12.9 13.4 "■' 12.5 12.7 5,993,0C0 9, 985. 000 9.027.0(0 10.469,0;0 OHIO-STATE vs. NATIONAL STATISTICS. Period. Corn. Wheat. State. National, State. National 4 states, acres corn, wheat and oats. 1865-1874 1875-1884 1885-1894 1895-1004 35.4 33.7 32.8 36.0 36.0 32.3 29.2 34.2 11.4 14.1 14.5 12.9 12.0 14 5 13.9 13.4 22,800,000 36, 500, OCO 37,60O,OC0 43,600,000 104 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. Missouri — for the 40 years, 1865 to 1904, inclusive, as indicated by the statistics collected by the United States Department of Agriculture. The table shows the average yield per acre by lo-year periods, as found by taking the mean of the yearly averages, and it also shows the total areai in each crop for the four states for the same periods, and the combined! area in the three cereal crops, corn, wheat and oats, this combination! being added because there has been in Illinois a considerable shifting, during later years from wheat to oats. The figures for area are for the- census years only, and are compiled from the reports of the eleventhi census, except for the first period, which is compiled from the estimates- of the Department of Agriculture. These estimates in turn are based' upon those of crop correspondents scattered throughout the country. To- test their accuracy, a table has been compiled, in which they are com- pared with statistics collected annually by the township assessors of Ohio. It will be seen that, while the two sets of statistics dififer slightly in minor details, they point to the same general conclusion, namely : that the close of this forty-year period finds this group of states producing practically the same quantity of grain per acre as the beginning. In corn, the averages for the entire state of Ohio, "as made up from the assessors' statistics, indicate that, after a steady reduction in yield for 30 years, that reduction has been overcome at the end of the period. A study of these statistics by counties, however, shows that this apparent increase during the later period, is chiefly found in the northwestern counties, where large areas of fertile land have, within a compara- tively recent period, been reclaimed from a semi-swawp condition by drainage. In the river valleys, which have been the great cornfields of the State from its earliest settlement, there has been a very general de- crease in yield during the last 25 years. The National statistics show a stationary yield for Indiana, a small increase in yield for Illinois, and a small decrease in Missouri. In wheat, the State statistics show a small increase in yield for Ohio, but an analysis of these statistics shows that this increase is found practically altogether in the northcn half of the State, where it has been brought about by a large and increasing use of commercial fertil- izers in the northeastern counties, and by extensive drainage in the northwestern region. Both State and National statistics show a de- creased yield of wheat in Ohio for the last 10 years, as compared with the two decades immediately preceding, and the National statistics indi- cate a similar condition for Indiana and Illinois. When we remember that these averages include the crops of many good farmers whose yields never fall to the level of such averages ; that SOIL SESSION. 105 they cover a period during which the area of new land brought under the plow has nearly equalled that in cultivation at its beginning ; that an immense amount of drainage has been done, adding enormously to the potential productiveness of the soil ; that tillage implements have been brought to a state of perfection for beyond that known before, thus further increasing the farmer's control of the soil ; that some thought at least has been given to crop rotation and the use of manures and ferti- lizers — enough in Ohio to lead to an annual expenditure for commercial fertilizers of more than a million and half of dollars during the last decade of this period ; when all these factors, which should make for increase of crop production, are set over against the figures above given, we are compelled to admit that if this is the best that can be done the future outlook for food for the world's rapidly increasing population is indeed a gloomy one. But this is not the best that can be done. Scattered throughout this region are many farms that are today producing larger crops than when first reclaimed from forest or prairie, and whose rate of production is steadily increasing ; and when we study the method by which the fertili- ty of these farms has been maintained we find that it has been based upon conservation and increase of the humus supply, a method as old as agriculture, and yet its importance is so seldom realized, and the means of employing it so imperfectly understood, that the prevailing tendency of our agriculture is towards the steady depletion of this supply. About the middle of the 40-year period under review the use of chemical or commercial fertilizers became common in Ohio. The de- velopment of the great range industry of the west had caused a heavy decrease in the price of meat producing animals, while the extension of railroads had made it easier to dispose of grain, so that our farmers reduced their live stock, sold their grain instead of feeding it, and at- tempted to maintain the fertility of their fields by the purchase of com- mercial fertilizers. The outcome of this policy has been that the century closed with no more live stock on Ohio farms, based upon poten- tial manure production, than was found there 50 years before, while the area cultivated in cereal crops was three times as great. It was soon discovered that, in large sections of the State, fertilizers containing phosphorus would produce a marked increase in the yield of wheat, and especially marked improvement in the appearance of the plant ; phosphated wheat starting earlier in the fall, growing more rapidly and maturing earlier than that not so treated. The addition of nitrogen and potassium to the fertilizer \sery ma- terially increased its cost, and, so far as ^_uld be judged bj^' ofoeiva- I06 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. tion of the growing crop, failed to produce an increase of yield commen- surate with the increase of cost. Farmers seldom carry their tests to the point of actual weights and measurements, and consequently the opinion became general that the nitrogen supply, at least, would take care of it- self. With some farmers, who continued to use considerable quantities of manure, re-enforcing this with small additions of commercial fertili- zers, this opinion was well founded ; but many accepted the conclusions of these farmers as adapted to farms where no such supply of nitrogen was maintained. The consequence has been that the land has become more and more depleted of its humus, the phosphates used accelerating this depletion ; the yield of corn is diminishing, and that of wheat is maintained only by constantly increasing purchases of fertilizers. III. One of the farms purchased by the Ohio Experiment Station on its removal to Wayne county had been rented for many years before it came into possession of the station and was reduced to a very low state of productiveness. On this farm a 5-year rotation of corn, oats, wheat clover and timothy has been maintained since 1894, the rotation being so planned that each crop is represented every season. In this experiment the land is divided into long, narrow plots, containing one-tenth acre each. Every third plot is left continuously unfertilized, while the intervening plots receive different fertilizing com- pounds, the fertilizing of each plot having been continued under a definite plan since the beginning of the test. The experiment has now been in progress for 12 years. It was so planned that during the first 5 years of this period, 1894 to 1898 inclusive, 5 crops of each of the cereals were grown, with 4 crops of clover and 3 of timothy, the fertilizers being applied to the cereal crops only. The average yields on the unfertilized land for this period and for the subsequent 7-year period are given in Table II. II. -AVERAGE UNFERTILIZED VIELD. \ 5 years-1894-1898. 7 years— 1899-190>. Corn Oats Wheat Ulover Timothy 31.9 bus. (?ralii, l,t)13 lbs. stover. 30.9 •' " 1.2U " straw. 9.3 " " 979 " 1,S29 lbs. hay. 2,334 " " 29.1 l)us. grain, 1,554 lbs. stover. 33.5 " " 1,204 " straw. 8.2 " '. 843 " 1,849 lbs. hay. 2,156 " SOIL SESSION. 107 The average annual unfertilized yield of corn has fallen oflf 3.8 bushels per acre for the second period as compared with the first ; that of oats is 1.6 bushel greater during the second period; that of wheat is I.I bushel smaller; that of clover is 20 pounds greater and that of timothy is 178 pounds smaller. The unfertilized yields above given are the average for the en- tire series of unfertilized plots. In comparing the efifect of the differ- ent fertilizers, however, the yield of each fertilized plot is compared with that of the two unfertilized plots between which it lies, not with the general average. On this basis the land which has received acid phos- phate only is found to have" produced the yields, in excess of those given by the unfertilized land alongside, shown in table III. HI. -AVERAGE INCREASE PER ACRE FROM ACID PHOSPHATE. 5 years— 1894-1898. 7 years— 1899-1905. Corn Oats . . . Wheat- Clover... Timothy 3.96 bus. grain, 3 lbs. stover. 5.34 " " 83 " straw. 3.14 " " 426 " 389 lbs. hay. 186 (I I ( 9.67 bus. grain, 304 lbs. stover. 10.44 " " 412 " straw, 10.25 " " 884 " 285 lbs. hay. 67 " ' • If we value corn at 40 cents per bushel, oats at 30 cents, wheat at 80 cents, hay at 8. dollars per ton, corn stover at 3 dollars and straw at 2 dollars, the increase produced by a total application of 320 pounds of acid phosphate, costing about $2.40, will have a total average value of $8.44 per acre for each rotation during the first 5 years, and of $18.20 per acre during the 7-year period following, leaving a net gain, after deducting the cost of the fertilizer, $6.04 per acre for the first period and $15.82 per acre for the second. On that portion of the land fertilized with both acid phosphate and muriate of potash the increase has been as shown in table IV. IV.-AVEUAGE INCREASE PER ACRE FROM ACID PHOSPHATE AND MURIATE OF POTASH. . - Corn Oats Wheat... Clover . . Timothy 5 years— 1894-1898. 7 years— 1899-1905. 7.21 bus. grain, 285 lbs. stover. 6.87 " " 277 '• straw. 5.22 •• " 465 " 806 lbs. hay. 1,130 " 15.80 bus. grain, 692 lbs. stover. 14.70 " " 623 " straw. 11.16 " " 896 " 526 lbs. hay. 441 " " io8 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. Using the same valuation as before, the increase from the com- bination of acid phosphate with muriate of potash has had a total value for each rotation of $18.02 per acre during the first period, and of $26.08 during the second. Deducting the cost of the fertilizer we have a net gain of $9.12 per acre for the first period and of $17.18 for the second. When nitrate of soda has been substituted for muriate of potash the increase has been as shown in table V. V.-AVERAGE INCREASE PER ACRE FRJM ACID PHOSFHATE AND NITRATE OF SODA. 5years-1894-1898. 7 years— 1899-1905. Corn 9.65 bus. grain, 217 lbs. stover. 16.73 bus. grain, iJOO lbs. stover. Oats 8.26 " " 299 " straw. 6.81 " " 893 " 19 62 " " 789 " straw. Wheat 16.07 " ' 1,503 " Clover 1.066 lbs. hay. 916 lbs. hay. Timothy 607 " " 786 " •• The increase from this combination thus shows a total value for each rotation of $19.98 for the first period and of $35.24 for the second, leaving a net value of $5.58 for the first period and of $20.84 ^of the second. On the land receiving the complete fertilizer, made up of acid phosphate, muriate of potash and nitrate of soda, the increase has been as shown in table VI. VI.-WERAGE INCREASE PER ACRE FROM COMPLETE FERTILIZER. 5 years— 1894-189S. 7years-1899-1905. Corn . . . Oats Wheat... Clover.. Timothy 10.72 bus. grain, 323 lbs. stover. 12.92 " " 609 " straw. 10.73 " " 1,331 " 1,033 lbs. hay. 613 " " 20.08 bus. grain, 7K0 lbs. stover. 22.86 " " 1.015 " straw. 18.91 " " I.Pol " 1,121 lbs. hay. reo " The total value of the increase in this case amounts to $25.72 lor the first period and $42.47 for the second, leaving a net value of $4.82 for the first period and $21.57 for the second. It will be observed that in every case the fertilizers have produced a very much greater increase in the cereal crops during the second period than during the first, while the hay crops have shown a marked falling oflf in the rate of increase during the second period, except where nitrate son, SESSION, 109 of soda entered into the composition of the fertiHzer. In 1900 and since, Hme has been applied to one half the land in this experiment as it was being prepared for corn, with the result that the limed land has shown a somewhat greater yield of corn, oats and wheat, followed by a very much larger yield of clover and timothy than the unlimed land. It now appears probable that if all the land had been limed once in each rotation, at the rate of a ton of lime to the acre, not only the unfertilized yields but also the total and net increase from the fertilizers on all the crops would have been considerably greater than it has been. Taking the experiment as it stands, we see that acid phosphate has been decidedly the most effective of the three fertilizing materials used in producing increase of crop in the cereals. Ordinarly we assume that the only element of value in acid phosphate is phosphorus, but the ques- tion may be raised whether, in this soil, hungry for lime as it has been shown to be, the lime carried in the acid phosphate may not have con- tributed to the increase of crop. It is true that since the use of lime was begun the limed ends of the unfertilized plots have given an average yield of corn, 10 bushel^ to the acre greater than that given by the un- limed ends, but this yield has been further increased by 11 bushels per the acre on the limed ends, against 12 bushels on the unlimed ends, on the plots receiving acid phosphate only, thus indicating that the lime in the acid phosphate has played but a very small part in the increase pro- duced by this material. Muriate of potash and nitrate of soda, whether used separately or in combination, have produced a comparatively small effect and have been used at a pecuniary loss unless combined with the phosphate, yet the addition of these substances to the phosphate produces not only a greater total yield but also a greater net gain than that derived from any partial fertilizer, notwithstanding the fact that the cost of the complete fertilizer is eight times as great as that of the acid phosphate alone. The actual total yields, for the two periods, of the land receiving this complete fertilizer are given in table VII. Vrr. -AVERAGE TOTAL YIELDS PER ACRE FROM COMPLETE FERTILIZERS. 5 years— 1894-1898. 7 years— 1899-1905. Corn Oats Wheat .. Clover . . Timothy 41.3 bus. grain, 1,821 lbs. stover. 43.6 " " 1.809 lbs. straw. 20.5 " " 2,356 " 2,740 lbs. hay. 2.943 " " 48.3 bus. grain, 2,160 lbs. stover. 55.7 " " 2,203 " straw. 27.0 " •' 2,788 " 3,107 lbs. hay. 3,421 " " lio MISSOURI AGRICULTURAt. REPORT. In Other words, the presistent use of a complete chemical fertilizer of very high grade, on crops grown in systematic rotation, has brought up this run down farm to such a state of productiveness that it is now producing, as a 7-year average, more than 47 bushels of corn and 55 bushels of oats to the acre, 27 bushels of wheat, and more than a ton and a half of hay, and while bringing the land up to this point the fertilizer not only paid for itself, but has paid a high annual rental on the land besides. The question will naturally arise, whether the fertilizing materials have been used in this test in the most economical proportions to each other, and especially whether a larger proportion of phosphorus to nitro- gen might not have been employed to advantage. This question is partially answered by one of the plots in this experiment on which, for the last 7 years, the total dressing of acid phosphate has been increased to 480 pounds, and that of nitrate of soda has been reduced to 240 pounds for the rotation, the quantity of muriate of potash remaining unchanged ; this change reducing the cost of the fertilizer to $16.10 for the entire rotation. The result is given in table VIII. VIII. -AVERAGE TOTAL YIELD AND INCREASE PER ACRE FRO.M COMPLETE FERTILIZER WITH MORE PHOSPHORUS AND LESS NITROGEN. V years-1899-1905. Total yield per acre. Increase per acre. Corn Oats Wheat 49.5 bus. grain, 2,361 lbs. stover. 5L3 " " 2.29a " straw. 23.0 " •• 2.'J0J " 2,503 lbs. buy. 2,8:« " 20.89 bus. grain, 80.^ lbs. stover. 23.53 '• " 1.140 " straw. 15.48 " " 1,433 " Clover Timothy 766 lb. bay. 685 '■ •' It will be observed that the total yields from this combination are smaller in everp crop exccj;t the com than from the one carrying nunc nitrogen and less phosphorous. The increase appears slightly larger in the corn and oats crops, but the wheat and hay crops show the opposite effect, and the net value of the increase, which amounts to $21.32, is slightly smaller than from the more expensive fertilizer. On the other hand, is it possible to still further increase the nitrogen in the fertilizer to advantage? This question has been put to test on a plot which has received for each rotation 720 pounds of nitrate of soda — 240 pounds on each of the cereal crops — combined with the standard son, SESSION. TIT application of 3:20 pounds acid phosphate and 260 pounds muriate of potash, the cost of the total application being raised to $26.90 for each rotation. The results arc shown in table IX. IX. -AVERAGE TOTAL YIELD AND INOKEASE PER ACRE FROM COMPLETE FER- TILIZER WITH LARGER AMOUNT OF NITRATE OF SODA. 7 years- 1899-1905. Total yield per acre. Increase per acre. Corn 49.9 bus. grain, 3,333 lbs. stover. 55.3 "..^ " 3.375 " straw.. 38.7 " " 2,796 " 3,097 lbs. hay. 3,403 " 31.30 bus. grain, 822 lbs. stover. Oats... Wneat 22.24 " " 1,15 J " Straw. 80.55 " " 1,941 " Clover Timothy 1,152 lbs. liay. 939 " " The aggregate value of the increase from this fertilizer amounts to $44.28, or a little more than from the smaller applications, but the additional cost of the fertilizer is so much greater that the net gain is reduced to $17.38. It appears, therefore, that the dressing of 160 pounds of nitrate of soda per acre, or one pound per square rod, repeated three times in the course of a 5-year rotation, has not been excessive, but has, in fact, given a larger net gain than either a smaller or a larger quantity. For more convenient comparison the results for the last 7 years are summarized in table X. X. -SUMMARY OF TABLES II TO IX. Fertilizers per acre. Kind. Quan- tity. Cost. Value of in- crease. Total. Net. Acid phosphate. Acid phosphate.. . Muriate of potasli. Acid pliosphate. Nitrate of soda . Acid phosphate... Muriate of potasli Nitrate of soda... Acid phosphate Muriate of potash. Nitrate of soda ... Acid phosphate... Muriate of potash. Nitrate of soda .. . Lbs. 330 $2 40 $■8 30 320; 260 i 8 90 36 08 320 ( 480)' 14 40 35 24 320) 260 ■ 480 i 30 90 42 47 480 i 260 - 240 j 16 10 37 43 330) 360 V 720 i 26 90 44 32 $15 80 17 18 20 84 21 57 21 32 17 43 Next to nitrogen, potassium has been the most expensive element of the fertilizer. If we compare the increase from acid phosphate alone 112 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. with that from acid phosphate and muriate of potash ; or that from acid phosphate and nitrate of soda, with that from the complete fertihzer,. wc find that in both cases the cost of he muriate of potash has been more than recovered in the additional increase from the fertilizer, but the margin of profit has been small. We have as yet no data from which to determine definitely whether a smaller application of potassium would have been more economical, but the results of the experiment would encourage the endeavor to find a cheaper source of potassium, rather than to reduce the quantity used, and this is equally true of nitrogen. Taking the combination of fertilizers which has produced the greatest net gain, we note that it consists of 320 pounds of acid phosphate, cost- ing $2.40, 260 pounds of muriate of potash, costing $6.50, and 4.8;) pounds of nitrate of soda, costing $12.00, or $18.50 for potassium and nitrogen, against $2.40 for phosphorus. The total value of the increase from this combination has been 42.47, leaving a net value of $21.57 ^^ter paying for the expensive fertilizer used ; but if only the phosphorous had been bought, the nitrogen and potassium being secured on the farm without cost — as they may be — the net profit would have been $40 i)er acre for the 5-year period, instead of $21. IV. THE FARM SUPPLY OF NITROGEN AND POTASSIUM. Since 1897 there has been in progress on the same farm on whicli the experiments above described are located, a 3-year rotation of corn, wheat and clover, each crop in this case, as in the other, being grown every season after the first. The average unfertilized yields in this test have been as wollows : XI. -AVERAGE UNFERTILIZED YIELDS IN 3 YEAR ROTATION OF CORN, WHEAT AND CLOVER FOR THE 9 YEARS. J897-1905. Oorn (9 years)... Wheat {i years). Oiover* .. I 37.4 bus. Rralu, 2.198 lbs. stover. 8.9 " •' L02-J " l,96:i lbs. Iiiy. •For the 5 years, 1901-199). Sjy beans were grown Instead of clover during the first 3 years and these were plowed under. It will be observed that, the unfertilized \ itld of corn in this experi- ment has been several bushels larger than in the rotation first described, the corn in the shorter rotation being grown on clover sod, in the longer one on timothy sod. The wlieat yields are practically the same in the two tests, if we compare on the basis of the entire 1 2-year period of the SOIL SESSION. 113 longer rotation. The clover yields are a little larger in the shorter rota- tion. Two series of plots in this experiment have been manured for each corn crop with cattle manure, that used on the one series being manure which had lain in an open barnyard for several months during the winter, while that for the other series has been taken directly to the field from box stalls, where it has been trampled under foot while accumulating. If there has been any dilterence in the feed from which the manure was made it has been in favor of the open yard manure. The manure has been used in all cases at the rate of 8 tons per acre. It is spread on the clover sod in the spring and plowed under. The wheat and clover follow without any further manuring or fertilizing. Manure not only wastes by leaching when exposed to the weather, but it is also subjected to heavy losses of ammonia when so managed that heating and consequent chemical action take place. Moreover, the fact tliat phosphatic fertilizers produce such a remarkable effect on many soils which have been long in cultivation, indicates that ordinary farm manure is either deficient in phosphorus, or that its phosphorus becomes relatively less available to crops than its nitrogen and potassium. In the hope of obtaining suggestions as to the practicability of diminishing the loss of ammonia on the one hand, and of rendering the nitrogen and potassium of the manure more effective by increasing the supply of phosphorus on the other, the following treatment has been given to lots of each kind of manure — yard and stall — since the beginning of this experiment. One lot of each kind has been dusted with gypsum, or land plaster, and another lot with kainit, a crude potash salt, these substances having been shown to be useful in arresting escaping ammonia ; a third lot has been treated with floats, the finely ground, phosphatic rock from which acid phosphate is made by the addition of sulphuric acid, and a fourth lot with acid phosphate itself, these materials being used on the as- sumption that they would probably be as efficient as gypsum or kainit in arresting ammonia, and would have the further advantage of re-enforc- ing the manure with phosphorus. In the use of the floats a further object was to learn whether this material, which is almost completely in- soluble in its ordinary condition, might not be rendered soluble by the fermentation of the manure, and thus obviate the necessity of treating it with acid. These various materials have been applied to the manure in the spring, usually in March or early in April, at the uniform rate of 40 A -8 114 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. pounds per ton of manure ; manure being taken from the open barnyard where it had lain during the winter, for the "'yard manure" series, and from box stalls, where it had been accumulating for several months, for the "stall manure" series. After dusting the manure with the various materials it has been allowed to lie in heaps for a few weeks, when it has been spread on the clover sod and plowed under for corn. This method of leaving the treatment until spring has been followed in order to make sure of using the same quantity of each material on uniform lots of manure. It is believed that the better way, as a farm practice, is to use the conserving materials daily in the stables, while the manure is accumulating, in order to have them in contact with the manure as long as possible before it is drawn to the field. This is believed to apply especially to floats, as it would seem most desirable that this material should be subjected for a considerable time to the direct action of the manure. The results of this test for the last six years, omitting the first rotation, as in the other test, are given in table XII. XII. -TREATMENT OF FARM MANURE: SIX-YEAR AVERAGE INCREASE PER ACRE, COST OF TREATMENT AND VALUE OF INCREASE. Manure and treatment. Cost of treat- ment. Increase per acre. Corn. Wheat. Ear- corn bus. Stover. Grain lbs. bus. Straw lbs. Hay lbs. Value of increase. Total per acre. Net per acre. Per ton of man- ure. Yard manure untreated . . With gypsum With kainit With floats With acid phosphate Stall manure untreated.. With gypsum With kainit With floats With acid phosphate $1 28 2 72 1 28 2 40 1 28 2 72 1 28 2 40 15.45 20.99 21.37 22.22 28.60 21.6t> 24.20 26.31 28.95 31.94 837 1,166 1,328 1,3;9 1,388 1.281 1.530 1,736 1,768 1,765 8.87 13.40 12.21 14.51 15.70 11.32 14.18 14.93 17.23 17.68 924 1,314 1,174 1,384 1,506 1,126 1,502 1.611 1,697 1,774 686 1,022 1,293 1,727 1,826 1.309 1,331 1,948 2.504 2,648 $18 20 26 27 26 65 28 71 34 89 26 00 30 15 34 47 38 73 41 93 $18 20 24 99 23 93 27 43 32 49 26 00 28 87 31 75 37 45 39 53 40 27 3 12 2 99 ^ 43 4 06 3 25 3 til 3 97 4 68 4 94 This table shows that 320 pounds of acid phosphate and 8 tons of stall manure, used in combination, have produced every 3 years, as the average of six 3-year rotations, a total increase to the value of $41.93, or within a few cents of the same amount as that produced in 5 years by the same quantity of acid phosphate in combination with 260 pounds of muriate of potash and 480 pounds of nitrate of soda. Our analyses indicate that the 8 tons of manure have carried about the same quantity SOIL SESSION. 115 of nitrogen as that found in 480 pounds of nitrate of soda, but consid- erably less potassium than would be carried in 260 pounds of muriate of potash. It appears, therefore, that these constituents of fertility are at least as effective in fresh stable manure, from well fed cattle, as in the two chemicals used in these experiments, and which are among the most effective, and at the same time the cheapest of commercial carriers of nitrogen and potash, respectively, provided the manure be re-enforced with a supply of readily available phosphorus. The cost of nitrate of soda and muriate of potash at retail, freight paid to Ohio, is about 21-2 cents per pound, so that the 8 tons of manure has replaced chemicals costing $18.50. It is true that it costs more to apply stable manure than commercial fertilizers, but after making full allowance on this point we still have a value of at least $2.00 per ton for the manure, as compared with com- mercial fertilizers of equal efficiency in crop production. THE PRODUCTION OF MANURE. In feeding experiments at the Ohio station, a careful record has- been kept of feed and bedding consumed, of increase in live weight and of manure produced. These experiments have shown that, under average- conditions, the increase in live weight should pay for the feed consumed:: and labor of feeding, leaving the manure as clear gain. The production« of manure has been 35 to 42 pounds per day for a 1000- pound steer,, exclusive of bedding, and the bedding has averaged 7 to 7 1-2 pounds per day. Under average conditions it is safe to estimate the manure pro- duction of a looo-pound steer at not less than 40 pounds per day, in- clusive of bedding, or 3 1-2 tons for a feeding period of 6 months. The manure from two steers, therefore, would give an application of 7 tons- to an acre of land. In the experiments last described, manure has been used at the- rate of 8 tons per acre, and it is applied once in 3 years. Untreated yard manure has also been used on two plots in the 5-year rotation first described, being applied to the corn and wheat crops, at the rate of 8- tons and 4 tons per acre. Taking the results from the last 7 years and' using the same valuations that have been used in other cases, the larger application has produced a total increase to the value of $34.42 for each rotation, or $2.15 per ton of manure — a value slightly below that found from the same kind of manure in the 3-year rotation — while the smaller application has given a total increase worth $22.19, o^ %'^-77 P^^ ton of: Il6 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. manure. In other words, the increase per acre is larger from the larger application of manure, but the increase per ton of manure is larger from the smaller one ; hence, when the manure supply is scanty it is advisable to spread it more thinly than when it is abundant, but table XII shows that one ton of manure treated with phosphate rock and taken directly from the stable to the field may produce a greater increase than two tons of the yard manure used in the experiment just described. In conclusion : My study of the soil has led me to the belief that the plants we cultivate have but Uttle greater ability to obtain ' mineral sub- stances required for their growth directly from the sand and clay of the soil than they have to obtain their nitrogen directly from the free nitro- gen of the atmosphere, but that, in the one case as in the other, their supplies are chiefly drawn from stores accumulated and made available through the agency of microscopic organisms existing in the soil, and whose work has been going on for countless ages. Our statistics of crop production show that the average agricultural practice of our time is tending toward the steady exhaustion of this accumulated store of fertility, while experimental data show that it is possible to secure a very much larger average yield than that ordinarily secured, and that this may be accomplished at a lower relative cost than is now required to produce the average crop. These data also show that, while it is possible to bring up the rate of production of a run-down soil to a point exceeding that of its virgin condition by the intelligent use of chemical fertilizers, and to do this at a cost which will leave a margin of profit, yet the same result may be attained more certainly and at a very much smaller cost by the production and well informed use of animal manures, re-enforced with such fertili- zing materials as may be required to more perfectly adapt these manures to the soils on which they are employed. DISCUSSION. Gov- Colman: Do you believe that lime is an antidote for what is termed throughout Ohio "clover sickness?" Mr. Thorne: Yes, it is. Mr. Wilhite : We have some land in this country where clover will not grow. Mr. Thorne: What kind of land is it? Dr. Waters: It is free stone land — the thinner lime-stone land that has been cultivated for a long time. Mr. Thorne : That land has been stirred up and the surface turned over and over again and the lime has been pumped out by hard rotations SOIL SESSION, 117 of corn, oats, wheat and timothy, and the lime is being exhausted, and it will eventually all be exhausted even from limestone soils. Gov. Colman: Have you tried phosphorus on clover land? Mr. Thorne : Yes, but we are not getting a good stand of clover. There is not enough lime in an ordinary fertilizer to take the place of the lime that has been exhausted from the soil. It is more economical to buy the lime than to buy it in the fertilizer. The phosphorus rock costs $8 a ton and lime only about $5, and where lime accomplishes the same purpose it is best to use it. Dr. Waters : Before you leave the lime question, let me say in our soil survey we have found one soil in Southern Missouri, known com- monly as post oak flats, which shows a very little of Hme in the first ten inches of soil ; and the subsoil shows only a trifle of lime. That soil will have to be drilled for lime before it can be made to grow these legumes, won't it ? Mr. Thorne : Yes ; clover is the chief crop to show the deficiency of liinc. For a crop of clover it takes 50 pounds of lime ; for wheat about 7 or 8 pounds. Gov. Colman : Is it possible to get too much lime in the soil ? Mr. Thorne : Yes, there is great danger of that. It is possible to apply so much lime as to entirely efface the effect w^e wish to accomp- lish and make the land unfit for cropping for some time. We are using one ton of lime to the acre ; we have soil which requires twice that amount — two tons to the acre. When we go beyond that amount, we begin to see the opposite effect. Mr. : Do you apply lime before or after sowing the seed ? Mr. Thorne: As long before as possible. We have strong evi- dence that the proximity of the lime to the seed is injurious, and we want to keep them as far apart as we can. Dr. Waters : Before we plant the seed and before we cultivate the land ? Mr. Thorne : Yes. Mr. : Where you put too much lime on the ground, how long will it take it to get over that ? Mr. Thorne : I know^ of an instance in our state where a man put too much lime on his soil five or six years ago, and it is still in the same condition as then ; has not recovered yet. Mr. : How do you remedy it? Mr. Thorne : By plowing deeper and putting on manure. Dr. Waters : The best plan is not to do it in the first place. Mr. Thorne: Yes. It is a waste of time and a waste of crop. ^Il8 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. Because a little of a thing is good, it does not necessarily follow that a great deal is better. Mr. Boles: Have you ever tried putting lime on the ground with a seed sower put on behind the wagon? Mr. Thorne: No, we have never tried that. I doubt whether you could put on enough that way — when it comes to putting on two tons to the acre. That is the trouble with the fertilizer drill. It does not put x>n enough. While on this question, I will say that there are several kinds of lime on the market. Since it has been found in our state that lime is in demand, there has been an effort made to sell an inferior lime — an air-slacked lime of no value. The lime you w^ant is the common build- ers' lime. Mr. Boles : Will it pay to use the lime that has been drawn out of the kiln for six or eight years ? Mr. Thorne: Yes, it is all right to use. But let me call your attention again to this point. Don't lime unless your land needs liming. Alfalfa is much more sensitive to a lack of lime than to it. We cannot grow alfalfa on our land until we lime the land. Where you can grow clover luxuriantly you do not need lime. Don't waste your time on lime while the clover is growing luxuriantly ; but when clover begins to show this sickness, then is the time to begin to think about lime, and a pound oi lime will answer the question. 'THE MAINTENANCE OF SOIL FERTILITY IN GRAIN FARM- ING. (Prof. J. II. Pettlt, Department of Agronomy and Chemistry. OoUege of Agriculture, Urbana, Illinois.) We commonly consider that the yield of a crop depends upon si.x fundamental factors. These are the seed, the soil in the sense of a home or lodging place for the plant, plant food, heat, light and moisture. Some of these factors are at least partially under the control of the farmer. This Association of Missouri Corn Growers recognizes the great im- portance of good seed corn, and has done and is doing much toward its improvement and so, indirecetly, toward increasing Missouri's corn yield. The thorough farmer recognizes the importance of drainage in order to control the moisture supply of the soil and the importance of maintaining .it^rJ^T/*'^ ja to 3 O to es -3 OS a :S a o sc o n :3 SOIL SESSION. 121 the supply of organic matter in order to keep the soil porous and in a good workable condition as well as to prevent excessive washing. We know that heat, light, and moisture, factors which we cannot control ab- solutely, are necessary to the germination of the seed and to the growth of the plant. We are familiar with the fact that the corn rows show up across the lower and darker places of the field earlier than they da on the higher and lighter ground. The darker area is warmer and sa offers more advantageous conditions for the rapid germination of the seed. We can, by controlling the organic matter, control to some ex- tent both heat and moisture in the soil. We are all familiar with the fact that most plants will not grow normally in the dark and that long bright days encourage rapid growth. But the members of ^Missouri's Live Stock Association know that, though you may have the best pedigreed pig in the cleanest of pens with the proper supply of heat, sunlight, and water, unless you have food in the trough and food in proper proportions you will never have an animal for the show ring, to say nothing of an animal which will put dollars and cents into your pocket over the scales. Our plants are like our animals. It is a most excellent thing that they have a long pedigree and that they be grown upon a soil which is so drained and cultivated as to make it a good home for them, and in a climate affording sufficient heat, light, and moisture, but unless they have food and food in proper proportions, they will never make the most vigorous, well developed, and profitable plants. As individual farmers and handlers of land we want to know how to succeed in the particular kind of farming which we are doing, so that we may be assured of maintaining, and when necessary, of increasing the supply of plant food in our soils, and by this means, together with im- proved seed, drainage, rotation, and good cultivation, we may perman- ently maintain, and even increase, the productive capacity of our indi- vidual farms so that those who come after us will not be the loser be- cause we have preceded them. This morning we are to consider this subject from the standpomD of the grain farmer, and there is no doubt that the grain farmer has a greater problem than has the dairy or live stock farmer ; for the latter feed the crops grown on their own farms, together with more or less of their neighbor's ; only small quantities of plant food are sold in this way, the greater part being returned to the soil in manure which benefits- the physical conditions of the soil as well. However, it must inevitably remain true that over fifty per cent of our farmers must be grain farmers in order that the human family may have its grain ration and in order 122 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. that the stockman and dairyman may have the grain which they feed in addition to that which they raise. Among the first essentials to successful grain farming so far as present knowledge goes, is the adoption of, and the close adherence to a rotation adapted to the local conditions. The injurious effects of con- tinous grain cropping are known not only to those who have followed the development of agriculture through history but even to those who •have seen the development of the corn belt in the last quarter of a cen- tury. The rotation not only effects the physical condition of the soil, but it furnishes a very practical means of combating insect ravages and fungous diseases which prey upon any particular crop, and it may also bring about favorable changes in the plant food content, in fact by the use of a legume, as clover ar cowpeas, in the rotation, the supply of one element of plant food, nitrogen, may be actually increased. There are necessary for the development and growth of every plant ■ten of these elements of plant food ; some of these are in the air about the plant, others are in the water, and still others are in the soil in such large proportions that they do not limit the yield. There are three of •the ten, however, which, on account of their limited supply in some soils •and because they are removed in comparatively large quantities by all crops, must be considered in connection with the crop producing power of soils. These three are nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. In •the atmosphere over every acre of land there is, if valued at fifteen cents a pound, more than $10,000,000 worth of nitrogen. Most plant life, however, cannot draw upon this inexaustable supply, but must de- pend upon the liberation of nitrogen from the organic matter of the soil. Nature has, however, given us one class of plants called the le- gumes (to which class the clovers, vetches, alfalfa, peas, beans, the locust tree, and several others belong), which, through the bacteria living in the nodules upon their roots, can obtain nitrogen from the air. Those scientists, who some years ago proved beyond a doubt that through legumes we can draw at will upon the inexhaustable supply of nitrogen in the air, settled forever the nitrogen question so far as exten- sive farming is concerned. Nitrogen on the market in the form of dried blood, sodium nitrate, and other commercial fertilizers, costs fifteen cents per pound, and there is one pound of it in every bushel of corn, and more than a pound in every bushel of wheat. This means that the corn grower and the wheat grower cannot afford to buy nitrogen, but must depend upon a rotation in which occurs one or more of these legume crops as full crops and as catch crops to be plowed under in order to maintain the supply of nitrogen in the soil. To be assured of success in the growing SOIL SESSION. 123 -of these legumes, we must know that the soil contains the proper bacteria (the same bacteria will not produce nodules upon all legumes) and we .must know that these bacteria will not develop well in a sour or acid soil ; indeed, some of them will develop scarcely at all under these conditions. If the soil is sour, an application of fine ground limestone or air-slacked burnt lime must be made to destrov this sourness. Limestone is here not a food for the plant, but it makes the conditions such that the bac- teria can develop and supply the plant with nitrogen, which will be added to the soil in the crop residues or in the crop which is turned under. The other two elements, phosphorous and potasium, are both mmeral ele- ments coming from the soil itself, and no rotation nor the growing of any particular plant can increase the total stock of these elements. The most that may be done is to bring about a transformation which will make them more available to succeeding crops. The only way in which we can increase the existing supply of either of these elements is to buy some material which contains the element and apply this to the soil. We know that when we grain farmers remove one hundred bushels of corn from an acre of ground, leaving the stalks on the ground, we are taking away from that acre one hundred pounds of nitrogen, seventeen pounds of phosphorous, and nineteen pouds of potassium. We cosider it good farming when, by means of improved seed, good rotation, and good cultivation, we can take off one hundred bushels of corn from an acre; and so it is, but we want to go a step farther; we want to know if this system is always going to maintain itself ; will it always be pos- sible to get, annually, such amounts of plant food out of an acre of ground? Let me say that two-thirds of the nitrogen, three- fourths of the phosphorous, and one-fourth of the potassium necessary to produce the whole corn plant are in the grain, the part sold from the farm in ■grain farming. We have seen that a rotation including sufficient clover or other legumes will solve the nitrogen part of the problem for us. This rota- tion does still another important thing. It is the means of keeping the supply of organic matter or decaying vegetable matter in the soil. Chop- ing up and turning under corn stalks, as well as getting back into the soil 3.\\ of the oat and wheat straw, aid in this respect. This organic matter is one of the things which are most easily worked out of the soil by a system of grain farming in which cereals alone are grown, and in which stalks and straw are burned. At the same time, it is a most important factor in the productive power of a soil. It keeps the soil porous and well aerated, in a good workable condition, it improves its moisture holding capacity so that it will not suft'er from drouth to the same extent 124 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. as the soil low in organic matter; it tends to prevent surface washings which is an important consideration on the more rolling lands in this State, and by its decay it breaks down the minerals of the soil con- taining the elements of plant food phosphorous and potassium, and so putting these in such a form that the plant can get them. In short, or- ganic matter obtained largely and most easily by means of a good rota- tion, is a very important means in the hands of the land manager where- b}' he is enabled to get out of the soil the things of which crops are made. It is the business of the farmer then to see to it that his soil is well sup- plied wih these minerals containing phosphorous and potassium, and then, by a practical system of farming, to work out each year an amount sufficient for large crop yields. I want to make some very general comparisons between Illinois soils and Missouri soils, to show, roughly, the location of similar types in the two States. In general, our soils, as are yours, are glacial or loessial in character. We have in the southern part of Illinois in twenty-five coun- ties east of St. Louis, a so-called "white clay." This is a gray silt soil, usu- ally ocupying flat areas, is not naturally under-drained, its subsoil being more or less nearly impervious. The lighter and more level prairie soil of Northeast Missouri is evidenth' quite similar to this soil. In the extreme southern part of Illinois we have seven counties of an unglaciated, but loess-covered soil. This is a reddish yellow silt loam and occupies more or less broken land. You have considerable of this kind of soil south ot the Missouri river; it is locally called "red clay.'' Then, in northwest and north Central Missouri, you have in the darker prairie soils types very similar to the corn belt soils of Central and Southern Illinois. The most common type is a gently rolling brown silt loam, naturally well surface-drained. In addition there are in Illinois, and possibly in Mis- souri, larger or smaller areas of peaty swamp soils and sandy soils. These similarities are, of course, very general. I think that it will be well for have them in mind, however, while wc consider some definite results ob- tained on Illinois soils. In our State during the last four years, we have analyzed chemically hundreds of samples of these different types of soils ; we have grown crops upon them as they exist in twenty-five diflferent parts of the State, and we have grown crops upon smaller amounts of the soils in the pot- culture laboratory at Urbana. As general results, we find in the gray silt loam and in the brown silt loam enough potassium in the first seven inches of each acre to grow a hundred bushels of corn each year for more than a thousand years, and the supply increases as we go into the subsoil. On the other hand, on the brown silt loam sixty, and on the SOIL SESSION. 125 gray silt loam forty, such crops of corn would require as much phos- phorous as is contained in one acre to a depth of seven inches, and the stock decreases as we go down. In the field, the application of potassium on the brown silt loam does not affect the yield of corn, but steamed bone meal, supplying phosphorous, increases the yield from ten to eigh- teen bushels per acre. On the gray silt loam, which is naturally a wheat soil rather than a corn soil, the same application of steamed bone meal gives an increase of ten to twenty bushels in the yield of wheat. On these soils, comprising about eighty per cent of Illinois soils, phosphor- ous is the limiting element of plant food ; that is, when the season, the rainfall, the rotation and the seed used are such as to insure a maximum crop, the shortage on phosphorus may hold the yield down. In peaty swamp soils, on the other hand, the supply of potassium is short, while the phosphorus content is almost twice that of the brown silt loam. Field results on this soil show no increase from the use of steamed bone meal to supply phosphorus, while $2.50 worth of potassium sulphate has increased the yield from less than ten to sixty and seventy bushels of corn per acre. (See plate one.) In the sandy soils and on the red silt loam hill land we find, by chem- ical analysis, still another condition, a shortage first of all in nitrogen. On these soils dried blood to supply nitrogen or legumes plowed under, thus drawing upon the atmospheric nitrogen, increases the yield. By this means alone the yield of corn has been increased from twenty-five or thirty bushels to fifty and sixty bushels. Neither phosphorus nor potas- sium alone affects the yield of corn on these soils. But after the yield has been brought up to fifty and sixty bushels by the use of legumes, as clover or cowpeas, then it tis likely that phosphorus, which is somewhat low, can be profitably used. In fact, steamed bone meal will now in- crease the yield of wheat profitably upon the red silt loam. It is esential, then, that we have some knowledge of the plant food content of our soils, which may limit the crop yield and then adopt and follow a system of farming which will maintain, and, when necessary, increase the supply of any element. Let me call your attention to the results of different systems of farming, as obtained upon the brown silt loam of the Illinois corn belt. Some of these fields have been under definite experimentation for twenty- seven years. The figures showing the yields, all represent the average of the last three seasons, with the exception of the forty-three bushel yield, v/hich is the average of two corn crops during the past three seasons, and the fifty-nine bushel yield, which is for the single year 1904. The 1904 126 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL RETORT. TABLE NO. I. Latest corn yields from the University of Illioois Soil Experiment Fields at Urbaaa. Orop rotation practiced. Soil treatment applied. Bushels corn, 3 year average. Corn 27 years, 1879-1905 None None None 25 Pasture 16 vears. corn 11 vears 42 Corn a.nd oa.ts 27 vears 43 Pasture 16 years, corn and oats, 11 years Oorn, oats and clover, 27 years Pasture 16 years, corn, oats and clover 11 years Same as above . . . .... None None . 59 None 77 Lime 78 Same as above Lime and phosphorus Lime, phosphorus and potassium 89 Sameasabove 91 yield with the same rotation started i6 years later, was seventy-five bushels {yy bushels for three-year average). The figures at the top of the table show how comparatively easy it is to lower the producing power of a soil. These plots are on good land, well surface drained^ and tile drained. They are all in a twenty-acre field of naturally uniform land; they were planted at the same time with the same good seed corn^ received the same cultivation, and were subject to the same seasonal conditions, the only difference being in the rotation practiced and, on some of them, in the treatment applied. You will notice the varying yields resulting, first, from following the three rotations — continuous corn, corn and oats, and corn, oats and clover — second, from continuing these same rotations sixteen years longer on one set of plots than on the other. Let me call your attention in particular to the effect of this very desirable rotation, corn, oats and clover, upon this soil. It is quite commonly thought that such a rota- tion will indefinitely maintain the producing power of a soil. The facts do not show this, however, for, where followed for eleven years, this rotation has given a yield of seventy-seven bushels as an average for the last three, but where this same rotation has been followed for six- teen years longer, the yield has been reduced to fifty-nine bushels. To be sure, strictly grain farming has been followed upon these plots, no stock has been fed and no manure has been returned. But it is upon the subject of grain farming that I have been asked to speak. Let me say, that we have yet to find a soil in Illinois whose producing power can be indefinitely maintained by crop rotation alone. A rotation in which we have such a crop as clover producing larger corn yields is simply a mearrs SOIL SESSION. 127- of getting more plant food out of the soil, and so running out the faster the supply of the limiting plant- food element. Where we have fol- lowed the three-year rotation and have added lime to give us better clover, corn has yielded seventy-eight bushels; the soil is not sour to any marked degree. On the next plot to which steamed bone meal has been, applied, the yield gave but two bushels more. Both of these applica- tions have cost annually seven bushels of 35 cent corn. In the case of the phosphorus plot, we have paid for the treatment, and have four bushels of corn clear profit. The important thing here, however, is not this profit for this year or for next year, but it is that the two-hundred:: pounds of steamed bone meal applied carried phosphorus enough to • grow ICO bushels of corn, and we have taken off but eighty-nine. Plate 2.— Clover after Oats with Lime Treatment. Under this system, not only is the supply of the limiting element phosphorus being increased, thereby building up the soil, but at the same time an actual profit is being returned. The fact is, there is nearly al- ways profit in a system of soil management whereby the productive ca- pacity is gradually and permanently increased. On the other hand, there is ultimate loss in a system which destroys the productive power of a soil, a system on account of which the yield gradually becomes smaller. On this same soil, on June 7, 1905, five plots, without phosphorus, yielded on the average one and one-quarter tons of field-cured clover hay, while five plots, to which phosphorus had been applied, averaged at-. 128 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. the same time a little over three tons per acre (See plates 2 and 3.) ■Clover is a heavy feeder upon phosphorus, and it is specially benefited by an application of steamed bone meal or other carrier of phosphorus. In fact, the effect produced by clover upon succeeding corn crops upon this type of soil is not due entirely, or even largely, to the nitrogen thus added to the soil, as is commonly supposed, but is rather due to the fact that, by the decaying of the clover roots and the second growth turned under, large amounts of the soil's phosphorus are made available for the following crop. We know this because where we apply nitrogen alone in good form, as is dried blood, we do not get an increased yield, while phosphorus by itself will increase the yield. ?!(».'»>■; *^. . '.ij ><^ ,^^IS^i 1 11 ■ »a Plate 3.— Clover after Oats with Lime and Phosphorus Treatment TABLE NO. II. Orop yields In Illinois soil exoerlmaats. Odin field, four year rotation, legume series. Soil treatment applied. Average of '2 scries each year. 1903 wheat, bu. 1901 wheat, bu. 1905 wheat, bu. None Legume catch crop Legume, llrae Legume, llnio, pliosphorous Legume, lime, phosphorus and potassium 1 7 1 7 1 10 10 22 ' 15 1 25 13 18 24 36 32 SOIL SESSION. IJ9 Value of increase and cost of treatment 1903. 1904. 1905. Total for 3 years. Cost for 3 years. For legume For lime For phosphorus For potassium . $6 30 3 50 12 10 8 40 2 10 $3 50 4 20 8 40 2 80 $3 50 6 £0 23 10 2 80 $1 50 7 50* 7 50 *In steamed bone-meal. Notice now, if you will, the effect of treatment on the gray silt loam. (See plates 4 and 5.) The particular field, the results of which are given here, is located at Odin. A four-year rotation of corn, oats, wheat and cowpeas has been followed. For legume treatment catch crops of cowpeas are seeded in the corn at the last cultivation and after the oats and wheat, to be plowed under for the benefit of the land. It should be slated that 1903 was a very poor wheat year, but notwithstanding that Plate 4.— Wheat Crop with Legume and Lime Treatment. fact, phosphorus increased the yield nine bushels. In 1904, and again in 1905, where lime had been applied to destroy the sourness in this soil, legumes did better, and there was more organic matter to plow under, and the increased yield shows the effect. But phosphorus added to this treatment gave a very decided additional increase (12 bushels in 1904 and 12 bushels in 1905). A-9 130 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. The one increase of twenty-three bushels in 1905 for the Hme- legume-phosphorus treatment (from 13 to 36 bushels), has more than paid for the whole three years' treatment. Two tons of fine .s^round limestone, costing now about $2.25 per ton, were applied in the beginning (this application should keep the soil in good condition for growing clover during the next five or six years, when another ton may be needed), and the steamed bone meal has cost $2.50 each year, making Plate 5.— Wheat Crop with Legume, Lime and Phosphorus Treatment. $12 as the total cost of treatment, while the value of the twenty-three bushels for 1905 alone, at 70 cents per bushel, is $16.10. In addition to this we have the increase of nine bushels for 1903, and of fifteen bushels for 1904, as clear gain. But most important of all is the fact that we are putting on more than we are taking off in crops, and the soil is get- ting richer. Let me call your attention to the decreasing effect of potassium. We have an abundant natural supply in the soil, but not much decaying organic matter to make it available. But where the rotation has been followed and more and more organic matter worked into the soil, the effect of adding available potassium decreases from five bushels for the first year, three for the second, to an actual loss of four bushels for the third. The potassium is there in very large amounts, and it is better farming to work it out than it is to buy it. SOIL SESSION. 131 TABLE NO. III. Crop yields on Illinois soil experiments. From Vienna Field on Worn Hill land. Soil treatment applied. Bushels per acre. 1903 corn. 1901 corn. 1905 corn. None Legume eatch crops Legume Lime Legume, lime, phosphorus Legume, lime, phosphorus and potassium. Gain for legume, lime., Value of increase 5 8 7 11 31 36 49 49 45 18 $B 30 38 43 62. 57 57 24 $8 40 Soil treatment applied. T903 wheat. 1904 wheat. 1905 wheat. None Legume catch crops Legume, lime Legume, lime, phosphorus Legume, lime, phosphorus and potassium. Gain for legume, lime and phosphorus. Value of increase 7 1 7 1 10 8 15 11 18 . 8 8 S5 60 $5 60 1 11 1» 26 30 25 $17 50 Upon this red silt loam occupying the worn hills of the extreme southern part of the State, the growing of legumes to increase the nitro- gen content of the soil, is of first importance. An acid condition exists here as well as in the gray silt loam, and the use of from one to two tons of fine ground limestone is advisable in order to get clover to stand and to grow better cowpeas. The first year the season was the limiting factor in production, but in the second and third year the legume and lime treatment has given a substantial increase in corn ; neither phos- phorus nor potassium added to this has increased the yield. The supply of phosphorus is rather low and, undoubtedly, when the nitrogen sup- ply has been brought up, by turning under legumes, phosphorus can then be used with profit. In fact, for the wheat crop, phosphorus can be profitably used from the beginning, as is shown by the increase of sever* bushels the first year, five bushels the second, and eight bushels the third. Allow me to say a word in regard to another good form in which to buy the element phosphorus ; that is in the form of fine ground natural rock phosphate. This material is being taken in large quantities from 132 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. the mines of Tennessee and other Southern states, and do you know that two-thirds of the yearly output, or 1,000,000 tons, are being exported? The farmers of England and Germany know that it takes phosphorus to produce grains profitably. ^Slost of the output which remains in this <:ountry is being manufactured into acid phosphate and then into com- plete fertilizers. These materials are being used in the eastern states •where today we have abandoned farms. They act merely as supplements to the plant food in the soil and as soil stimulators. The cost of manu- facture makes the cost of the plant food elements so high, especially in socalled "complete fertilizers," that the grain farmer cannot afford to replace, by their purchase, the plant food removed in crops. Then, too, the added acid will, in many cases, only intensify our already un- favorable conditions for clover growing. But in the form of steamed bone meal or natural rock phosphate, enough phosphorus can be bought and profitably used to more than replace the phosphorus removed in large crops. About $25.00 in the one case and $8.50 in the other, will buy a ton of material-carrying phosphorus enough for more than 1,000 bushels of corn or wheat. These materials will not injure the soil, in- deed, we have the rock phosphate naturally in the soil. To be sure, the phosphorus in the ground rock phosphate is not readily available, neither is the stock of phosphorus in our soils available, but they can both be made available by decaying organic matter, and I think it is the business of the farmer to do this. Rock phosphate will not give results upon thin worn soils by itself, it must be turned under with farm manure, second growth clover, or anything which will supply decaying organic matter. In this matter of looking after the plant food supply of our soils, we do not believe in letting others do for us that which we can as well do for ourselves. We believe that it is good farm practice and good business to use the natural raw materials at hand, to draw upOn the im- mense supply of nitrogen in ihe air by means of legumes, and, if we are short in one or more of the mineral elements, to get these in the cheapest form possible, apply them to our soils in large excess of crop needs, and then to see to it that we work them out by means of decaying organic matter. I am sure, gentlemen, that if we will study earnestly this matter of the productive power of soils, we will be able to adopt systems of farm- ing upon the soils of. Missouri whereby we can continue to do grain farming, do it profitably, by building up our soils, and at the same time establish here, and in all of this great Central West, a permanent agri- culture. SOIL SESSION. 133 EXPERIMENTS WITH COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS. \ (Prof. H. A. Huston, Chicago, 111.) The last speaker has reHeved me of the necessity of making any extended explanation in regard to some of the principles involved in the use of commercial plant foods. We may pass directly to our sub- ject, and perhaps it may be helpful if we spend a few minutes in con- sidering what the crops remove from the soil, using the wheat plant for an example. A bundle of wheat as it leaves the binder, contains, in addition to a variable amount of water, about 10 pounds of material. By a partic- ularly fortunate provision of nature, the most of this material is de- rived from air and water. \ye may make a rough separation by burn- ing the bundle. Most of it passes off in the form of gases or smoke^ and of the ingredients burned all, with one exception, to which we will refer again, were derived from the air and water. There remains a small quantity of material, commonly called ash, and while it is small, both in bulk and weight, as compared with the whole bundle, being. only about 3.5 per cent, or one-third, of a pound to the bundle, it i& none the less important. There are nine substances present in this ash, which are found to be needed by the plant ; two of them, chlorine and soda, are, perhaps, of less vital importance to most plants, but the others are surely essential to normal plant growth. The quantities of all of these mineral ingredients in the bundle of wheat are shown in these vials, in the form of familiar compounds. For our present purposes we might set aside the silica, iron, magnesia, soda, sulphur and chlorine, since every ordinary soil will furnish these in abundance, and they are never applied as plant foods, and when present in fertilizer mixtures no money value is attached to them. The same is true of lime, which is never applied to land for the purpose of furnishing plant food, al- though it is frequently used to great advantage in correcting acidity and in improving the mechanical condition of heavy soils. Used alone, its final effect is soil exhaustion. There remain two substances which are found in relatively large quantities in the ash and are found in most soils in limited amounts and unavailable forms. The first of these is phosphoric acid and the second is potash. These constitute two of the three so-called essential plant foods ; not because they are really more necessay than the others, but because of the plant's demand for a large amount of them and be- cause of the plant's difficulty in getting them from the relatively in- soluble compounds in which these two substances occur in soils. 134 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. You are all familiar with the substance obtained by chewing wheat ; this we often call gum, but it is really gluten, a substance containing nitrogen and sulphur in addition to the elements contained in starch and cellulose. The quantity of nitrogen in the bundle of wheat (shown here in the form of one of its most concentrated compounds, sulphate of ammonia), is quite large and the amount of it in most soils is not large and is subject to constant loss by leaching, as well as by removal in crops. Hence, this element is referred to as an essential plant food. These three substances, nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potash, the so-called essential plant foods, must be furnished to agricultural plants in the right amounts, in the right forms and at the right times if we are to make a proper use of our soils. It is true, that a chemical analysis can show the total amount of plant food in any soil, but very little of this is available at one time or in one season. Moreover, the plant is like the rest of us, it gets its food as easily as possible, and so takes the most available plant food first. A little of the plant food in the soil is available, a part can be made available in a reasonable time, but the most of the mineral elements are in such a condition that by no known means can they be made available in a reasonable time or at a reasonable cost. It is only an irritation to the farmer to learn that there is enough potash in his soil to raise one thousand corn crops and then to find out that it will not become avail- able in ten thousand years. Improved tillage can do much to make soil nitrogen more rapidly available, but can do little to increase the rate at which the more re- sistent compounds of phosphoric acid and potash change ■ into available forms. Of course, the manurial resouces of the farm in the form of ma- nures and leguminous crops should be utilized to the utmost. But the use of these will frequently fail to make good some marked soil deficiency •which is limiting the crop. This lack may be due either to the origin of the soil or to a system of cropping whch has removed nearly all of the available supply of one or more elements and left the soil in a condition in which it will no longer yield profitable crops. Often a liberal use of minerals is necessary to produce a crop of the legume on which we de- pend for the increase of the nitrogen supply. Hence, it very often happens that in spite of the great stores of total plant food in some soils, the application to them in an available form of what seems a trifling amount of plant food, produces most striking and profitable returns. The way to find out whether fertilizers ■ can be profitably used is to try it. But it is essential that one should ;Start right in making such a trial. One should use known quantities of SOIL SESSION. 135 Standard plant foods and not manufactured brands in the trials. Hav- ing found out what is needed, one may turn his attention to whether he prefers to buy it in ready mixed form or otherwise. Your attention is first called to a wheat experiment on land which once was fine wheat soil, but has been run down by a bad system of cropping. The facts about the wheat test are : Fertilizer per acre. Yield per acre. Cost of fertilizer. Value of increase. Profits. Plato.. None 4.2 bushel. Plat 311 Blood, 60 pounds Plat 312 . ... Muriate of potash, 30 lbs Blood. 60 Dounds 9.5 bushel. 21.3 bushel 32.6 bushel 30.8 bushel.... 24.8 bushel $2.25 3.00 2.25 3.75 3.38 $4.24 13.68 14.73 22.88 16.48 $1.99 10 68 Plat 313 Acid phos., 200 pounds. Acid phos . , 200 pounds . . . Muriate of potash, 30 lbs. Blood. 60 DOunds 12 47 Plat 307 19.13 13.10 Plat 308 Acid Phos., 200 pounds. Muriate of potash, 30 lbs Blood, 60 pounds Acid Phos., 2C0 1bs. Muriaie of potash, 15 lbs. COMPARATIVE YIELDS OF WHEAT FROM I'o ACRE, Fertilizer Used. 1st Sack. Acid Phosphate. Blood. 2nd Sack. Blood. Acid Phosphate. Muriate of Potash. 3rd Sack. Acid Phosphate. Muriate of Potash. 136 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. COMPARATIVE YIELDS OF WHEAT FROM ,'<, ACRE. Fertilizer Used. 1st and 2nd Sacks. Acid Phosphate. Blood. Muriate of Potash. 3rd Sack. None. 4th Sack. Blood. Muriate of Potash. This work was done by a farmer in the ordinary way. The profits ranged from 88 to 510 per cent. A rather instructive lesson is broug-ht out by comparing plats 312, 307 and 308. The addition of 30 pounds of muriate of potash increased the yield 91-2 bushels at a cost of 75 cents, or less than 8 cents per bushel. Where only 15 pounds of muriate of potash was used, the yield was only increased 31-2 bush- els, at a cost of 38 cents, or 11 cents per bushel. The farmer saved 37 cents worth of fertilizer and lost 6 bushels of wheat. This illustrates a well-known law that if too little potash is used the straw gets it away from the grain. In terms of mixed fertilizer the experimenter used, on plat 307, 300 pounds per acre of a fertilizer containing 3 per cent nitrogen, 9 percent available phosphorc acid and 5 per cent potash. On plats 311, 312 and 313, one ingredient is left out. The profits are large, but not greater than can be expected when the right kinds, amounts and forms of plant food are used. Many farmers use from 75 to 150 pounds of a one-sided low grade fertilizer and increase the straw, but do not use the right amount or kind for the highest production of grain. The experiments with corn arc simpler, containing only three plats. SOIL SESSION. 137 EXPERIMENT AT MARIONVILLE. MO. Fertilizer Used. 1st Ear. Bone. Blood. Potash. 2nd Ear. Bone. Blood. 3rd Ear. None. EXPERIMENTS AT MARIONVILLE, MO. Fertilizer per acre. Yield per acre. Cost of fertilizer per acre. Value of Increase. Profit. Plat 1. Plat 2. Plat 3. None Blood, 188 pounds Bone, 336 pounds. Blood, 188 pounds Bone, 336 pounds. Sulphate of potash, 120 pounds. 20 bushels 29.3 bushels.... 49.6 bushels... 50 11 70 $4 66 14 80 Loss $3 10 EXPERIMENT AT RAYMONDVILLE, MO. Plat 1 None 16.8 bushels.... Plat 2 Blood, 170 pounds Bone. 300 pounds. 24.2 bushels.... $8 34 $3 70 Loss Plat 3 Blood, 170 pounds 47.2 bushels.... 12 06 15 20 $3.14 Bone, 300 pounds. • Muriate of potash, 120 pounds. 138 MISSOURI AGRICUI-TUKAl. URTOUT. m- ^i^. 5wfVJ, >--^. *^ '-^-:^S:'"Vk"-ii,^'^rv *■ .^ EXPERIMENT AT RAYMONDVILLE, MO. Yield from Plot No. 1. No Fertilizer Used. .■^- " . 'ia^^cs;«^iiSiWii?'^is^ EXPERIMENT AT RAYMONDVILLE. MO. Yield from Plot No. 2. Blood and Bone Fertilizer Applied. SOIL SESSION. 139 We have selected these two experiments on corn not because they show the most striking profits, but because they show the necessity of using the right things, at the right time, in the right amounts, and in the right forms. Both bone and blood are excellent forms of plant food for some purposes. But bone acts too slowly for corn, and the high expense of the blood is not justified by the corn crop. The corn could not utilize the slowly available bone in its short growing season. The com needed something more than bone and blood, as shown by the great increase when the potash was added. The potash cost $3.00 per acre and increased the yield 20 and 23 bushels, and converted a loss on the blood and bone into a gain of 25 per cent on the cost of the whole fer- tilizer, and a gain of 360 per cent on the cost of the potash. The amount of fertilizer used in these corn experiments was too large, the phosphoric acid was not in the right form, and in plat 2 the most important ingredient is lacking. On plat 3, doubtless, even better results would have been obtained had the phosphoric acid been in a more available form. A striking thing about the corn from Marionville is that the corn from plat i, unfertilized, has been practically destroyed by the insects that bore through the kernels, that form plat 2, partially fertilized, has been attacked some and that from plat 3, fully fertilized, shows very little damage from the insects. The corn from the three plats has been kept in the same box since harvest. EXPERIMENT AT RAYMONDVILLE. MO. Yield from Plot No. 3. Blood, Bone and Potash Fertilizer Applied. 140 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. Properly used, commercial plant foods may be very profitably used to supplement the manurial products of the farm. If you wish to devote more time to the matter this morning, it may be better to do so in dis- cussion of questions which you may see fit to ask. THE PRODUCTIVE CAPACITY OF FIELDS AS INFLUENCED BY SOIL MANAGEMENT. (Prof. F. H. King. Madison. Wis.) The management of soils to establish, to increase and to maintain a high productive capacity of fields is one of the oldest and most exten- sively practiced arts of industrial life. Most barbaric and all civilized people have fostered it. No other art or trade engages the attention and absorbs the energies of so many families. With the vast and ever increasing demands made upon the ma- terials for food, for apparel, for furnishings and for cordage, which are the products of cultivated fields, better soil management must grow more and more important as populations multiply. With the increasing cost and ultimate exhaustion of mineral fuels ; with our timber vanishing rapidly before the ever growing demands for lumber and paper ; with the inevitably slow growth of trees and the very limited areas which the world can ever afiford to devote to forestry, the time must surely come when, in short period rotations, there will be grown upon the farm the materials from which to manufacture, not only paper and substitutes for lumber, but fuels as well. Not the complete utilization of the power of every stream which reaches the sea, reinforced by the force of the winds and the energy of the waves which may be transformed along coast lines can meet the demands of the future for power and heat; and hence only in the event of science and engineering skill becoming able to devise means for transforming the unlimited energy of space through which we are ever whirled, with an economy approximating that which farm crops now exhibit, can good soil management be re- lieved of the task of meeting a portion of the world's demand for power and heat. While the lands which may be laid under tribute by good soil man- agement, to augment future supplies, extend from the shore lines of the sea to the snow lines of the mountains and of the polar zones ; each year they are becoming unavailable by hundreds of square miles through the expansion of cities and the multiplication of homes and summer cottages; through the extension of railways, trolley lines, canals and SOIL SESSION. 141 highways; and through their appropriation for military uses and park reserves. To meet the rapidly increasing demands upon these inevitably decreasing areas, the methods of soil management must be improved; the underlying sciences, in their relation to it, must be developed and the practices squared to their laws and teachings just as in great commer- <:ial, mining and manufacturing industries these have been and are be- ing squared to theirs. This can only be effectively done through or- ganized effort directed by that training and experience which the com- plex and difficult nature of the problems demand, but which no body of farmers has ever been or can be expected to become able to command. Those industries, which from their nature, can syndicate large amounts of capital in their interest may and do, economically and effectively, com- mand scientific methods and skill for the express purpose of develop- ing those underlying principles which good business men are quick to recognize as indispensable to commercial success. But in agriculture, only a few of its commercial and manufacturing phases are any of these means of improvement available, and hence the extreme necessity for and the appropriateness of government aid in bringing to a working basis the knowledge of the underlying principles of soil management and of leading phases of other agricultural practices. Up to the present time the burden of effort has been expended in developing the commercial and manufacturing phases of agriculture rather than upon those conditions which determine and maintain a high productive capacity of the soil. Such an evolution has been nat- ural, rational, and up to the present time, perhaps, most advantageous; but we are fast approaching that stage when it will become of the greatest importance, not that less attention shall be given to advancing the man- ufacturing and commercial phases of agriculture, but when much more and effective effort must be given to those conditions which tend to increase the yield per unit area on all types of soil. Universally, the world over, under all climatic conditions and for all types, the bad management of soils has been found to greatly re- duce their productive capacity, the fall often being, for some crops, to as low as one-fifth of the virgin productive power. Such great reduc- tions, too, have generally been effected in comparatively brief periods, often during the life and management of a single man. Within my own personal experience, and doubtless within that of many of you, inher- ently rich soils whose normal productive capacities ranged from 30 to 45 bushels of wheat have been reduced, by faulty management, to 15 and veven as low as 8 bushels per acre; and this during a period of cropping covering much less than fifty years. Reductions in productive capacity like these are not due to changes in climate, in cultural methods, in 142 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. potency of seed, in varieties of wheat, nor to changes in any other out- side conditions ; tliey have resulted from profound, but as yet not well understood, alterations within the soil itself ; from changes which a sufficiently early knowledge and care in its application undoubtedly could have averted. The mean yield of wheat in the United States during the last ten years of the century just closed was only 13.2 bushels per acre, scarcely one-third, certainly not one-half, what the normal virgin capacity of the soils once was. From nearly 40 million of acres in wheat, which should have yielded between 1,000 and 1,500 million bushels per annum, we have r alized but little over 500 million bushels. Instead of gross earn- ings which should have amounted to 650 to over 900 million dollars an- nually there has been realized only 330 million dollars, an annual shortage of the wheat crop alone large enough, could it have been averted, to give to each of the 48 states and territories between 7 and 14 million dollars each year of that decade. To put greater emphasis upon this enormous shrinkage in productive power let me say that during the period under consideration tie n^ean yield j er acre of wheat in Germany, where more attention has been devoted to the maintenance of soil fertility, was 26 bushels per acre and in the United Kingdom it exceeded 31 bushels. Notwithstanding the fact that in European Russia the mean yield of wheat has fallen as low as 9 bushels per acre, yet the aggregate wheat product of Europe, according to statistics, exceeded that of the five other continents by as many as 292 millions of bushels, and this, too, notwithstanding the long time those fields have been under cultivation and notwithstanding the fact that the United States had ten acres in wheat for every square mile of surface in all Europe. Moreover, with Eu- rope's large output of wheat she produces at the same time, of oats, of barley and of rye nearly fourfold the crop grown in North America ; the figures standing 4.362 million bushels for Europe against 1,099 millions for North America. Even when we combine the yields of wheat, oats, barley and rye grown in North America with our great staple, corn, the total output aggregates but 3,965 millions of bushels, as compared with 6,413 millions harvested each year in Europe. To maintain a high j^roductive capacity in soils which are normally rich ; to restore this capacity again to those in which it has been reduced ; and to materially increase the yield in soils which arc naturally poor, is clearly a matter of the highest order of national concern. Only when this has been done docs it become possible to secure tl:e largest rj'.urns from the best cultural methods ; from the most improved breeds and strains of either plants or animals ; or from a full extension of com- mercial and manufacturing met'ao Is for the disposal of agricultural SOIL SESSION. 143, products. The selection of crops with special reference to their adaptation to certain types cf soil; to cUniatological and to market conditions; to the development of drough:, diseas.^ and insec -resisting- strains; and the selection and care of seed are all important lines of proce:!ure tend- ing to increase yield; but back of an 1 b-forj thess and all else is the soil itself, which must be carried to and maintained at the hig'v. st pro- ductive capacity before, either singly or in combination, the oth.r lin^s of effort can yield their highest returns. It a hir Iv strai 1 of w ea , fo/ example, will increase the yi-ld on a 13-bushel soil to 16 bushels per acre, on the same soil brought into a 26-bushel condition, the hardy strain of wheat ought here to increase the yield beyond three bushels per acre, making it 32 or more instead of 29 bushels. Where the yield of wheat on a given field has shrunk from 40 to 15 bushels per acre; where that of oats has shrunk from 70 to 20 bushels and that of corn from 80 to 25 bushels per acre, there is no reason to hope that the in- troduction of new varieties or the use of more vigorous seed wdll force the yield up to the old standards. The main help must be sought through the restoration of the old physical, chemical and biological conditions of the soil itself which will put the productive capacity inherent in the soil back where it was when the yields w^ere high. Having said this much, in a general way, regarding the great im- portance of more attention being given to the soil itself, I desire to bring to your consideration, as briefly but forcibly as I may, a few- fundamental facts and principles which lie at the foundation and must direct all lines of effort aiming to secure higher yields from our fields through a better, more economical and more rational management of the soil. There is nothing which can do so much, in a business way, for any line of industry as a clear, full un lerstanding of the great facts and principles, which, if intelligently adhered to and applied, lead with cer- tainty to the d. sired results. In illustration of what is here referred to let me call your att ntion for a moment to the manner in which the world's supply of nitrogen is maintained in the soil today and has been through unnumbered ages. For many years it has been known that green plants draw their main supply of carbon directly from the air in the form of carbon d.'ox!de or carbonic acid gas. But it is only within the memory of the youngest in this audience that the real source of that v^ry important element, nitrogen, has been made known to the agricultural world. The most careful observers and the most thoughtful practical men among the farmers of all countries and throughout all history had associat d an observ d increase of crop following the grow- ing of different members of the clover family upon more or less exhausted 144 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. fields. But they could see no necessary reason why the growing of clover on a field and the removal of the crop from the ground should give to it a higher productive power ; and so, except where there was some other reason than that of improving the productive power of the field, there was no incentive to grow regularly in the system of rotation some one or another of the leguminous crops, like the clovers, alfalfa, lupine, cow peas, soy beans or sainfoin. For a long time it was held that the exclusive source of nitrogen for the higher plants was the organic matter of the soil, and this, too, notwithstanding the fact that it was continually being washed from the soil in the form of very soluble nitrates and carried to the sea and even escaping in large quantities into the at- mosphere in the form of free nitrogen. When, finally, the matter came under rigid investigation by men of science, there followed a battle •extending over years during which the opponents in the fray hurled against one another all the weight of experimental evidence, cogency of logic and massiveness of personal authority which they could com- mand and there was a stage in the combat when it looked as though error would be securely seated on the throne of truth, when this con- viction of many practical men would be relegated to the category of planting and butchering in the right phase of the moon. Indeed, it was true that the highest authorities of the time and the most careful and rigid experimenter, thinking and planning from a mistaken point of view, the more cautiously they moved and the more thoroughly they safeguarded their lines of attack to avoid the introduction of sources of error, the more unquestionably did their results appear to bear out the conviction, at that time thoroughly rooted, that none of the or- dinary higher plants are able to add to their nitrogen supply from the air itself. But in the many repetitions of experiments which were con- ducted, particularly among tho.se which, it was held by opponents, did not sufficiently guard against sources of error, there were found gains of nitrogen, and these led to looking at the problem from different points of view ; and, while the conflict with its story was long, the real truth was finally brought into the light and we now know with the dcfiniteness that twice two makes four that when a vigorous legum- inous crop is matured upon the ground the soil is made absolutely richer by the addition of very considerable amounts of nitrogen extracted from the soil air by the microscopic organisms dwelling and feeding in the tubercles or nodules found on the roots of the vigorous plants of most, if not all, of the lar>;e clov.r-p.a-vetch-bean family. And now that this great principle or method of adding the indispensable nitrogen to the soil has been demonstrated with absoluteness, farmers are able to proceed with the assurance of certainty rather than that soil, SESSION. 145 of faith. The result is that a thousand apply the truth where one did before, and there is perhaps no discovery in all the wide realm of ag- riculture which will be able to do so much in the permanent winning of bread as this. I wish now to emphasize for your stronger conviction three other very fundamental truths upon which enduring economic methods of soil management must forever rest. These are : PER.CEBT. LBS. co.m , 1 .115 2.680 £2.13 .064 1.961 13.81 .878 m WATER-SOLUBLE ELAHT POOD. 2.660 ' =»1 TOTAL PLANT POOD. 382.6 VOLUME OF SOIL MOISTURE. J 7r VOLUME OF 33.63 581.1 SOIL AIR. x^ y ^ y^ VOLUME 44.24 73.18 764.5 OF DRY SOIL A / A / Oire CUBIC FOOT . OF 100.0 86.99 1728 SURFACE SOIL / 1 J| Fig. 1.— Showing the relative amounts of dry soil ; soil air ; total plant food and plant food materials soluble in water contained in one cubic foot of average surface soil in the United States. I. The necessity for a sufficient amount of room in the soil, not only in the portion turned with the plow, but throughout the effective root zone. 2. The existence in the soil of large amounts of plant food ma- terials, but not in available forms, and which it must become the business A -10 146 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. of soil management to transform into available condition with sufficient rapidity to meet the need of heavy yields. 3. The necessity for an ample crumb-structure of the soil through- out the effective root z®ne which bad management breaks down and which good management builds up and renders more stable. The urgency of an abundance of room deep in the soil is very great. In the first place, we do not sufficiently appreciate that the soil of a field is in reality a pasture upon the internal surface of which available plant food materials grow, through the mutual interaction of a multitude of soil organisms, organic matter, moisture, air and the roots of crops, living and decaying, all of them operating together to bring into solution the more insoluble forms of potash, lime, magnesia and phosphoric acid, so that when the roots of crops spread themselves out over the extensive internal surface, carrying a rich growth of soluble plant food materials, they find themselves in an ample pasture of nutri- tious feed, and growth is rapi^i. But tlie first great requisite of this pas- ture is room ; broad surfaces upon which large amounts of water may be stored to become charged with dissolved plant food materials ; over which organic matter may widely spread to constitute the feeding ground of those miscroscopic forms of life which turn its nitrogen and other plant food elements into forms available to crops ; and these internal surfaces far enough apart to give strong and deep ventilation and ample space into which the roots may spread and find abundant opportunity to set the soil grains aside to make room for due enlargement. Upon this chart there has been represented, by drawing to proper scale, the volume of the component portions of the surfase foot of a soil possessing about the medium amount of room which is found in a soil of average productive capacity. The bottom cube in the diagram stands for a cubic foot of undisturbed surface soil, in its normal field condition when well settled toward the end of the growing season after having been plowed 6 to 7 inches deep in the spring of the same season. The second cube represents the volume the dry soil would occupy with the moisture and the air removed and with the soil so con- solidated that all open spaces are obliterated. In this condition its volume would be 764.5 cubic inches or 44.24 per cent of the whole cubic foot. The dry weight of this soil is 73.176 pounds, while the dimension gives a cube a little more than 9 inches on each edge. The third cube on the chart represents the volume of the space in the foot of surface soil which is occupied by air when the amount of moisture present is very near the best amount for good crop conditions. In it there are 581. i cubic inches of space occupied by air, comprising 33.63 per cent. That is, the surface foot of soil in good moisture condition soil, SESSION. 147 possesses an amount of room through which air may circulate and in which the roots of crops may develop which is rather more than one- third of the entire volume expressed by a cube 8.3 inches on each edge. The volume of water carried in a cubic foot of surface soil is represented relatively by the fourth cube on the chart which contains 382.5 cubic inches or 22.13 per cent, of the whole volume and contained by a cube a little less than 7.3 inches on each edge. This amount of water represents nearly 2.66 inches in depth on the level oyer the sur- face, and if the space occupied with air were also filled with water the combined amount would overspread the surface to a depth of 6.69 inches. There are few places in the United States where the amount, char- acter and distribution of rain is such as to make maximum yields pos- sible, and hence it is a matter of great importance that the roominess of the soil be maintained of such an amount and of such a character that whatever rain falls during the growing season may be quickly taken, in without puddling the surface and without so completely filling the soil as to seriously check soil ventilation during any long interval of time. Thorough underdrainage is the first requisite for developing and maintaining roominess and openness deep in the soil. Next comes a deep incorporation of organic matter through a rotation which in- cludes clovers and grasses. The roots themselves open the soil and, carrying the organic matter into the subsoil, induce a deeper penetra- tion of earthworms, ants and other burrowing animals. Moreover, the deep incorporation of organic matter assists the action of the frost and of shrinkage, due to drying, in developing the crumb structure which renders the openness more efficient. The occasional deep turning under . of stable and green manures and of roughage of all kinds is extremely helpful ; and it is not sufficiently appreciated that most or- ganic matter is more efficient turned under than when left to decay at the surface. I AMOUNT OF PLANT FOOD CARRIED BY SOILS. It is very important to understand that there is present in the soil a very large amount of the different plant food elements; that only a small portion relatively of that present exists in immediately available form ; but that good and bad methods of soil management exert a very marked influence upon the rate at which the plant food elements present in the soil are transformed into the condition available to crops. Taking Maxwell's complete analysis of a composite sample made up of soils from the grounds of many of the Experiment Stations in the 148 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. United States, and 73.176 pounds as the mean weight of a surface foot of soil, the following table gives the amount of the different essential plant food elements per acre, expressed in tons : Tons, per acre, of essential plant food elements in the surface foot of soil : Potash K Tons. Lime Ua Tons. Magnesia Mg Tons. Nitrogen N Tons. Pliospboric Acid F Tons. SulpLurlc Acid S Tons. 20 8.9 7.0 4.0 2.4 .ti These amounts constitute 2.68 per cent, of the dry weight of the soil and their aggregate volume is represented relatively by the fifth cube on the chart, 2.73 inches on an edge and weighing nearly an even 2 pounds for each cubic foot of ■ surface soil. Thus it is seen that of the nearly 43 tons of essential plant food elements carried, about one- half is potash (K), one-fifth is lime (Ca), one-sixth is magnesia (Mg), one-twelfth is nitrogen (N), one-eighteenth is phosphoric acid (P.j, and one-eightieth is sulphuric acid (S). But the effective root zone in any soil adequately underdrained and of the proper degree of openness is fully 3 to 4 feet in depth, and hence the roots of a crop may be spread out through a soil mass carrying 3 or 4 times the amounts of all of the plant food elements designated in the table above excepting only nitrogen, and in this case Warington found the surface four feet at Rothamsted to carry 5.2 tons per acre. Four thousand crops of wheat yielding 40 bushels of grain and 3,600 pounds of straw per acre will not gather from the soil as much potash, lime or mag- nesia as are carried in the surface four feet of soil. There is phosphoric acid enough for 1,100 such crops; sulphuric acid enough for 700, but ni- trogen enough for only 155 such crops of wheat. Nevertheless, it must be remembered, that willi more plant food even of nitrogen than will suffice for 100 such crops of wheat within the reach oi roots beneath tiic sur- face of every field; with the rainfall, with the sunshine and with the temperature to a measurcable extent unchanged ; with better seed, better varieties, fuller knowledge, more efficient tools and higher skill in management the richest of our virgin soils have fallen from a i)roduclive capacity of 40 bushels of wheat per acre to one as low as 20 and even much less during periods so short as 25 years. What has been the cause of these shrinkages? Can the virgin productive capacity of such soils be restored? Can it be economically maintained if restored? If it can be economically restored and afterward maintained, then by what means and by what methods? These are the vital and fundamental problems of soil management. soil. SESSION. 149 AMOUNT OF WATER-SOLUBLE PLANT FOOD ELEMENTS IN SOIL. We have tried to fix in your minds the very important fact that within the surface four feet of every well managed field there are car- ried, in the aggregate and on the average, something more than 120 to 160 tons of the essential plant food elements. We desire now to empha- size another even more important fact, namely, the great bulk of these large amounts of plant food elements is locked up in the form of sub- stances which dissolve with extreme difficulty in water, and, while it is true that none of- the plant food materials become available to crops until they are dissolved in the soil moisture, it is nevertheless fortunate that the great reservoir of plant food materials is filled with form so difficulty soluble. Wcve this not so, the percolation of rain through the soil would carry away so completely the plant food materials that even in regions of abundant rainfall the land would be deserts and only in the arid regions, where leaching cannot occur and where irrigation must be resorted to, could crops be grown without the heaviest and ever repeated applications of fertilizers. The smallest cube represented on the chart shows, relatively, the aggregate volume of the essential plant food elements which were recovered from 8 soil types, 4 of which were good and 4 poor, by leach- ing quickly through thin layers of them 55 times their dry weight of pure water, a layer of water which would cover the surface to a depth of some 16 to 18 inches. This cube of plant food soluble in water derived from one cubic foot of surface soil is a little less than .1 of an inch on an edge; constitutes .1148 per cent of the dry soil, thus making a weight of a little more than half an ounce per foot of surface soil, and 3,660 pounds or 1.83 tons per acre. The amounts of the respective plant food elements so recovered are given in the next table. Plant food elements removed from the surface foot of 8 soils with pure water: Amount in pounds per acre of surface foot. Potash K. Lime Oa. Magnesia Mg. Nitrogen N. Phosphoric Acid F. Sulphuric Acid S. Good soil 663.5 586.9 2292.0 626.8 766.6 293.4 71.61 35.70 202.6 84.83 111B Poor soil 548.1 Good soil. Poor soil.. Number of crops of wheat required to remove the above amounts. 22.7 20.1 293.8 80.4 286.3 101.0 1.1 .5 17.3 7.2 241.6 118.6 I50 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. From this table it will be observed that there existed in the four good soils very much more of all the essential plant food elements in a form which could be recovered with pure water than were carried in the poor soils. In the aggregate the water-soluble plant food elements from the good soils exceeded those recovered from the poor soils more than 2.8 times, while the yield of corn and potatoes was nearly 2.5 times greater. The figures given above refer to the surface foot only, but it must be remembered that the roots of crops penetrate the soil to a depth even greater than four feet; and further than this, through capillary move- ment of the soil moisture the dissolved plant food materials are car- ried from the fourth, third and second feet upward into the surface foot. Because of these relations the surface four feet of these 8 soil types were examined to determine the amount of the different plant food elements which could be recovered from them by treating them only 3 minutes in five times their weight of water. The total amounts so recovered are given in the next table. Plant food elements recovered from the surface 4 feet of 8 soil types by washing but 3 minutes in 5 times their weight of pure water. Amount in pounds per acre of surface four foot. Potash K. Lime Oa. Magnesia Mg. Nitrogen N. Piiosphoric Acid P. Sulphuric Acid S. Good soils 264.8 182.4 1016.4 3P5.4 348.3 177.4 82.0 30.3 113.6 64.3 1379.0 Poor soils 388.6 Number of crops of ivheat required to remove the above amoimts. Good soils. Poor soils. n.i 6.2 130.3 50.7 130.0 66.2 1.2 .45 9.7 5.5 298.5 84.1 Here again it is seen that the good soils have yielded to the 3-minutc washing in pure water more of the essential plant food elements than the poor soils did, and also more than enough from the surface 4 feet of soil of each and every element for a crop of 40 bushels of wlual and 3,660 pounds of straw per acre. Indeed, there was recovered of both potash and phosphoric acid enough for 9 such crops; and there is little doubt but that if the washing of the same samples had been repeated 11 times in corresponding amounts of Avater. as was done in the first series cited, nearly t i times as nuicli of lliesc two elements would have been recovered ; and wr see that while the plant food elements carried in soluble form in soil is small in coini)arison with the amounts present which are not readily soluble in water, these forms are nevertheless large in the good soils and in the surface four feet SOIIv S6SSI0N. 151 enough of all except nitrogen for many large crops, could it all be used. It is not sufficiently appreciated, although it should go without saying, that a strong soil moisture solution, well charged with all the essential plant food elements, making it a thoroughly balanced ration for the crop growing upon the field, is indispensable to large yields. Indeed, just as in the case of growing and producing animals, the body must be kept charged with blood rich in all that is essential to increase, so it must be with crops ; their sap must be loaded and to spare with everything that makes for growth; aiifl just as a rich blood can only be maintained out of a rich solution in the alimentary canal, ever re- inforced by good air, so a strong plant sap can only be continuously supplied to the crop when its roots are ever immersed in a soil solution rich in all that is needed, and well aerated. The next table shows how different was the plant sap in the crops growing on the good and on the poor soils. Amount of plant food elements in the sap of plants, per equal areas, growing on good and on poor s,oil : Potasli K. lbs. Lime Oa. lbs. Magnesia Mg. lbs. Nitrogen N. lbs. 126.3 19.0 21.0 21.5 47.9 3.7 3. .5 3.1 Phophoric Acid P. lbs. Sulphuric Acid S. lbs. Total lbs. Good soil... Poor soil 11.8 4.6 5.5 1.3 205.1 61.1 From this table it is seen that the same number of plants, growing upon an equal area of good soil, were able to take up from the soil through the soil moisture in the same time nearly three times as much potash, as measured by the amount contained in the plant sap, over 5 times as much lime, 6 times as much magnesia, 7 times as much nitrogen, more than double the amount of phosphoric acid, and 4 times the amount of sulphuric acid. Associated with this stronger nutritive solution in the soil, and with the sap of the plants richer in the elements which contribute to growth, there was a yield nearly 2.5 times on the stronger soil than that which developed on the poorer ^il. We have reason to think that, in the ultimate analysis, an exhausted soil is one in which it has become impossible for natural processes to maintain a sufficiently strong nutritive solution to meet the needs of rapid growth. But with such large amounts of the essential plant food elements present in the root zone of most agricultural soils ; and with so much as we have shown to be present, even in the poorer soils, which may be readily removed with water, it may appear strange, at first thought, that reduced yields can result froiti a deficiency of plant 152 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. food materials. Observations, however, have shown that the plant sap during vigorous growth is, and apparently nuist of necessity be, strong in all of the plant food elements. But in order that this may be so maintained, we have reason to think that the soil solution outside of and in contact with the absorbing roots must he maintained cor- respondingly strong. Certain it is that if we place salt meat in pure water it becomes less salt ; and if we wish to render it more salt we must place it in a brine more concentrated than that present in the meat, and we believe that the same relations hold for plants, although sufficient proof is not at hand and a different view is held by many. If the view here expressed is correct, any highly productive soil must be rich in the readily water-soluble plant foo 1 elements and it must carry through the growing season much more of these than will be required to produce the crop upon the ground, or else it must possess the conditions which permit the soluble food materials to develop faster than they are needed. It need not seem strange, therefore, that soils increase in productive power with the addition of manures and ferti- lizers even where it may be shown there is present in the soil at the time and in readily soluble form more than the crop can remove. If the physical condition of a given soil — its openness, its extent of internal surface and its crumb-structure — is such that it must carry in soluble form more than can be removed by a dozen crops in order to be able to supply the plant food elements as rapidly as the one crop can use them, then such a soil must decrease in productive power whenever any one of the esential food elements cannot be delivered to the crop as rap- idly as needed even though there be present in the soil enough for a thousand crops. SOURCE OF THE SOLUBLE PLANT FOOD ELEMENTS. The water-dissolved plant food elements, which are the direct source of the plant food derived from the soil, come from two ultimate sources, (i) the mineral portion of the dry soil itself, and (2) nitrogen from the soil-air fixed by micro-organisms. But, indirectly, the im- mediate sources of the plant food elements carried in the soil moisture are the slow solution of the soil grains themselves and the decay of or- ganic matter which overspreads and comes in contact with their more or less extended surface. The amount of internal superficial area given to the root zone of a field by the aggregate surfaces of the soil grains is a very important factor of productive capacity. Tliis is so because it is over this surface the soil moisture is spread to become charged with the essential plant food elements derived from the soil grains soil, SESSION, 153 themselves and from the decay of organic matter disseminated among- them. It is upon this surface that the soil organisms live which hasten the decay of the organic matter and so charge the soil moisture with plant food materials ; and it is against the same surface that the root hairs of crops place themselves to appropriate both the moisture and nr 'THE PIHEST CLAY SOILS WHERE 6000 ORAIHS, SIDE BY SIDE. MEA30BE ONE IMCH THERE ARE. IB OHE CtTBIC FOOT, ABOOT 6 ACRES OF SOIL-GRAIN SURFACE. ONE CUBIC FOOT HAS ABOUT 7 ACHE OF SOIL-QBAIir SUEFACE; WHERE 1200 GRAINS. SIDE BY SIDE. MEASURE ONE INCH ONE CUBIC FOOT HAS ABOUT ONE ACRE OF SOIL-GRAIN SURFACE. Fig. 2.— Showing by circles the relative diameters of the grains of coarse sandy soil ; finest clay soil and loam soil, 636 times average diameter. what it has dissolved. The internal soil surface of every field is, therefore, a pasture where plant food grows and upon which crops, through their roots, feed. The extent of this internal surface is very great and very different in the different soil types. Let me try to help you to better realize this 154 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. very fundamental and important truth. Imagine a cube of granite one square foot on each face. If this cube were lowered into water and raised from it again it would come out overspread with a sheet of water measuring 6 square feet in area, for the cube has 6 faces. Let this surface be dusted over with finely ground stable manure, well charged with the soil organisms which bring about its decay. A spear of corn planted at the center of the top face of this cube would find itself in possession of a pasture area measuring six square feet, over which its roots could place themselves to imbibe moisture and the food materials with which it becomes charged as solution of rock and decay of or- ganic matter takes place. Now imagine the cube quartered. The area of the surface of granite, of the sheet of water, of the pasture, is doubled, for there are now 4 cubes each with an area of 3 square feet and with no more soil, the corn roots have a pasture of 12 square feet. There are 12 square feet upon which solution may take place, to which water may adhere, where organic matter may decay where the roots may feed. If now each of these cubes is quartered, their surfaces will again be doubled, and we shall have a cubic foot of soil, whose aggre- gate surface measures 24 square feet. Make the cubes one-hundredth of a foot on an edge, and the total surface becomes 600 square feet. If again the cubic foot of granite is divided into cubes one thousand of which together measure an inch, the separate pieces may be readily seen singly with the unaided eye, and it would be so coarse that we would call it a fine sand, and yet the total surface to which water could ad- here, upon which chemical action and solution could take place, and against which the root hairs could place themselves to feed, would be 6,000 square feet, or one-seventh of an acre per cubic foot. On this chart there has been represented, all on the same scale, circles having the effective diameters of three soils, the finest clay, the average loam and the coarse sandy type. In the finest clay type it re- quires 6,000 of them set in line and in contact to measure an inch ; in the loam type, 1,200; and in the coarse sandy soil, 200. Of tlie parti- cles of the finest clay soil 30 are required to span the diameter of a sin- gle grain of the coarse sandy type, and five of them are needed to measure one of the mellow loamy soils. From our illustration of the cube of granite you will readily see that the finest clay soils possess 30 times the internal surface, to which water may adhere, upon which soluble and dissolved phmt foiul materials may be formed and stored, and where soil organisms and ihc roots of plants may feed, that which is possessed by soils of the coarse sandy types, and five times that pos- sessed by the loams. So great is the internal surface of soils that its extent must be ex- soil, SESSION. 155 pressed in acres per cubic foot, and in the three cases chosen for illus- tration, the coarse sandy soil possesses no less than one-sixth the loam, I, and the finest clay soil more than 5 acres of soil-grain surface for each and every cubic foot of such soil in the field. These areas aggre- gate for the surface foot and per acre of field more than 10, 60 and 300 square miles, respectively, for the coarse sandy soil, the loam and the finest clay type. Twelve hundred, two hundred and forty and forty square miles of pasturage in the four feet in depth of the root zone surface, per acre of crop, seems like an enormously extravagant allow- ance upon which to grow grass and grain and vegetables and fruit, and yet it is what nature has provided. Verily, every farmer is a multi- millionaire in the acres of internal soil surface from which he wins his harvest ! And now I must repeat once again that it is over such vast areas as these that the soil moisture of the effective root zone is spread, from which it dissolves the mineral ingredients it carries and against which both these and that which comes from the decay of the organic matter is stored for the use of crops. With these conceptions of the differences between soils of differ- ent types and of the manner in which the soluble conditions of the plant food elements accumulate so as to be appropriated by crops, the great importance of a deep and abundant incorporation of organic matter in the soil can be appreciated ; because through it decay takes place in contact with a much larger soil surface, more room is given for the soil organisms to work, the plant food materials produced may be concen- trated upon and retained by a much larger surface, and there is greater opportunity for the roots to come in contact with the plant food devel- oped and stored. Deep incorporation of organic matter is accomplished by a thorough turning under of the roughage of the fields, using the jointer and chain where necessary ; through frequent moderate and occasional deep turning down of both stable and green manures ; by growing in rotation the deep-rooted leguminous species, together with the densely and deep- rooted grasses. No form of organic matter for incorporation in the soil is so valuable as stable manure. It is so because it has been placed in superlative physical condition by being finely ground and because it is doubly charged with the most available of plant food materials. The great problem is to get it incorporated with the soil deeply and thor- oughly while it is yet at its full strength. To throw it about to weather in the rains and the sun is no less irrational and but little less wasteful than would be a similar practice with the hay and the grain from which it was produced. Excessive applications to the soil, too, like the over- feeding of live stock, is literally throwing money away, besides making 156 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. some effort to do so. Next to the waste of fertility, which occurs be- fore getting manure to the field, is that of applying it unevenly and over too small an area. Moderate applications, well spread and well incor- porated with the soil, are far better than heavy dressings applied at Fip. 3.— Showing the grains of a fine clny loam soil grouped together in the form of granules equal in size to the average grain in a coarse sandy soil. The dotted circles represent single solid sandy soil grains, tlie solid blaclc represents the films of water smuounding the soil grains and soil granules and filling the spaces between the grains making up the granules of the clay loam soil. long intervals. The danger is, wlaie heavy dressings are applied, that the fermentation will be carried too far and a very large part of the nitrogen be lost in the form of the free gas. Maximum amounts of stable manure are seldom made on any farm. All the roughage and SOII< SESSION. 157 waste of the fields would be much more efficient as a fertilizer if it could be first used as an absorbent, and to be most efficient when used in this way it should be cut fine. Stable manure is but finely ground roughage, saturated with the best kinds of plant food materials, but stock may be made to sufficiently saturate two or three times the amount they will eat, and thus increase the fertilizer product of the farm at least two- fold. Nothing can increase the yield of the corn belt so much as to shred or cut finely the stover, now wasted on so many fields, and make it into manure by using it as feed or as an absorbent and then effectively applying it to the fields. GOOD TILTH. Good tilth, or a thorough, deep and strong granulation, giving a well marked crumb-structure, is the most important physical condition of any soil. The great urgency of the crumb-structure in soil grows out of the fact that in all but the coarsest sandy soils the individual grains are so small that when they are not bunched together the capil- lary pores are so minute as to make them like the potter's puddled clay, nearly impervious to both air and water. But when the fine soil particles are collected and more or less cemented into larger compound grains, much as pop corn is made into balls, then there is opportunity for the roots and the root hairs to advance between them, placing them- selves so as to absorb the moisture and plant food materials which sur- round and are contained within. Upon the surfaces of these com- pound grains the microscopic soil organisms place themselves where their products of decomposition have the best opportunity to act as a solvent upon the soil and also where the products may easily diffuse into and be retained by the granules against loss by leaching. When a soil is well and strongly granulated each compound grain becomes like a tiny sponge, which may maintain itself full of water highly charged with plant food materials, to be sucked out by the root hairs when they develop alongside of them ; and hence, a strongly gran- ulated soil has a greater capacity for both available soil moisture and for plant food. It will be clear that where the soil is strongly granu- lated, so that the larger particles have a sponge-like openness, these will hold within themselves and away from their immediate surfaces large amounts of plant food which cannot be so readily leached out, for then the rains drop down rapidly through the larger passageways with- out strongly affecting the solution that is within the granules them- selves. Besides, where this structure exists and the action of the roots has partly dried the granules out and at the same time removed a por- tion of the plant food which they had stored, then when a rain does 158 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. come which causes the water to move downward, whether by capil- larity or by percolation, these partly emptied granules will draw the water with the plant food which it may carry back into themselves and thus hold both the moisture and the other nourishing elements up nearer to the surface where they will be more efficient. And so it is that a strongly granulated soil may profitably be more highly fertilized than one which is not and so maintained at a higher stage of productive power. To illustrate, when a solution carrying potash was allowed to percolate very rapidly through the four poor and the four good soils, to which reference has already been made, the soils which were most highly granulated and which possessed the highest productive capacity were able to absorb from the solution and retain within their granules at the rate of 1,736 pounds of potash per acre of the surface foot, while the four poor soils, less strongly granulated and possessing less internal surface, were able to take from the solution at the rate of only 893 pounds per acre. In proof of .the greater power of highly granulated* soils to hold back against leaching the plant food elements, the same 8 soils were treated with the same amounts of the same kinds of stable manure, and then, after an interval of six months, they were all leached in the same manner and with the same amounts of pure water, to see how much of the plant food elements would be retained. The results obtained are given in the next table. Amounts of manure applied. Potasli In manure Potash retained— Four good soils Four poor soils 25 50 100 109 218 436 91 182 3S4 77 160 276 200 tons per acre. 870 pounds per acre. 663 pounds per acre. 448 pounds per acre. The table shows how different was the power of the two groups of soil to hold back against leaching the potash which had been carried to them in the stable manure. It will be clear also that when the roots of crops spread themselves out over these differently charged soil granules, which are filled with and surrounded by moisture carrying the plant food, they are under the very best conditions to obtain and utilize it. In order that there may be established a strong and deep granula- tion of the soil, the first essential condition is ample under drainage, and it is most fortunate that, in the great majority of fields, natural conditions abundantly secure this. The most universal condition, re- quiring attention on all soils, except in the very limited highly organic types, is a deep and abundant incorporation of organic matter in the SOIL SESSION, 159 soil. When the organic matter is deeply and abundantly distributed throughout the root zone, it acts as parting planes between the soil par- ticles which prevent them from running together during times when the soil is long over-saturated with water. At the same time, when shrinkage comes in times of drought, the finely divided and well dis- tributed organic matter greatly favors the action of the surface films of water in drawing the small particles of soil together into bunches. (Due of the most important advantages of growing the grasses like bluegrass, timothy and redtop in the rotation, is that, through their immense num- ber of roots closely threaded in among the soil particles, they greatly facilitate the bunching of the soil particles together. Such crops are nruch more helpful in this way than are the clovers, whose great ser- vice lies in their power to increase the nitrogen content of the soil. The two types together, or in alteration, give the best and most enduring effects. Winter weathering, naked summer following, fall plowing and liming are other treatments which greatly influence soil structure. SESSION Missouri Improved Live Stock Breeders' Association. Thursday and Friday, January 11 and 12, 1906. PRACTICAL AND TIMELY HINTS TO BREEDERS. (T. J. VVornall, President Missouri Improved Livestock Breeders' Association.) (On account of sickness in his family, Mr. Woniall was unable to be present at this meeting and deliver his annual address. We print the following article in lieu thereof.) There are so many places that need fixing that keep us from having a perfect system, I will only speak of the most important, dividing them into two general classes — "Needed Home Improvements" and "Needed Foreign Improvements" — meaning by the former those improvements that lie within the reach of every man interested in the breeding of pure- bred cattle to make. The latter, those improvements that can only come by help of other*, but in the accomplishment of which we all enjoy the same blessings. And for the better handling of my subject I will subdivide the "Needed Home Improvements" into five classes, as follows : First — ^The tattooing in the ears of the calves numbers so as to dis- tinguish them, and the placing of those numbers in a conspicuous place in the records properly kept. This should be done at the first opportu- nity. Then, when those animals have attained the age of 2 years, the identical numbers should be branded on their horns, where they will re- main indefinitely. All animals purchased — either publicly or privately —of that age, should be branded with your number the day she is re- ceived into the herd. If she is already branded, an additional number LIVE STOCK breeders' ASSOCIATION. l6l could be placed lengthwise in front of that already on, which will serve the purpose in showing at a glance she is not of your own breeding, even if her individuality does not show itself. When the animal from the herd is sold or transferred to that of another, with the tattoo marks or horn number both on the certified copy of the pedigree and the animal, it is but another safeguard thrown around our business. IMPORTANCE OF KEEPING RECORDS. Second — Better kept records. On this subdivision of "Needed Home Improvements" too much cannot be rightly said, since it is a matter of such vital importance to the industry. And representing as it does the heart and vitals of it, we cannot be too careful of the records. The certified pedigrees should be furnished by the seller and is, of course, accepted as final. It should be carefully copied into your own record and the number given the animal placed opposite the name and branded on the horn. But if the animal is purchased without a certi- fied pedigree and the seller refuses to furnish it, the purchaser should send to the association, inclosing 25 cents, and get one. And in so doing, I will venture the assertion that you will find an error in at least one in five, and sometimes as many as four in ten. And this does not result in any dishonest motives, either. For the changes are not fre- quently of such importance as to materially change the value of the an- imal, but are more the result of carelessness on the part of compilers and printers. Nevertheless, if you are to keep your records, you should have them straight to begin with. Then the produce columns should be as carefully kept as the calves placed there on the date of their birth. Their tattoo numbers put on record and their sales, or death, noted the same way. By the careful use of these two things a man can lose a herdsman, or even die, and know that his heirs or adminstrators can take up his business and carry it on or close it at will. And in addition to this I would keep a book, just as your merchant does in his business. I would enter the name and number of the animal, date of purchase, whom bought of, price paid, freight and expense. Then I would charge her with so much a year for keep and give her credit for every calf, either sold or retained, in the herd. And in that way you can know at any time just what she is doing for you, or do- ing you for. If not profitable, you will know what to do more quickly than by the old guessing system so much in vogue. A— 11 l62 MISSniTRT ACRTCULTURAL RRPORT. LIBERAL AND JUDICIOUS FEEDING. In the third subdivision I would advocate the more liberal and judi- cious use of feed. After you have carefully selected your matrons for the foundation of your herd, and still more carefully selected your sire, you will cross on. You should be next thinking of what kind of feed to cross the calf on. And on the improvement Vv'e make by breeding- we can only carry out by feeding. We have all received the letters of inquiry that con- tained the warning injunction before closing — "I don't want a pampered calf." And we have all had the same fellow come, and sold him the only fat one we had. But we have not all learned the lesson that we should in doing that. We may have spasmodically neglected to start the others sooner. As an illustration of that I can recall a prospective buyer who, at my directions, within the last year, visited nine herds of Shorthorn cattle and only bought thirty-two bulls ; whereas, in four herds of another breed he purchased sixty-eigkt, when his order was for sixty Shorthorns and forty of another breed. He claimed they were not in any sale condi- tion. I may be wrong in this statement I am about to make, but it is the result of my observations in the Shorthorn business : That there is no need to select the seed from which to breed without you feed. HARM DONE BY UNDERFEEDING. And I am of the opinion that there has been many limes more harm resulted from underfeeding than from overfeeding. While the loss would aj^pear to possibly not probably one in twenty-five from the latter, we suffer a loss from twenty out of twenty-five in the former. How does a buyer know an animal will ever get in good condition if you don't have him that way? I'^ourth — I would advocate the use of the knife more in raising the standard of both bull and the steer market. There are two classes of bulls it will pay to cut. The best you have that will make a show steer (which, if a winner, will make you famous), and the worse you have to keep from making you infamous. The former will bring you $i,ooo in prize money if a winner at Chicago. The latter will cost you $i,ooo if seen at some places. THE DIVISION OF PASTURES. Fifth — I would like to see improvement in division of pastures, where many herds are kept. In many of our good herds of cattle all LIVE STOCK breeders' ASSOCIATION. 163 ages are allowed to run together. If a merchant, in displaying his wares, was as careless as we he would not sell as much. As far as practicable run the aged cows in one, the 2-year-old heifers in another, and so on. They always present a better appearance and much uniformity can be accomplished without much expense. And more especially would I advocate that in selling bulls. One car load will bring enough more to pay for the cross-fencing. There are many more things to be thought of in that same line of needed home improvements, but rather than get wearisome, will touch on the second classification under the head of "Needed Foreign Improve- ments." Like the other, we will subdivide into classes. The first from which benefit might be had would be in the visiting other so-called better herds. I can speak with cQnfidence along this line, for it has been my pleasure and profit to have visited at some time or another nearly all of the large herds of this country and in the old, as well. I never vis- ited any that I did not learn something not to do, frequently both. And I wonder that more of it is not done. GOOD THING TO BE SOCIABLE. It is not from lack of sociability, I know, for the Shorthorn cattlemen are a set of princely entertainers and have that feeling for each other that no other breed can touch. They are pointed out and referred to in every gathering, so it cannot be from that. They are not too poor nor too stingy, for a man with a good herd of Shorthorn cattle, on a good farm, has a kingdom unto himself. So it must be he is too busy. But is he right in thinking so? Can he not find time to visit, say, one good herd each year, and, by the comparison with his own methods, gain twice what he would otherwise? The general idea of cattle breeding has been well hashed over, but the detailed thought required in successful breeding presents a world unconquered. How many are they who talk so wisely about the outcross in a seemly straight pedigree, that can tell anything of the individuality of the granddam or grandsire of the animal mentioned? Yet might have seen both, for they were likely raised within easy riding distance. THE QUESTION OF SHIPPING. Second in importance is the question of shipping. Railroad rates should be lower to encourage the breeding of good stock on shipments of pure-bred animals, where pedigree is shown in evidence. Outside 164 MISSOURI ACRICULTURAL REPORT. of J. J. Hill of the Great Northern, however, no one of the railroads seem inclined to give it. But there is one arbitrary rule in vogue among the railroads that is sadly in need of correction. That is compelling you to send a man in charge of animal and forcing him to buy a ticket full fare both ways, and a resolution to that effect should be passed at this meeting. It is vmjust, unreasonable and unfair in every way. « USES AND ABUSES OF PUBLIC SALE. The third thing T would call attention to is the public sale ; its uses and abuses. The public sale is the market marker, as the rule we are all sup- posed to go by, and is somewhat a criterion for guide. But the senti- ment for the place for holding it has changed materially. It used to be the people would not attend if it was not held at some centrally located' place, easy of access, and we were forced to go, in some instances, quite a distance with the cattle. But now the demand is that you shall hold it at home and the needed improvement in that line is here. For by doing that you can show and be shown the breeding herd and your methods come to the surface, to the best interest of both buyer and seller. And it has practically done away with that "nuisance of nuis- ances," the "sale pirate," for while he might, and did in some instances, go to your city or town sale and solicit your buyers to go home with him, he has scarcely gall enough to come on your farm and do so. POINTERS ON CAREFUL ADVERTISING. Another improvement that carries with it intelligence in business is careful advertising. We will advertise, of course, one or two ways. We advertise in the papers and advertise at home, and we should be very careful that the advertisement in the newspapers corresponds with what you are talking about at home. For it is hard enough to get your buyers to your place once. And if they do not find your statement ma- terially correct, you can be assured they will not return. Another thing is a system of checking our inquiries. How many oi us really know what paper, or papers, have done us the most good. It is confusing to ask the field men, for they are hardly a unit on the proposition. And while I'm not a sponsor nor agent for anyone, there is a system that simplifies the matter for you. Another improvement is to quit advertising job lots. Great clear- ance sales and great fire sales are expected from Hebrew merchants, but unltss you are badly burned do not sacrifice your goods. LIVE STOCK breeders' ASSOCIATION. l6 O ALFALFA. (Joseph E. Wing, Mechanicsburg, Ohio.) My interest in alfalfa first began when I was a boy in 1886. I re- member traveling on the train out in Utah, going on a visit to my uncle, and looking out of the window I saw stacks of hay just as green as if they had been painted with green paint. I remember calling to the conductor on the train and asking him what it was. "Why," he says, "that is alfalfa." I asked him what made it look so green. "That's the color of it," he replied. Well, when we got to Salt Lake City we went out early tlie next morning and stumbled on to the hay market. There were great loads of alfalfa standing there just as green as could be. I went up to them and chewed up some of the hay to see what it tasted like. That's my test to see if the cattle and sheep will like a thing or not ; it's a good test — don't be afraid to try it. Well, that alfalfa I ate tasted good and I said, "Joe Wing, you have struck the best country in the world. If you ever get hard up, just go out to those hay stacks and help yourself." I remember my uncle .had a big milk cow which he fed on alfalfa; she was extremely wide out and able to eat a whole barrel of alfalfa and drink a tub of water at one time, and the amount of milk she gave was wonderful. And it was from that old cow that I gained my first impressions of the value of alfalfa as a feed and there that I learned to grow it. We fed alfalfa to our hogs and finished them ofif with a few nubbins of corn ; we fed it to our horses. Bought some of the seed and sent it home to father — about a pound I guess. After I had been out there for two years I went home, and after I had seen father and mother, I wanted to know where that alfalfa was. "Why," father said, "its back here but it is not worth going to see." "It did not do any good here ; it may be a great thing out west, but red clover is the thing for our country." Well, he took me back there where the alfalfa had been sown and it looked pretty shabby to me when I first saw it; was not more than three of four inches high and there were hardly any leaves on it. I stood there looking at it for a long time, and while I was looking at it I saw m) mother's chickens come along and pick off each leaf. An idea came to me and I went and got a tub full of water. My father said, "What are you going to do?" I told him I was going to show him how they irrigated in Utah. I poured this water slowly on one plant; I jerked the top off of a barrel and set it on the alfalfa plant and went away l66 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. and forgot all about it, and when I came back to look at it the stuff had grown almost through that barrel. I called my father to look at it and he was very much surprised, but he said, "My boy, do you suppose I want to grow a crop that won't grow unless I put a barrel over it?" Well, that was a very small beginning. I used to lay awake nights thinking of the old farm where I had been raised. I loved the old place passionately. I thought if ever I got back there I would make alfalfa meadows grow there; for if I could make one acre grow like that one plant that I saw last year, I could make a million acres grow if conditions are right. So when I came home to stay I brought some alfalfa seed home with me and tried to get father to let me sow it. Finally he said, "You can have that old potato patch if you want it," and so I sowed, in 1890, my first alfalfa in Ohio. I sowed it in the old potato patch. It was good land — clay soil, well manured, and it grew finely. Next I sowed three acres more, but the alfalfa did not do any good — only got one acre out of three to grow ; one acre was wet land and one was poor. I saw that I would have to drain the land, so I started in. We laid, between then and now, fourteen miles of tile underdrainiiig and we hauled a lot of manure. Little by little we got our land into alfalfa — it could not be done all at once. We own farming land now worth to us $150 an acre; it makes big interest on that all the time. It is wonderful what you can do if you just get in partnership with the Almighty. We took up this work of raising sheep in order to get manure to make the fields rich, and little by little we learned to grow alfalfa to feed the sheep. I will tell you how we bring up land to grow alfalfa. We bought sixty acres a few years ago. The physical condition of the soil was all wrong; there was little fertility in it. First we put some tile-un- (Irains in it — that was adding so much more money to our investment. Then we took our manure spreader and spread manure on the land and also put on some commercial fertilizers, and we got a fair crop of corn. Then we planted it to oats with red clover and put some al- falfa seed in with the clover. We got a pretty fair stand of clover. Then we planted it to corn again and got a good crop. Then we sowed it to clover and alfalfa again and got a nuich better stand. It will go to corn again this year, and the men were spreading manure all over that field when I left home. Next it all goes to alfalfa. Oh, manure is a great thing. I love to see great loads of it go .by. It helps the soil to get pervious. .Mfalfa will surely grow on manured land. Now, what are the advantages of alfalfa any way? In the first place, alfalfa is a perrenial plant, living from year to year. In our country alfalfa meadows endure from six to ten years. Then, alfalfa LIVE STOCK breeders' ASSOCIATION. 167 is SO deep-roote ; as deep as you have any soil alfalfa roots will go down. If the soil is two feet deep, the alfalfa roots will go down two feet; if ten feet and even twenty feet, the alfalfa roots will go to the bottom and even farther than that. And another thing: alfalfa comes up so early in the spring. Soon after you have your corn planted, you have an alfalfa crop to cut. It is green the first of the season when nothing else is out at all. The time to cut it is when the leaves are beginning to to drop off. After it is cut, in only fifteen minutes, up it comes again, and in 30 days you have your second crop ready to cut. We always get four crops in our country. Of course some of the crops may be light if you don't have enough rain, but you will have them anyway, and you have to take off the light crops or it will not do its best — you will miss the subsequent crop. Your third crop may not be very heavy, but cut it off just the same and you may get a fourth cutting that will be good. We average four tons an acre and sometimes get five or six. Up at Ames, Iowa, they tell me they got seven tons ; that's a pretty good yield. Now, about the use of alfalfa when you get it. It is fine for dairy cows. Down in Eastern Pennsylvania, where the dairymen are trying to do big things, we are sending them alfalfa hay for their cows, and they tell me great stories about it. One man down there who has registered cattle and is trying to make them give all the milk possible by feeding them the best he knows how, said to me, "Mr. Wing, since I have fed your alfalfa hay to my cows they give 20 per cent more milk." Isn't that marvelous? Now alfalfa hay is the best feed for working horses and the best for colts. It is the very best thing for all the four-footed babies on the farm. It is so full of protein, it dissolves and goes into muscle and goes to make milk and builds up the animal. Out in California the best thoroughbreds are fed on alfalfa hay ; they eat it in the meadows summer and wdnter. When I first saw those Cal- ifornia thoroughbreds I did not know what they were. They are so fine and well developed. Now, of course, it has a drawback. You are taking food from the soil all the time and leaving the soil poor. You have been told here that you could take off only 1,000 crops and you have your soil worn out. But you know some soils will wear out quicker than that. You remember the piece of land I told you about last night that I bought — the clay soil which I enriched with manure and put into corn in '85. Then in '86 I sowed it to alfalfa. I remember that year well, because it rained so much — 32 days every month, but I got a good stand of alfalfa. Then during '87, '88, '89, and for five or six years, I cut four hay crops every year. Took off all that liay and put nothing back. l68 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORl. Just think how we drained it of richness. Mother used to say, "you are wearing that soil out." Well, when I planted that land to corn again we got 80 bushels. Just see how it had worn off that land. Now how did we do that? It sounds like a miracle or a lie, one or the other. I will tell you, as near as I know. Away down in that soil, just as far as you can drain the ground out, those alfalfa roots will go — yes, just as deep. Now what do they do down there? They are lying up close to the minerals of the soil, bringing up the potash and phos- phoric acid nearer the surface, and on every root fibre are little nodules full of bacteria, and the air coming down full of nitrogen, the bacteria swallow the nitrogen and give it out to the alfalfa plant. It is really true that an acre of alfalfa will produce you as much fertility in a year that would cost you $60 if you bought it in the bag. That's the way we build up our farm — not by fertilizers alone — but b}^ alfalfa roots and manure. I was down in Kentucky one time, and, as I always do, I was looking for alfalfa fields. I was walking around one day and looking up I saw an old Kentucky farm up on a hill. I thought it ought never to have been cleared for a farm — the fields looked so steep, so bare anrl pitiful, and there was an old barn and an old dilapidated house. There were still a few old apple trees. A picture came up in my mind of the time when that farm was first cleared — of the young man who brought his wife there and raised boys and had hopes that those boys would stay on the old farm. Rut where were those boys now ? They have probably gone to the city and left the old farm. Then I could imagine the old man up there with his worn face, amid these poverty-stricken surroundings, wondering what he was going to do, and while I was feeling this pity for the old man, I looked up and saw an alfalfa field — only two acres of it, but just green and growing in the sunshine, and I said, "why, see that alfalfa. That old man has caught hold at last. If he will treat that alfalfa right, it will make him manure for starting another patch, and some day, if he keeps on, he can spread the glorious banner of alfalfa over that whole motmtain side ; and then his boys will have to stay at home and care for it. and that old liill side will never get any poorer than it is now, but richer every day." Let me tell you more about that old farm of ours. When I began working on it an old lame darky did most all the work. Today I have three married men there at work besides mv two brothers ; and those three married men work there for $1.25 a day the year around. I pay them that the year around. They have been with me for many years ; they think they own the farm. Their little boys go to school along LIVE STOCK breeders' ASSOCIATION. 169 with my little boys, dressed just as well. And on that old farm there are several single men working part of the year. Think what that means. We have increased the producing capacity many, many fold since taking hold of that old farm and putting alfalfa on it. I have been asked a hundred times since at this meeting whether you can grow alfalfa in Missouri. Why, of course, you can. There is not a man here who cannot grow alfalfa on his farm. It wants a soil that is fairly dry; not necessarily dry every day in the year, but one that is not water-logged for a long time during any part of the year. You must have that. I am not going to tell you how to get it dry. I tile-underdrain mine. You should manure the ground thoroughly. And you must have the land sweet. Now, on our soils we have not found it necessary to use lime ; but on many soils, especially in New York and in Northern Ohio and Pennsylvania, they find it necessary to lime the soil to make it sweet. Now if it is sweet and dry, there is only one more thing necessary to make the alfalfa grow, and that is to get plenty of humus in that soil, plenty of vegetable matter. This humus decaying in the soil makes plant food. You must have the soil rich before the alfalfa will start at all. But, more important than that: the humus in the soil makes a home for the bacteria and they will not grow very well without it. In all the region this side of the Mississippi river, you cannot usually get the inoculation to take place without manure. That's the experience in Iowa. Now, those are the three things necessary to make the alfalfa grow : the soil must be dry, it must be sweet, and it must have plenty of humus. . i DISCUSSION. Governor Colman: The subject of alfalfa is one of so much import- ance to the farmers of Missouri that I cannot refrain from saying a word or two in regard to the importance of cultivating this crop. I have had some ten years experience in raising this crop, and I consider it by far the most profitable crop I produce upon my farm. I raise it chiefly for horses. I have a large farm devoted to the production of horses and keep about loo head. For ten years I have tried this crop. I had some difficulty in getting the first crop established. My farm produces immense crops of crab grass and foxtail which nearly smother the alfalfa out the first two years, and the only way to prevent that is to run the mowing machine over it frequently. I have about twenty acres of it ; I sow it in the spring. My neighbors, who sufifer from crab grass as I do, sow it in the fall, or about the last of August, and have very successful crops. My farm is situated on the Creve Coeur 170 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. lake, and that lake was once the channel of the Mississippi ; but the river got choked up and turned off at St. Charles and it is what is termed the loess formation. And here I find the alfalfa crop a profit- able one. I cut about five crops each year and 8 or 10 tons to the acre. This year, being short of help and not cutting as often as I should, I only got four crops. I like it better than clover because it is not so much injured by rain. Generally when you cut red clover you have a good deal of rain ; rain comes at that season of the year, and I have had a great deal of red clover spoiled by rain, but have never had any alfalfa injured by the rain — that is, materially injured. Alfalfa is the best crop that can be grown for the feeding of young colts and mares ; and they eat it with greater avidity even than they eat red clover. I am compelled to stack some of my clover and some of my alfalfa and also some oats, and I have one lot in which I stack these different things and I sometimes turn my colts into the lot where these stacks are; and if you should visit that lot, you will find the stacks of alfalfa almost ready to fall down because the colts will go and take it in preference to the red clover and the oats or any other crop that can be raised; so if you want to please the appetite of your stock, feed them alfalfa ; it is the most desirable feed that you can give to your cattle, your horses, your sheep or your swine. I know that many farmers have a good deal of difficulty ui get- ting the crop established. Now my fields have been established for at least fifteen years, and I am almost ashamed to say that I have not put one single pound of manure Upon my alfalfa fields ; but I am very care- ful to save all of my manure, and I have a manure spreader which I use in carrying out all my manure; but I put the manure on my corn land instead of my alfalfa land. I use phosphate rock on my corn land, and I find that where I use it my ears of corn are heavier and better than on the land where I did not use the phosphate ; and I think that phosphate is an important fertilizer which our farmers should purchase and apply to their lands. I do not want to see our lands wearing out. I want to see returned to the soil that which has been taken from it. The bane of our farming in Missouri and the bane of the farming in the older states of the Union has been in exliausting the land of its fertility, taking crop after crop until it will no longer produce them, and the lands are turned out as waste property and abandoned farms as is the case in Virginia, Maryland and the New England states ; and we nnist institute a different system here. I find alfalfa to be equal in fertilizing qualities to red clover. Now, I don't want to be under- stood as going back on red clover. I think it is the farmer's salvation ; but I believe that every farmer can raise alfalfa. I should be glad to LIVE STOCK BREEDERS^ ASSOCIATION. I7I see a patch of alfalfa on every farm. Would not start it on a large scale at first — but would experiment with it a little. If your farm produces crab grass in abundance, I would say by all means prepare a field for your alfalfa. And to most of you I would say plant it in August so to avoid the crab grass and foxtail. I have seen it tried in the spring again and again without success. In the Missouri river bottoms, during that terrible year of drought, it was a pleasure to pass by those green fields of alfalfa. The drought did not affect the alfalfa at all. So I would say to you gentlemen, if you want to raise hay in any form, go to work and study up on this alfalfa question. Be sure and get good seed ; prepare your ground thoroughly and sow your seed about the last of August, and I believe that none of you will regret having done it. Dr. Waters : I dare say there is no point about which we have so many theories as alfalfa; and about the only way for you to learn how to grow alfalfa is to grow it. Start it on a small scale, of course, but grow it. It is being grown successfully in nearly every county in Missouri in a small way. You cannot hope to succeed as well from the outset as did Governor Colman ; but by following some suggestions which Mr. Wing has given you, and particularly avoiding sowing in the spring, and by preparing the ground thoroughly, you should be able to get a good crop. I would not plant alfalfa seed later than Sep- tember 1st. Mr. : Do you think rain will hurt the alfalfa? We had a heavy rain this fall when I sowed my alfalfa seed. Do you think I should sow it again next spring? Governor Colman : No, I would never sow it in the spring ; sow in July or August. Mr. : Do you use a blue-grass seeder? Governor Colman : It does not matter. A grass seeder attached to a grain drill is what I use. THE DRESSED BEEF DEMONSTRATION. (E. B. Forbes, Assistant Professor Animal Husbandry.) The people of the United States spend annually about $1,526,000,- 000.00 for meat, and as an average result of a large number of dietary studies conducted by our government, we determine that this represents 37.2 per cent of our entire expenditure for food. In the light of these facts, it is astonishing that we know so little about meat, and it is with 172 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. the object in view of making a general contribution to our knowledge of this important subject that we have planned the work of this dem- onstration. The lean portion of beef is composed of cylindrical fibers about 1-500 of an inch in diameter, and from 1-50 of an inch to 2 inches in length. Each of these fibers is composed of a cell wall of connective tissue or sarcolemma enclosing the muscle plasma. This last is the contracting substance of the muscle. These microscopic fibers are bound together by enveloping sheaths of connective tissue, and these bundles are again bound together into larger ones, so that the whole body of the muscle is made up of a contracting muscle plasma and enveloping con- nective tissue. The two ])rinie considerations in the selection of beef are tender- ness and flavor. Toughness in meat is caused principally by the thickness of the sarcolemma or other connective tissue. Age and exercise thicken this substance and hence toughen the meat. Acid softens or gelatinizes this portion of the muscle and hence renders the meat tender. Cooking increases the acidity of meat, and this acid and the heat used, change its connective tissue into gelatine. The fineness of the grain of meat is also an indication of the amount of connective tissue present. Coarse grained meat is usually tough. As good a way as I know to test the tenderness of a steak is to take it between the thumb and forefinger and note the resistance which it oflfers to firm pressure. One may pinch a hole in a tender steak in this way very easy indeed. The color of meat is also to some extent of value as an indication of tenderness. Dark meat is dark because of the amount of blood con- tained in it. The more exercise the animal has had the tougher will be his meat, the more blood will be in his muscles and the darker will be the color of the lean. We see an instance of this fact in comparing the meat of a fat young beef animal with that of a dairy cow. The lean of the former will be a bright cherrv red ; and the lean meat of the latter will be a very dark, bluish red, and is most undesirable. The color of the fat of meat is also useful as an indication of the quality of beef. Fat that has been put on rapidly, as in successful fattening, is light in color, and llir wliiUr the color the better we like it Shorthorn and TTcrcford cattle have very white fat if quickly fattened. The fat of Angus cattle is slightly darker, but is still of excellent qual- ity. The fat of Jersey cattle, especially old ones, or those which have been fattened slowly, is very dark and of a saffron yellow hue. The flavor of meat is due very largely to nitrogenous compounds which are easilv extracted with water and which the chemist therefore LIVE STOCK breeders' ASSOCIATION. tj ^ calls extractives. The per cent of extractives present is increased by age and by exercise, just as is also the toughness of meat; hence we find that the toughest meat is the best for soup, for it has the highest flavor, and if successfully cooked is really very palatable. On account of the fact that age is essential to the development of the best flavor in beef, we find it necessary to compromise between tenderness and flavor. Veal lacks the flavor of older beef. The yearling does not produce as well flavored beef as the two-year-old. The flavor and tenderness of beef are also improved by the ripening process. A number of days, probably two weeks time, is necessary to develop the best flavor in ripening beef. There is in this process a breaking down of some of the nitrogenous compounds into extract- ives and into sarcolactic acid. The extractives improve the flavor, and the acid, by softening the sarcolemma, increases the tenderness of the meat. These extractives are not nutrients in the ordinary sense of the term, but are merely tonics or stimulants. Beef extract and clear broth contain very little more than this extractive matter and are almost wholly lacking in real food. In skimming from the top of broth the last of the gray scum which comes to the surface, we remove almost the last of the real nutriment contained and leave it little more than a stimulant. We ordinarily consider that meat to be good must be fat and also that this fat must be well mingled with the lean — that is, the meat must be well marbled as we say. Now, just why is it that we fatten meat ? First : We fatten meat because lean meat cannot be successfully ripened. Lean meat is very watery ; fat meat is comparatively dry ; and lean meat will rot before it will ripen, because its watery condition affords so much better opportunity for bacteria to grow. Fat meat is also well protected from bacterial invasion by its surface covering of dry fat. Second : The fattening animal takes but little exercise. From disuse its connective tissue softens and the meat becomes more tender. Third : Fat meat does not shrink, shrivel, lose its moisture and become tough in cooking as does lean meat. Put a lean steak into a skillet to broil and in a moment it will be swimming in the water which has escaped from it. Put a fat steak in the same skillet and it will broil without loss of its juices and without nearly so much shrinkage. In comparing meat from the different portions of the carcass we note the truth of some of the above statements. For instance, the muscles of the neck which are exercised a great deal are very highly 174 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL RF.PORT. flavored and make exceedingly rich broth. The tenderloin has not nearly the rich flavor of the neck, but is more tender l:)ecause it is less used, hence has its connective tissue less developed. Further, the inside of the round, or the top, as the butcher calls it, for he lays the round with the outside down on the block, is much more tender than the remainder of this cut, and on this account in eastern markets is separated from the outer portion of the thigh, or round, and sold at a higher price. The outer portion of the round is tougher because it is exercised more, and is in contact with the ground when the animal lies down. The inner portion or top of the round may be dis- tinguished from the outer portion by the fact that the rim of fat surrounding the cut is thicker on this more desirable inside than on the tough outside. In separating a side of beef into its wholesale cuts the butcher cuts one rib onto the hind quarter ; and the remaining twelve are left in the fore quarter; seven ribs constitute the prime rib cut, and the five forward ribs are in the chuck. The plate is separated from the chuck by a line running from the point of the shoulder, back along the side horizontally to the posterior end of the prime of rib cut. The flank is separated from the loin by a continuation of this line from the point mentioned to the stifle. The plate is separated into two portions, the forward part being called the brisket and the rear portion the navel end. The cut called the shortribs is between the navel end of the plate and the prime of rib cut, and hence lies along the middle of the side. The round is separated from the loin at the rump bone and the sir- loin is separated from the porterhouse at the hip bone, the porterhouse being the forward end of the loin cut. The chuck is the shoulder. Table I exhibits a cutting test on three sides of beef of different grades. For these data we are indebted to Swift & Company of Kansas City, Missouri. These figures compare a prime steer, a medium steer and a common cow. As will be noted, they differ but slightly in the relative proportions of fore and hind quarters, but there is a marked difference in the per cent of dressed to live weight, the prime steer dressing 6i per cent, the medium steer 59 per cent, and the com- mon cow 50 per cent. The prime steer cost the packer a year ago, when this test was made, $5.25 per hundredweight, the medium steer $4.65 per hundredweight and the common cow $2.60 per hundred- weight. These three carcasses brought the packer $8.02 per hundred- weight, $6.79 per hundredweight and $4.79 per hundredweight, re- spectively, wholesale. 'J'he retail prices of these grades of beef in Kansas LIVE STOCK breeders' ASSOCIATION. 175 Table I. CUTTING TEST. THKEE GRADES OF BEEF. Outs. Prime steer per cent. Medium steer per cent. Common cow per cent. Fore quarter: Ciiuck Rib . 25.07 11.00 11.77 1.03 .25 1.79 1.28 24.37 10.15 12.18 1.03 .25 1.78 1.53 25.48 8.65 Plate Neck (boned) Neck bones Sliank meat Sliank bones . 11.55 1.92 .96 2.40 1.44 Totals 52.18 51.27 52.40 Hind quarter: Round and rumn 22.50 18.16 1.02 .51 1.02 1.53 .77 2.05 .25 22.34 17.77 1.27 .51 .76 .76 1.52 .25 3.35 24.04 Loin 16.83 Loin point Flank steak Flank trimmings No. 2 flank fat .ik" 2.41 No. 3 flank fat i.92 No. 1 kidney fat 1 Kidney 1.4t .48 Totals 47.82 48.73 47.60 Oattle dressed .61 15 25 8.02 tlO 4B .30 .59 $4 65 6.79 9.60 .41 .50 $2 60 Wholesale price ! 4.79 Retailers margin 7.42 .55 City at this time were $10.40 per hundredweight for the prime steer, $9.60 per hundredweight for the medium steer and $7.42 per liundred- weight for the common cow. This left the retailer a margin of thirty per cent on the prime steer, forty-one per cent on the medium steer, and fifty-five per cent on the common cow. These margins cover all the expense of business, the shrinkage caused through evaporation and the re- tailers net profit. It will be noted that the lower the grade of beef the greater was the retailers profit. This is directly dependent upon the correlated fact that the common cow and the medium steer cost the packer less in proportion to their value than did the prime steer. The retail butcher and packer make their biggest profits where the producer makes his least profit. As producers we are unfortunate in having low grade cattle to dispose of. There is less competition in the market for lower grades of cattle because of their abundance, A study of this table shows that the principal difference between high grade and low grade carcasses was in the rib, neck, shank and loin. The low grade carcass was long of leg and neck, and thin in loin and rib. There are a number of ways in which the wholesale cuts are divided up for the retail trade, but the usual method is about as fol- lows: The hind shank is cut into soup bones. The tip end of the 176 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. round is used as a pot roast, and the remainder of the round is cut into steaks, with the exception of the knuckle soup bone. The rump is usually sold as a roast without trimmings. It is a goo<:l piece of meat, but rather dry. The loin is all cut into steaks. The rear end is the sirloin j the forward end, the porterhouse. They are divided at the hip bone. The first cuts, of the sirloin are next neighbors to the rump and round and are very much like these parts in character. They are the least desirable of the loin steaks. The loin improves as we go forward, the fourth and fifth cuts being quite desirable steaks, as in these we begin to get into the tenderloin. The double bone loin steaks come next and are choice cuts. After two or three of these, according to thickness, we come to the hip bone porterhouse steaks, generally two in number. The best steaks in the loin are these hip bone porterhouse steaks, sometimes called the tenderloin cut, because they contain more of the tenderloin than any other steaks. The forward end of the porter- house is cut into clubhouse steaks, about two in number, which do not contain any of the tenderloin and are about the same in character as rib steaks would be. They are usually sold at a lower price than the remainder of the porterhouse. The prime of rib cut is made into roasts which may be left the full depth of the cut, in which case they are called standing rib roasts, or the ends may be removed, in which case they are called short cut rib roasts, and are sold at a higher price per pound. Whether the roast may be left long or cut short, the total cost of the cut will be almost the same, so that the economical way to purchase a rib roast is to buy it with the ribs left long, but broken so that the ends may be removed in the kitchen, if so desired, and cooked as a pot" roast or stew at a later date. In case the roast is purchased short, the butcher simply sells the ends over again. The flank contains a broad Hat nniscle known as a flank steak, which is a very desirable piece of meat if tiiken from a well fattened ar.imal. There is no waste to it whatsoever. It is coarse in liber, but very rich in flavor, and if carefully prepared is a very choice cut. In thin cattle the flank steak is not usually removed, the flank being made into rolled roasts or sold for stews. A rolled roast of the hind flank is one of the most economical cuts in the whole animal. It is good to eat, is cheap and contains no bone. The plate is usually used for corned beef, or is boned and made into rolled roasts. The chuck may be cut into roasts or steaks, and in a high grade carcass contains better meat for the money than the rib. The first or hindmost chuck roast is the best. It is as good as a rib roast and is LIVE STOCK breeders' ASSOCIATION. 177 cheaper. The shoulder clod makes a stewing piece. The neck makes soup or mincemeat, and the shin a stew and several soup bones. The retail value of a yearling steer weighing 900 pounds was computed on the basis of Columbia prices and totaled $50.44 for the carcass, or, including the hide and some other salable part, the total retail value of the steer was $61.03. The grade of beef represented in this animal costs at the present time $7.52 per hundredweight, whole- sale, and in Columbia cuts out $9.34 per hundredweight retail. This is the best grade of prime native steer beef. This carcass could have been handled at prevailing Columbia prices on a margin of 24.2 per cent to cover expenses, shrinkage and profit. The grade of beef usually handled in Columbia now costs $5.00 per hundredweight, dressed, and if it cut out as profitable a carcass as this prime steer did, it could be handled at present retail prices on a margin of 87 per cent to cover expenses, shrinkage and profit. It is well to note, however, that wholesale prices of meat are low at the present time and butchers' profits are higher than they often are. Still the butcher can usually buy the kind of cattle he handles in Columbia at from $2.25 to $3.25 per hundredweight alive, and this estimate is not far wrong. The retailer fixes his scale of prices so that he can afiford to do business at any price which dressed beef is likely to reach ; then the lower the wholesale price of beef, and the lower the grade handled, the greater will be his margin of profit. It is to his interest to handle a low grade of beef, because he can buy this sort better worth the money than any other. Table II. COLUMBIA AND CHICAGO RETAIL PRICES OF MEAT. Cuts. Chicago prices* cts. per lb. Average Columbia prices cts. per lb. Neck(bonein) 272 6 16-18 20-22 16-18 10 10 6 3 10 4 3 6 8 Chucks 10 Prime ribs Porterhouse .■ 17V4 Sirloin 15 Rump 10 Round Briskets 1214 5-7 Shin 2^ Shoulder clod Plate 10 5-8 Hind shank 2K Suet 6-7 Chicago prices on No. 1 prime corn-fed native steer. Columbia prices on No. 3 native heifer. On basis of these prices the Chicago butcher does business with prime steers on a margin of 30 per cent. The Columbia butcher could do business on same grade of carcass at current prices on margin of 27 per cent. *Prices of Louis Pfaelzer & Sons. A— 12 178 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. Table II compares Chicago prices on No. i corn-fed native steers and Columbia prices on No. 3 native heifers. As will be noted by the inspection of the table, the cheaper cuts bring better prices in Columbia than in Chicago, while the higher-priced parts bring more in the cit}' It should be borne in mind, however, that these prices are on very different grades of beef. Considering, however, that both are on the same grade of beef, we find that the Chicago butcher does business with prime steers on a margin of 30 per cent, while the Columbia butcher could do business with the same grade of beef at current prices on a margin of 27 per cent. Expenses of operating should be considerable higher in the city than in Columbia. Table III. PRICE OF EDIBLE MEAT IN PRINCIPAL OUTS. Outs. Per cent Inedible refuse. Price per pound. Cost per pound edible meat. Brisket 2i.3 17.3 .5.5 13.3 31.2 19.8 :i0.l 8.5 20.6 16.3 18.6 f 16 10 15 8 8 12y, 9.1 Chuck 10.1 Flank Loin Neck l:.'.B 17.6 11.5 Plate 10. R1I)S Round 15.6 13.7 Fore () uarter Hind (J uarter Whole side Table III compares the cost per pound of edible meat from the more important parts of the carcass ; due allowance being made for the inedible refuse purchased. The edible portion of the round steak costs in Columbia 13.7 per pound. The edible portion of the rib costs two cents per pound in excess of this amount, while the edible part of the loin costs 173/2 cents per pound, figuring the whole loin as it comes from the shop at 15 cents i>er pound. Chuck is cheaper tlian any of the other cuts in the back and yields edible meat at a lower price per pound than any other portions, mentioned except the brisket, flank, neck and plate ; all of which, except the best part of the hind flank, being distinctively of a low grade as regards palatability and ease of prep- aration. The more tender and palatable portions of the carcass and those which can be prepared for the table with the least effort are the ones for which competition forces us to pay the highest prices per pound. As a local butclier expressed it to me, "The kind of meat you people want to buy is the kind you can have ready for the table at 12:30 after you have stayed down town till 12:00 o'clock." The writer once boarded with a German family in Minnesota, in LIVE STOCK breeders' ASSOCIATION. 1^9 which the housewife was more wiUing than many to spend hours in the preparation of a cheap piece of meat. I well remember a Thanksgiving dinner taken at this house. The good lady had spent her whole morn- ing drawing shreds of bacon through the tough muscles of a jack rabbit with a larding needle. She was making marbled meat. We do not ordinarily think of eating jack rabbit, but through her industry she certainly made this a very fine victual. Our way is best ; human life is too valuable to spend larding jack rabbits, but it costs more money to get the kind of meat we prefer. ' BREEDING PURE-BRED STOCK AS A BUSINESS. (Mr. Clarence Eagsdale, Moberly, Mo.) Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen : When I commenced working on the subject, I found it so vague and so indefinite that I hardly knew what was best to say about it. I finally thought best to take up only one phase of the subject assigned, and try to do something with that, and so I have written, in a rambling way I fear, about important points in "Breeding Pure-Bred Live Stock as a Business." There are few men who start out in life saying 'T will do such and such business, or follow a certain profession, and when I am of middle age I will have my afifairs in a settled condition and can then realize the fruits of my early labor." Very few of us work to any definite plan, and keep at that work, until our ambitions are accomplished. We are led to take up certain lines of business by surrounding circum- stances, parental influence or, more often than not, by the urgent need of earning the almightly dollar, the choice of the way to acquire it being a secondary consideration. We have, so to speak, been forced into a certain way of earning our livelihood, or have drifted into this or that business, instead of having deliberately chosen it. This is especially true of the breeding of pure-bred live stock. Most breeders have made it a side issue, going on at the siame time with some business which has perhaps accumulated wealth for them, and treat- ing their live stock industry as a diversion, or an experiment instead of a money-making business. I take it that when we smaller fellows discuss the improved live stock business, as a business, we mean it as a money maker, not a mere money spender, and that if we pursue it we do so because it will bring in profitable returns in cold cash; at the same time we are much indebted to these men of station and of wealth l8o MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. who prefer building barns to building libraries and who would rather feed a balanced ration to their fine stock than grand dinners to a French actress. They do not spare money in the purchase of the stock itself, nor in the arrangements for housing and feeding and care. They make the animals and the conditions as ideal as possible. That is a good thing for us to think about, working to an ideal, a pattern. There is good money in that thought, as well as a little sentiment. To have in mind an ideal shorthorn, or Poland China, or Cotswold; and to feed and breed and cull and strive every day to reach that standard is the same thing as saying, "my stock is better this year than it was last, and consequently worth more money." That is my first point: Have an ideal. A merchant who would attract and hold his trade is particular to be in the fashion and keep up with the latest style. Fashions in pure-bred stock change, and come and go. Glancing through the advertising pages of the Breeders' Gazette, there you will see the names of certain families and strains of blood repeated again and again as an inducement to buyers. The Jersey bulletin is the same ; on every page appears the magic words, "Golden Ladds," which just now is the fashionable and no doubt extremely worthy Jersey style ; and the same with the swine papers. "Perfection" and "Keep-on" are the words to conjure with in the Poland-Chinas. These are examples of wliat is true in each of the breeds of horses, cattle, hogs, sheep and even chickens, in fact, in all pure-bred stuff. To meet general approval and command a ready sale, the pedigreed animal must own a strain of this notable and fashionable blood. Understand me now, I am not saying that what is the most fashionable and sells the quickest always meets your ideal and mine of what is truly the best. Great minds will differ, and in this connection we recall with amusement how a certain breeder of Jerseys, on exhibition at St. Louis, afterwards made a sale. In their sale catalogue they referred to some of their choicest animals in terms of praise, but added that they would not probably be wild and woolly enough to please certain judges. The fashionable style may not be your notion of the best, but as a business proposition I make my second point : Be in fashion and offer stock of the breeds most talked about and sought after. To understand clearly wliat are the leading lines of pure-bred stock and to keep in touch with the doings of the breeders and feeders, and buyers and sellers, close reading of various agricultural papers from week to week is a real necessity, and a great pleasure as well. Bulletins from the Department of Agriculture and State bulletins are a great help, a wonderful help; and it is a queer condition that, with these few I have mentioned and many more that I havn't time to mention, fairly holding out their hands and beseeching LIVE STOCK breeders' ASSOCIATION. ^ l8l one to help them make him dollars, it is queer, I repeat, that the printing press is not kept running over time to supply the urgent demand for them." Missouri has good, helpful agricultural papers; close acquaint- ance with and careful study of the pedigree of animals is of great service, and often adds dollars to the price. Books, descriptive of the different breeds, and also those which treat of feeds, care, etc., pay a big premium on the investment; you see this point often, that it pays and pays big for the breeder to keep up with the times by reading and study. If the farmers of my county or of any county in our grand State could only see the possibilities of their farmholds, if they could only be so united as to see that they could become at least independent if not rich by disposing of the scrub stock, and all breeding any one of the breeds of beef cattle, of dairy cattle or of horses, or swine or sheep, anything in the line of pure-bred stock, according to the sort of land they have, and the kind of stock they like to work with best, if they only could and would do so, what a difference there would be, but when I say if I lean back in my chair and close my eyes and let my imagina- tion run riot as in a dream. I see my county blossom as the rose ; I see fertile fields, bearing heavy crops ; I see blue grass and clover pastures, and, best of all, alfalfa, giving of their substance to big beef cattle, or to dainty dairy cattle; I see hogs whose eyes stick out with fatness, and whose backs are as broad as a farm mortgage, ready for the market, or show ring; I see the golden hoof of the sheep drifting like a white cloud hither and yon over the pastures ; I see good fences, good roads, roomy barns, silos and comfortable dwellings, and I see a steady stream of money pouring into these farmers' pockets for all these well bred animals. Oh, if, then comes that awful if again, and with a rude hand knocks down my castle in the air and I can no longer dream, but must face the stern reality of the situation as it is. It is bad enough, and it stands just about like this : A well-to-do farmer here and there has bought pure-bred stuff, cattle mostly or hogs, paying a fair or perhaps a long price; these animals are well fed and cared for, and given some extra attention, since their owner considers that he has quite a sum of money invested in them. Thought is given to breeding them, and the young things are well fed out. Presently these men have good stock for sale. With the same sense they have shown all through the transaction, they advertise and sell this stock, making something in the deal. The stock becomes better and better through introducing new lines of blood and the farmers make a good thing of their in- vestment. There are a few of this class, and it is to be hoped there will soon be many. They are the leaven which we trust will soon leaven the whole lump. They are. in wonderful contrast to the other l82 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. class of farmers, who, as I said a moment ago, make the situation so bad. These men buy as good stock as the others do, take them home and dump them out on their land. They thereafter receive no care and the scrubbiest of scrub treatment. They have to take their chances, and without suitable food, water or shelter, they are kicked and cuflfed about and receive no extra attention whatever. Perhaps the females are mated with unregistered males, the increase is not made anything of, and the owner mentally kicks himself when he accidentally sees one of them and wonders why he was such a fool as to pay out good dollars for these poor critters. If he wants to sell them he does not go about it in a business way, since he takes no care of the pedigrees, and really is in ignorance of the value of what he has. A pretty dark picture surely, yet it is the truth. The man loses out on his stock, loses the money invested and gives the pure-bred stock industry a black eye in his neighborhood. We little fellows, beginning in the business, perhaps don't have the situation so well under control that we can care for our animals as we should, but we are working toward that ideal I spoke of a few moments ago, and to reach it, it seems almost a necessity to have what you might call a personal acquaintance with each animal. Haven't you noticed in your herd of cows that there is always one cow who bosses the whole thing and is first in war and first in peace and another one who is gentle and patient and seemingly knows what you say to her and what you want her to do. You will remember how this individ- uality was brought out by the professor in charge of the Jerseys in the 'World's Fair test. He fed and cared for each cow according to his knowledge of her. That was a substantial and gratifying piece of work. Those cows were as dififerent from each other as persons are. Even two hogs, stupid and gross as they seem to be, differ; one is less stupid than the other. We raised two pigs by hand one winter ; called one Napoleon and the other Josephine. Napoleon acquired several tricks — ^vould shake hands, nod and shake his head for yes or no, and ask for food. Joseph- ine never learned anything; she just ate and slept, and while it has nothing to do with the point I am coming to. 1 might remark that both Napoleon and Josephine came to violent deaths. Napoleon was sold, and soon after that became overheated and died, and Josephine was killed on the railroad track. The point I have come to and trust to make is, that it is a part of the business and the great .secret of success- ful business to care for and feed and shelter \our stock and try to know them and study each one as an individual. Don't you believe it? The spring of the year is the most interesting and attractive season because then the growth of plant life commences anew, and each bud LIVE STOCK- breeders' ASSOCIATION. 183 and blossom is full of promise. Hopes of a bountiful crop animate the farmer and he goes forth to his daily toil with renewed energy. He plants carefully and tills his crops unceasingly that they may grow and bring forth, some ten and some a thousand-fold. He rejoices in the plant growth. It is also pleasing to note the growth of animals. Old Queen was a good cow, perhaps, but her heifer, which will soon drop her first calf, bids fair to become a more prolific milker than her mother, both in quantity and quality of the product. How do I know it? Because her sire was of a fine milking strain, and because she has had good care. Being larger than her mother, she no doubt has greater food capacity, and her springing udder and well-placed teats indicate an excellent milker. She is something to feel gratified over ; she's bred up instead of down. That pure-bred brood sow down in the hollow with her young pigs has as fine, or, in fact, the finest litter she ever farrowed. There are two little gilts that are just about the thing, and a boar or two, that, when grown out, will be something fancy. The old sow is a fine specimen of her breed, and the boar was the best to be had in that part of the country. They ought to be good ; they are the best pigs the farmer man has raised on his place. He is proud of them and likes to go out of his way a little so as to pass by the hog house and look at these, and scratch the old mother pig a bit, and see her babies, as they lie in a shining heap in the straw or run about to find out what sort of a world they have come to. The man is proud of his stufif, takes a pride in watching it grow and fill out, and all th? time tries to breed it better and better. They will sell for more than the last litter the mother had, and his motto is, and he sticks to it like a nailer, "Breed 'em up, gentlemen, breed 'em up." See the point? I should consider that I had omitted a very important item of the pure-bred stock business if I failed to refer to the advertising and sell- ing of the stock. There are various good ways and means of reaching the public and calling the buyer's attention to the stock which is to be sold. A letter head, bearing the name of the farm and the owner, the sort of stock bred, and perhaps details of certain animals, calls the atten- tion of correspondents to the business of the writer in a very nice way. Sales are many times made by this agency alone. Local advertising is not productive of many sales, although there is generally considerable buying and selling and exchanging among local breeders. An adver- tisement may be well written and attractive and yet fail to bring buyers because it is in the wrong paper. Agricultural papers which are filled with ads. of patent medicines and nostrum, and get-rioh-quick schemes, are worse than useless for advertising stock, no matter how cheap their terms are, nor how great their circulation. They contain, for the most T84 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. part, reading matter taken from high class papers and not credited to them. Rural route mail boxes are filled with this cheap trash, week after week by the publishers, whether subscribed for or not. About all they are good for is kindling fires. A well-written ad. in a good high- class agricultural journal will bring the desired results. Occasional advertising will be sufficient until the business becomes large enough to bear a standing ad., which, of course, is expensive. It is extremely beneficial to the business, however, if it does cost. It is mighty poor business to misrepresent the stuff either in an alvertisement or in cor- respondence. It is an old saw, and a true one, that a pleased customer is the best advertisement, and a man's reputation for fair dealing gets around among the people somehow. Considerable stock is bought "sight unseen," as the boys call it. The buyer depends largely on the pedigree and on the word of the seller. It is best to make good any dissatisfaction which may arise, if possible. It is not always possible, for some buyers couldn't be pleased, not if they had selected in person the animal purchased. It pays in filling mail orders, to send out ani- mals which have been fairly represented in the correspondence, and to live carefully up to the rule to never make a statement in a letter which cannot be borne out by the animal under consideration. Advertise them as much as the business will bear. In concluding this brief review of what I consider the most im- portant thing in the improved stock business, to which you have lis- tened .'o patiently, I will say that the outlook for the pure-bred stock business in Missouri is radiantly bright. Those who are in the busi- ness,- either in a large way or a small way, have the opportunity of a life time before them. The demand for their stuff, if it is the right kind of stuff, will be steady and urgent. Everything points to it. Missouri has got a move on her. The St. Louis World's Fair was an eye-opener to thousands and thousands of people who did not know Missouri was on the map, let alone knowing what fine stock she could raise. Stock exhibitors from everywhere found they must reckon with Missouri before the prize became theirs. Nor has our beloved State been without honor and a representative at the recent Chicago Inter- rational. A lot of people pictured the Missouri farmer as a long, lank man, barefooted, wearing little besides overalls and a hickory shirt, sitting on the porch of a rickety old dwelling, squirting tobacco juice from between his dirty teeth, and living chiefly on razor-back- bacon, corn bread and sorghum molasses. He went to town in a ram- shackle old wagon behind a lame mule and an old blind horse, hitched up together, and his women folk with him sitting flat in the bed of the wagon. He may look like that to some ; to me he looks very, very LIVE STOCK breeders' ASSOCIATION, 185 different. To me he looks like a strong, sensible man, dressed in a well-fitting suit of good clothing. He sits on the vine-covered porch of his comfortable cottage home, and has in his hand a daily paper. His bill of fare is, this time of the year, Berkshire sausage for breakfast, Short- horn rib roast for dinner and Hereford porterhouse steak for supper. He has roast Mammoth Bronze turkey or Plymouth Rock old hen with dressing for Sunday dinner. His table is supplied with Jersey butter and cream, Holstein cheese, clover honey, made by Italian bees, and grape or current wine on the side. When he drives to town, it is be- hind a thoroughbred team, and he and his family are in a comfortable carriage. That is my notion of a typical Missouri farmer. And when more and more farmers get into the improved stock business, as they will — there is no question of it — they will become even more comfort- able and more thrifty than I have pictured this one. The price of farms in Missouri is getting higher and higher. Farmers from adjoin- ing states, who have sold their land at a long price per acre, come here and buy cheaper land and, making money by the move, have a little surplus which enables them to buy pure-bred stock and conduct their farming on a wider and more profitable basis. Somebody once said that if Missouri were inclosed within a high wall and forced to exist within herself, she could produce everything necessary to sustain her population in comfort and luxury from her own resources, and with no outside help. We Missourians are proud of our State — proud of her resources, proud of her advance in the line of pure-bred stock, and willing and desirous to see the time come when the greater part of her farmers shall go into one or another branch of this excellent busi- ness — breeding pure-bred live stock. DISCUSSION. Mr. Boles : I was very much interested in that paper, and I will say that I believe in a man making a business of any business that he undertakes. To a beginner in the pure-bred business I will say that it would be best for him to start with a tried animal. Sometimes we get an idea that we want to buy a show animal and sometimes we buy something that is untried. I have always found that it is better for me to buy some old cow rather than some untried heifers. We are not supposed to know all about the pure-bred business when first starting in, and it is because we don't get started right that we become dis- gusted and quit the business so often. I remember my first experience in buying sheep. I went to the St. Louis Fair and I bought three ewe lambs. I made a mistake in the whole business, only one lamb prov- ing a success. The ewe lambs are all right, but I had to wait too long l86 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. to get my money back. And I learned that it would pay me better to buy the older sheep, and the same with my cows. I bought seven or eight two or three-year old cows. Those cows have all paid for them- selves and left me a profit. Another point in which I have made a mistake, and that is in selling stock and not giving the pedigree. Some- times a man buys an animal and don't care anything about its pedigree. Sometimes we have pure-bred stock that we cannot pedigree. I had a little experience in that not long ago, and I think it was detrimental to me. If we cannot pedigree our stock we had better not put it on the market at all as a breeder. When you sell a man an}'thing give him the pedigree, whether he wants it or not. I gave a man a pedigree once and he twisted it up and put it in his pocket, and I guess he lighted his pipe with it the first time he wanted to smoke. That made me feel like I had done a lot of work for nothing ; but sometimes we find the pedigrees are worth a great deal to us. Whenever you buy an animal have him registered ; get the fellow from whom you buy it to have it registered if you can, but if not, get the pedigree so you can have him registered whenever you want to. Another thing I would say in regard to the pure-bred business — educate yourself — know what }ou are doing. Find out whether or not you can depend upon the man with whom you are dealing. That is the first question. If you cannot depend on him don't have anything to do with his stock. That is my theory. In order to know these things you have got to attend these meetings, and attend the shows and get acquainted with the hrceders. Then, you must read the agricultural papers. There is no man who can keep up and not read, and no man can know what he is doing and be posted without knowing who are responsible breeders. And then ahout advertising. Even if you don't have anything to sell at the present time, it is a good idea to keep your name before the people all the time. Let them know you are still in the business, and I am sure it will ])ay you. Mr. Ragsdale: I would say to any young man who wants lo start in the breeding business lo first find out what kind of animal he wants, and then, when he goes lo the hrceder, just tell him he is from Missoui and wants to sec the papers. Insist on getling the pajx^rs. LIVE STOCK breeders' ASSOCIATION. 187 POLLED -HEREFORD CATTLE. (Hon. B. O. Gammon, Des Moines, Iowa.) It seems indeed like labor lost to bring word of an improved type of Hereford cattle to Missouri. Missouri, birthplace and home of the mighty Defender, peerless leader of a peerless breed; Missouri, whose five hundred pure-bred Hereford herds make it the very Hereford- shire of America, who would presume to improve upon the Missouri Hereford? But at the invitation of your program committee I am here to discuss what the world must deem an improved type of the "whiteface," the Polled Hereford. The ultimate outlet for the products of every herd of beef cattle is the shambles. Whether we produce breeding cattle or feeding cattle, we all meet on the road to the slaughter pens. If we are to succeed we must be ever ready to supply the demands of the butcher, our final common patron. Between us and the butcher there usually come two important intermediaries, the feeder and the shipper. And all these' men, feeder, shipper and butcher, are demanding today, as never be- fore, that beef animals shall have no horns. The men who handle the steer while he is preparing for the packing house note some essential and very well defined differences between the horned and the horn- less beef. The feeder knows that the hornless animal will gain faster, needs less shed room, is more docile and altogether more pleasant and profitable than the horned one. The shipper has learned that there are no broken horns, gouged eyes or disemboweled cattle when a load of hornless ones reaches market, and he has felt, too, the cut of $1.00 to $3.00 per head that the buyer gives the horned steer, and he avoids it as a plague. The butcher notes the bright carcass, free from bruises, and the evenly marbled flesh of the quickly-fattened steer and unites with the others in demanding a hornless beef. Although this demand has been recognized in the past, and more especially in the recent past, the breeder of Herefords has had no way of meeting it save by the saw. And the dehorning sa\^ has its very great disadvantages. On the range it presents serious practical diffi- culties, and everywhere it results in a temporary check to rapid growth, often in losses by death, and is always accompanied by the frightful brutality of intense pain. No matter how humane the operator or the method, dehorning is a disgusting, unpleasant job, detested by every lover of animals, and what successful stockman does not love them ? l88 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL RBPORT. Hence, we see the crying need of a naturally hornless or polled strain of Herefords. To supply this need the American Polled Hereford Cattle Club was organized at Des Moines, Iowa, in 1900, for the purpose of estab- lishing and building up such a strain. We at first held the opinion, so prevalent among breeders, that our only method would be to make use of an outcross with some established polled breed, such as the Polled Durham, Angus or Galloway, coming back immediately to the Hereford and continuing to infuse Hereford blood until such high giades were attained as would be practically pure bred. In other words, we expected to produce just such a breed as is the Single Stand- ard Polled Durham, cattle practically pure bred, but with just enough alien blood to give the polled head. However, upon a study of Darwin's "Origin of Species," in which we became much interested about that time, wc were convinced that there must be freaks or sports among pure-bred Herefords as among all other species of animals, and that if they could but be located there were probably in existence sport or freak Herefords having no horns, though of pure-bred horned ancestry. We determined to make a search for such freaks, and by correspondence ■with the members of the American Hereford Cattle Breeders' Associa- tion, we located seventeen such animals, four males and thirteen fe- males. We bought the four males and seven of the females and mated for the first time in history a hornless Hereford bull with a hornless Hereford cow for the express purpose of producing polled progeny. We were successful, and from that small, though far from insig- nificant beginning, we have gone on in our operations until we now have a promising start toward a fixed and, we believe, increasingly popular strain of beef cattle. Though two of the original four males have proven worthless as breeders, we have located two more, and so have four unrelated bulls to use in avoiding detrimental inbreeding. These males and their oldest calves are busy in good herds of cows possessing some of the best blood lines in the Hereford Herd Book, and are producing polled calves of high merit. In our own herd we had twenty-two polled calves this year, thirteen being males. There are males in use in well-selected herds in Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Nebraska, Wyoming and Canada. While we were breeding the single standard cattle many became interested in them, and we now have upwards of fifty breeders raising this class of cattle. Under the rules for entry of cattle in the Single Standard Polled Hereford Record, the cattle offered must be sired by cither a registered Polled Hereford bull or a pure bred Hereford bull, and their dams must be sired either by a registered Polled Hereford bull LIVE STOCK breeders' ASSOCIATION. 189 or a pure bred Hereford. This rule results in nothing less than three- quarter Herefords being admitted to record as single standard Polled Herefords, and as a matter of fact, the bulk of the cattle entered dur- ing the past year are from seven-eighths to thirty-one-thirty seconds pure bred. I trust you have it clearly in mind that single standard Polled Herefords are cattle naturally polled and possessing the Hereford mark- ings and type and a very large fraction of pure Hereford blood, but having a slight mixture of alien polled blood from some established polled breed, while double-standard Polled Herefords are pure-bred registered Herefords, which either are freaks of nature (so-called "sports"), or are the progeny of such sports. A double-standard Polled Hereford is nothing more nor les than a pure-bred Hereford, naturally polled or hornless. He sires polled calves with certainty, and is no longer either a product of chance or a creature of accident. Now, a word as to the individuahty attained in this new breed. It stands to reason that you can pick a larger number of superior animals from a herd of a thousand than from a herd of a hundred, and since there are relatively so few Polled Herefords (I am speaking always of Double Standards) in existence, no one need expect to find every one a show animal. But this is true in breeding, that when an organism sports or varies from the parent type in a new and pronounced way, there seems to be a breaking up of the old-settled lines of heredity or inherit- ance, and variations in several lines are apt to show up in the resulting progeny. This principle explams the fact that some of our Polled Hereford bulls throw calves far superior to themselves, and when mated with only ordinarily good cows, produce some really excellent progeny. Another fact beyond dispute is that the Herefords as a breed respond most readily to care and management. There being so few Polled Herefords in the country they are all given extra good treat- ment, and this results in bringing out all there is in them as indviduals. In this way we have succeeded in producing what we think are some very creditable specimens. Indeed, a Polled Hereford took second place in the Hereford ring at the Wyoming State Fair last fall. We are frequently asked, "How many generations removed from horns are your cattle?" To this we must reply, "Not many." There are bulls whose dams, granddams, aunts and sires are all polled and heifers of the same breeding. Within a few months we expect to have polled calves whose dams, granddams, and great-granddams, sires and grandsires are polled. The future of the breed looks rosy. The demand for breeding stock has been phenomenal. We could have sold fifty head where we 190 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. have been able to produce one. In December last we placed some spring calves in offer by writing out eighteen letters to men who had expressed an interest in the matter. Within a week we had seven replies, all asking that one or more calves be reserved. Prices have consequently ruled strong calves at weaning time commanding $250 to $500. Many parties, have bought pure-bred horned heifers in calf to our herd bull and raised their own polled stock. One man put $1,700 into a small herd of Hereford heifers, bred them to our bull, and recently refused for his first crop of calves $2,000. Like all other new enterprises, it started slowly, but it has now gained an impetus that nothing can overcome, and the Polled Hereford, an accomplished fact, is here to stay. The Hereford fraternity, at first questioning the possibility of producing a polled strain, is awakening to the importance of this new breed character, and many of them are only waiting for a bull to take up the enterprise. Breeders of other beef breeds who like the Herefords, but dislike the horns, and so selected a hornless breed, are warm advocates of this new Hereford. Demand produces a supply, and ere many months we expect to have herds in every state of the pure-bred cattle belt and, gaining strength with numbers, we look forward to an unprecedented growth and popularity. I would not have you imagine for a single moment that you must put aside all your favorite blood lines when you start with this new breed, for by crossing a polled bull on cows of any desired family, you. can produce polled calves of any blood you wish. We have resorted very largely to this mating of horned Hereford cows with polled bulls in building up the individuality of our herds, since we can cross upon cows of as good type, conformation and pedigree as we desire and pro- duce calves as good as any ones. Judicious inbreeding can be used in fixing the polled character, and thereafter we can breed in any line de- sired. We do not come to you with a new and untried breed of cattle, but simply taking advantage of a commercially valuable variation, we propose to engraft it upon the established breed and add nuich to its present high value while detracting in no way from its well known merit. Among a lot of queer notions prevalent everywhere concerning Polled Hereford cattle is the idea that they are uncertain breeders and not true to type. That one year a bull may sire a few polled calves, the next year many, and perhaps the third year none. Furthermore, that the percentage of polled calves will be small, say 10 to 15 per cent. This is an error, as is demonstrated by the experiences of all our breeders. A "sport," or original polled bull or a polled bull with one horned parent, will sire from 50 to 75 per cent polled calves when LIVE STOCK breeders' ASSOCIATION. I9t used in a horned herd. In the average of many years it will probably run about fifty per cent. When mated with polled cows with this same amount of polled blood, such a bull will sire from 75 to 100 per cent polled calves. In-bred or line-bred bulls are, of course, more prepotent in dehorning than are others. There is as much certainty in results to be anticipated by the Polled Hereford breeder as by any other class of breeders. We have not repealed the laws of inheritance, we are but using them to our own advantage. Concluding, allow me to suggest, with all due respect to every other worthy breed, that we have in Hereford cattle one of the thriftiest, hardiest, "hustlingest" and most profitable breeds of beef cattle in ex- istence, a breed that feeds magnificently, matures very quickly, has a quiet, docile temperament, breeds surely and prepotently, bears a fa- mous trade mark in its clean white face, and can acquit itself with honor anywhere. It is faulty in one essential, its heavy horns. If we eliminate this fault we can match the Galloway for hardihood, the Angus for finish or the Shorthorn for scale. The day is not far distant when all beef cattle will be polled. Men will produce what other men will pay for, and the other men are paying more liberally for hornless cattle. The Angus and Galloways have been polled as long as we have any knowledge of them, the Shorthorns produced the Polled Durhams not many years ago, and now the last, though not the least, of the great beef breeds is being dehorned by science instead of the saw. Hereford men have now the opportunity to remove the most glaring fault from their cattle, and do it at a profit. Surely one is not very wrong to sug- gest such an improvement here in the heart of the Hereford country. Gentlemen, I thank you. THE MANAGEMENT OE A PURE-BRED HERD. (E. B. Mitchell, Ollnton, Mo.) As this topic covers such a vast area and is governed by so many conditions over which we have no control, it would seem that there could be no rule that will apply to dififerent localities. However, the first thing to be taken into consideration would be the object we expect or hope to obtain, and it seems to me that in this progressive age of high-priced land and labor there should be but one place to strive for, and that is as near the top as possible. It matters little how successful you may be as compared with your fellow-breeder, or how nearly you may think you can reach the pinnacle of success, there 192 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. is always that something in the distance, that hope and desire to ac- compHsh something just a Httle better, to stimulate and encourage us to reach just a little higher degree of perfection in the production of animal life. No man has yet produced a perfect animal, and this very fact will, of itself, stimulate and encourage the ambitious breeder. Having thus outlined my views concerning the objective point in a breeder's career, I desire to go further and state that I am a firm be- liever in the selection of specialties as the surest and safest road to suc- cess. The breeder who can and will formulate in his mind the perfect animal, whether it be a draft horse, light harness horse, beef animal or dairy animal, and exert every effort and lend all his energy to the production of this one class, will come very much nearer materializing his ideal than the man who scatters his shot at two bulls eyes, usually shooting just between both. In other words, the animal bred for the purpose of combining two qualities must of necessity take a mediocre position competing with animals bred especially for either the one or the other. "Oh, but," says one, "we breed sheep for both wool and mutton, why not cattle for both beef and milk?" We do combine both dairy and beef qualities as successfully as do our friends breeding sheep. But has any one yet produced a Southdown carcass of mutton with a Merino or Ramboulette fleece? I answer "no." As no man can serve two masters, I believe it a physical impossibility to divide ones atten- tion to the development of two qualities in one animal without becoming top heavy one way or the other, thereby sacrificing one quality to the development of the other. This being, in my judgment, human nature, it brings us to the necessity of specializing in the production of the highest types of animal life. My preference being for beef cattle, and what little experience I have had having been along this line, I shall attempt to tell you how I manage the cattle now in my charge — and do not wish to be understood that I consider my plans anything like perfect, for by constant care and watchfulness I find that they can be very much improved upon. Neitiier will my plan be feasible in more northerly countries where the winters are more severe, but as regards climate we are certainly ad- mirably located and have it within our power to give to animals what nature intended them to have, the run of good pasture and plenty of pure air. I long since learned to appreciate fresh air and outdoor life under natural conditions in the rearing of pure-bred cattle. I prefer having as large a per cent of calves as possible during the fall and winter months, beginning as soon after September i as possi- ble (as you are well aware a showman never has any calves dropped LIVE STOCK breeders' ASSOCIATION. 193 prior to September ist). Our early calves coming in September and October, are allowed to stay with their dams in pasture the first three weeks of their lives, not, however, with the herd, but in a small pasture kept for this purpose. After reaching this age the dams go to pasture with the herd, coming in to nurse morning and night, and in the pasture used for nursing calves we keep a trough low enough to the ground so that almost the smallest calf can reach and feed in this trough at all times. It is surprising how soon a little calf will learn to lick a little feed of bran and ground oats. As soon as the weather becomes stormy the calves are brought to the barn into what we call the calf pen, a covered shed twenty by fifty feet, with the upper half of the south wall open, which is never closed. These calves are given the run of a yard of about a half acre every day in winter, with plenty of fresh water and feed before them all the time. The dams are brought to the barn evenings and kept in at night, allowing the calves to nurse night and morning, and the cows going to pasture every day in winter as in summer. At three months of age all the bull calves are removed to other quarters, similarly constructed, and handled the same way. On the approach- of grass, say April i, we select a warm day, and every animal on the farm is put through the dipping tank to eliminate lice or any skin trouble that may exist. The cattle are then all classi- fied as to ages and go to their respective pastures, yearling heifers in one pasture, two-year olds in another, dry cows in another, the nursing heifer calves to another pasture, the nursing bull calves to still another, and the dams of each separated in different pastures, coming to the respective yard to nurse. We continue feeding the calves on grass, so that by the time they are ready to wean they never notice it, but go right on with their growth, entering the second winter in fine condition and, in fact, what a great many men would call fat. During this winter every good day these heifers go right out to their pasture, coming in at night to a yard with a shed open to the south, and are fed about four quarts each night and morning of a ration consisting of two parts bran, two parts ground oats, and one part ground corn by measure, with all the good timothy or clover hay they care to run to. During this winter and the following spring all of the bulls of this crop of calves should be sold, and the following summer the heifers are fed once a day in the pasture about one gallon of such feed as above described. By the fol- lowing fall, or by January i, all of these heifers should be bred and in calf, and are kept right out in pasture all winter with timber for shelter and fed twice a day with plenty of good hay for roughness. A— 13 194 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. We try to liave our two-year old heifers approach calving time in very strong flesh, and by constantly growing them from birth this can be accomplished with little or no risk, and right here let me say that the best way I know of to produce thick-fleshed cattle is by giving them the habit cultivated through sire and dam from generation to generation. Every man has his fads, and this feeding question is one of mine, and one that in my judginent has been more disastrous (not however that of feeding but lack of feeding among breeders of pure-bred live stock) than any one thing connected with the business. Did you ever have any one admire or compliment you on the pro- duction of an animal that is so thin in flesh that it must walk twice in the same place to make a shadow? Is it not always the fattest animal you have that sells first? The first season that a young cow nurses a calf is, in my judgment, the the time they require the most care. Take the heifer through this period in good flesh and you will have no trouble in the future to retain that condition ; on the contrary, allow the heifer to grow thin and emaci- ated during this period and you will always have a thin, poor cow. I try to give to each cow about three months of rest between nursing and calving, and for this purpose I reserve the most quiet, coolest and coziest pasture on the farm, not one with grass over which the cow must work the greater part of twenty-four hours to gain a living, but with grass to their knees, so that they can soon fill and lie down in peace and comfort, and by calving time they are usually quite fleshy and prepared to do their part in raising their offspring. I do not know how successful other breeders are in having their cows produce calves within the twelve months, but about eighty per cent is for me an average. Our herd bulls arc never allowed to run with the cows, but every cow goes to the barn for service, and is kept by themselves for several hours thereafter or until they are sufficiently quiet to return to the herd. Tlie bulls are given the run of the paddock each day in winter and a good grass lot all of the nights in summer, and in case a bull is not dis- posed to exercise enough, as they sometimes will be, he is made to take it by being led at least a mile every day. I think a great portion of the trouble breeders have with bulls in high condition is owing to lack of exercise. Give them plenty of it and flesh will never hurt him if put on with proper feeds. I prefer keeping my herd bulls almost ready for the show the year around, as I am a firm believer in the adage of that veteran showman. Uncle Tliomas Wilhoit, "Thick- fleshed cattle produce thick-fleshed cattle." But T hear someone say, "Oh, I can't aflfonl to keep my cattle in LIVE STOCK breeders' ASSOCIATION. 195 that condition — feed my cattle twelve months in the year ?" My friend, if you have never tried it you don't know whether you can afford it or not, and I say you can't afford not to. These cattle must be sold sometime, that's what we all breed them for ; then if you choose a pub- lic auction and do not put your cattle in the best possible condition you suffer, and so does the purchaser. If you do put them in condition and have allowed them to get thin in flesh it will cost you more money per head to get them ready for sale than will the method I have outlined. But the best and strongest argument in favor of good keep, or in other words, growing them good, is the fact that they are always in sale con- dition, and if a prospective purchaser comes to your place he is almost sure to find something to please him, or if you desire to make a draft sale, there is no esj>ecial fitting to be done. The breeding of pure-bred live stock must of necessity resolve it- self into a commercialism, and we as breeders, should treat it as such. It is not a plaything for the millionaire nor a fad for a man of moder- ate means, but a business proposition pure and simple, and will admit of and requires as much mental exertion as can be concentrated in one particular line. We are next "brought face to face with the most perplexing problem of the business, that of creating a satisfactory demand for our produce. Printer's ink has its value which, by the way, is of no mean proportion, but the fact that every man wants to be shown convinces me that it is up to us breeders of improved live stock to show him. We may breed the very best cattle in the world, but if they are allowed to remain on the farm we have little opportunity to compete in trade with the man who keeps constantly before the public as an exhibitor in the great shows of this country which, by the way, are second to none in the world. We are all encouraged in the work by our Live Stock Association, which offer very liberal prizes for representatives of their breeds, and there is no way by which the breeder can so successfully keep before the pub- lic as to exhibit a few animals each year. True, the man who sufficiently appreciates the value of this method of advertising to follow the shows each year incurs the risk of being dubbed "A Professional Showman." Be this as it may, however, the value of the show as an advertising me- dium is not depreciated one particle. We rear our live stock, develop it well and place it before the public to find ready sale at good prices and enjoy the prosperity due us. So we must give due credence to the careful, conservative management of the pure-bred herd. 196 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. THE VENTILATION OF DAIRY STABLES. (Prof. F. H. King, Madison, Wis.) The necessity of a sufficient supply of air for the maintenance of life activities, both in our own case and in our domestic animals, is well recognized and sufficiently appreciated; but we do not understand in how many ways and on how many occasions the amounts of pure air are cut down far below the requirements of health and vigorous nor- mal bodily functions. It is a lamentable fact that, even in our own case, to say nothing regarding our domestic animals, wherever we con- gregate in considerable numbers in warm compartments, in the great majority of cases entirely inadequate provision is made to change the air as rapidly as it should be changed. This general lack of adequate ventilation results partly from an insufficient knowledge of the amount of air which is daily required for respiration, of the degree of purity at which it should be maintained, and of the bad effects which result from the long-continued breathing of air too impure. It results partly from not sufficiently realizing to what extent warm, close compartments and stables interfere with a rapid interchange of the air in them. And partly, also, from not knowing what remedy to apply when the diffi- culty is recognized. AMOUNT OF AIR BREATHED DURING TWENTY-FOUR HOURS. To burn one ton of hard coal requires something like 11 tons of air ; and to burn a ton of wood there must be passed over it 5 full tons of air, supposing that the entire amount of oxygen carried by the 5 tons of air could be appropriated by the wood. This, of course, cannot be done, and hence there must be supplied, to maintain rapid and com- plete combustion, larger amounts than these. But the consumption in the stable, by the dairy cow, of a ton of hay or a ton of grain, re- quires that there must pass into her body through her lungs, for each and every ton, something like 5 tons of air. But to contain a single ton of air at ordinary temperature and pressure requires a stable 50X50X 10 feet. We breathe in 24 hours 34 pounds of air ; a cow breathes 224 pounds ; a horse 272 pounds, a pig 89 pounds, a sheep 58 pounds, and a hen two pounds. In the case of the cow, the amount of air she must breathe daily is more than double the weight of the water and dr> food she uses. Let me put these quantities before you in another way : LIVE STOCK breeders' ASSOCIATION. 197 Were we obliged to store air in bins, as we do grain, to contain the amount required for a man for a single day would necessitate building one 8 feet on every edge; for a horse there would be required one 15 feet; for a cow one 14 feet; for a pig one 10 feet; for a sheep one 9 feet ; and even for a single hen there would be required a bin 3 by 3 by 3 feet to contain the amount of air she breathes during a single day, Stating the amounts of air required daily in still a different way, let us suppose that it were necessary to pump it from the ground as we now draw v/ater; then to supply the needs of one man it would be necessary to pump and bring to him each day 1,275 pails full, such as will hold 21 pounds of water; to supply the needs of a horse there would have to be drawn 10,203 ^^^11 pails; for the cow, 8,412 pails; for the pig, 3,309 pails; for the sheep, 2,178 pails; and for one hen of aver- age size there would have to be drawn no less than 75 full pails of air to meet her daily needs, AIR ONCE BREATHED NOT FIT TO BREATHE AGAIN UNLESS DILUTED. As the air leaves the lungs it has been so largely depleted of the oxygen which it carries and is so highly charged with carbonic acid gas that a burning candle will be extinguished when lowered into it. This may be readily demonstrated by breathing through a tube into a wide-mouth pint bottle and then lowering a lighted taper into it, for it will then be quickly extinguished. If one takes an ordinary tubular lantern and gently passes air from the lungs through a tube into the supply tube above the lantern globe the flame will be quickly extinguished. So, too, will it be extinguished if a lighted match is held beneath the draft flue above the lantern globe. In this case the burning match withdraws the oxygen from the air in the same manner as is done when the air is breathed and the flame is extinguished for want of it. Besides the removal of oxygen from the air and the substitution of carbon dioxide in its stead, there is also thrown off from the system through the lungs a large amount of moisture and marsh gas, some ammonia and other gaseous products, some of wdiich are poisonous. Brown-Sequard as long ago as 1887 condensed the products of res- piration by passing them through water and succeeded in obtaining therefrom a poisonous product which, when injected into the blood of a rabbit, caused death. He at that time was inclined to look upon this body as one of the poisonious alkaloids. If in a stable provided with a ventilating shaft, which is serving a large number of animals, one places himself so that he must breathe the air passing up the shaft, the air will be found to be very oppressive and often to the extent of pro- ducing nausea. So, too, in a closely built stable housing a considerable 198 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT, number of animals the air in the morning-, after the stable had been closed all night, may be found to be so offensive as to produce nausea, or at least a disturbed uncomfortable feeling. SIGNS OF INSUFFICIENT VENTILATION. The evidences of an insufficient supply of air passing through the stable to meet the needs of the animals are very unmistakable, once they are understood. A feeling of closeness, the smell of ammonia and of offensive odors, and particularly a dampness of the stable, which results from the condensation of moisture on the ceiling, walls and sometimes on cement floors. Such conditions arc particularly liable to be observed in basement stables, not because the basement is the origi- nator of them, but simply because their walls are usually so much closer than the walls of over-ground stables that the ventilation is less perfect unless provision for ventilation is made specially. ■ \ IMPORTANCE OF A CONTINUOUS AND ABUNDANT SUPPLY OF AIR IN STABLES. Everyone knows that a complete cutting off of the supply of the air from the system for even a period of a few minutes results in very serious consequences. This is because many of the most vital processes of the body require a continuous and abundant supply of air for their maintenance. Of ordinary food materials and of water there are stored in the body, in more or less completely available forms, considerable quantities which may be drawn upon in cases of emergency when the outside supplies arc cut off. We may go days without water and weeks without food, but the supply of air from the outside must be continuous, as the available reserve is very small indeed. It is true, however, that very notable deficiencies of oxygen may exist in the air of a stable for considerable lengths of time without fatal consequences resulting. But never without both reducing the rate of vital activilics and distorting their normal course. Under such con- ditions the blood is not adequately purified, the System is poisoned, its tone is lowered and the animal is predisposed to disease. We must never forget that the germs of very many diseases are always about us and about our domestic animals and even within their bodies. They are there, but held in abeyance, just as weed seeds in a soil are prevented from developing so long as a vigorous crop is kept growing upon the field. Tn the very dry season of the great Chicago fire there swept across a forest section of Wisconsin a tremendous conflagration which denuded of everything green a stretch of country some 15 miles wide and 50 miles long, leaving entirely naked ground, which became so much heated LIVE STOCK breeders' ASSOCIATION. 199 in places as to bake potatoes in the isolated patches in the clearings. To the great surprise of the survivors of this terrible fire there sprang up on the naked ground the next spring a great profusion of forms of plant life not common to the district before the fire. Poplars, giant willow herbs, raspberries, black and red, and blackberries sprang up, forming an almost impassable jungle on the drier lands; while cat- tails in the greatest profusion took possession of the swamps where they had not been known before. Of course in the years before the fire the winds and the birds had sowed and kept sowing the woods and the swamps with the seeds which lay there dormant biding the time when a favorable opportunity should offer for them to spring into full pos- session of the soil. This came with the fire which swept the forest away. And so it is with us and with our domestic animals. Anything which weakens the normal vigor of any organ of the body tends to make of that organ, if I may be permitted the figure, a burned over district in the tissues of the body forest in which disease germs, perhaps already planted, tend to spring into mastery, bringing sickness and per- haps disaster. And so, beyond a shadow of doubt, inadequate stable ventilation is one of the strong predisposing causes to tuberculosis, tending to give the germs, ever about us, an opportunity to spring into overmastering growth in some organ of the body. BODILY COMFORT OF STOCK MEANS ECONOMY OF FOOD AND INCREASED PRODUCTIVE POWER. "Recent physiological researches conducted at Cambridge, England, throw new Hght upon the functions of sleep and undisturbed rest; of perfect mental and physical quiet in giving the body renewed power to do. In a study of the causes which influence the blood pressure it was found that during perfect sleep and times which permit the most complete rest, physical and mental, the blood pressure reaches its lowest limit. It is believed that this lowering of the blood pressure re- sults from a pouring out of the circulatory system upon the tissues which need to be nourished the nutritious portions of the blood, so that they are thereby bathed in it and fed. Any thing which disturbs the animal mentally or physically increases the blood pressure, it is held, by withdrawing again from about the tissues into the blood vessels the fluids which nourish them. It is held further that anything which increases the activity of organs or causes excitement or produces a condition of unrest tends to lessen the tendency to pour the nourishing fluids out upon the tissues so that a slower rate of building or replenishing of waste must then take place. If these observations and conclusions are correct then it follows that a comfortably warm, well ventilated stable, 200 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. where the cows may lie at perfect ease during the intervals between feeding, must contribute toward a higher productive power. No person can get a night of undisturbed restful sleep under conditions where the air is foul from inadequate ventilation, and so it is in a stable crowded with stock where there is an insufficient movement of air through it. Sound sleep, strong digestion, complete assimilation and high produc- tion can only be secured in well ventilated and otherwise comfortable stables where the winters are severe. TEMPERATURE OF STABLES. The bodily functions only go forward normally when the tempera- tures within the tissues are maintained at about loi degrees F. for the horse; 102 degrees for the cow; 103 degrees for the pig and 104 degrees for the sheep. When the surrounding conditions are such that heat is lost rapidly from the body, there is no other alternative than that the internal energies of the body must be turned into heat to a sufficient extent to make good the loss. Observations have demonstrated that, in the case of a man at rest and fasting under a room temperature of 59 degrees, the consumption of oxygen in the body and the loss of car- bonic acid from it was 13 per cent greater than it was when the body was placed under a surrounding temperature of 90 degrees. This means that to maintain the loss of heat from the body at the lower temperature 13 per cent greater transformation of assimilated materials within the body was taking place, and that there was this much less left for other work ; or, if there was no reduction of other work, that a larger amount of food must be taken into the system and assimilated there. We have as yet no sufficiently exact and extended observations to make sure what are the best stable temperatures for stock. We know that it may be some degrees below 72 degrees F. for dairy cows. It is quite certain, too, that the best temperature will be found to be some de- grees above freezing, perhaps between 45 degrees and 60 degrees for cows being fed high for milk and between 50 degrees and 65 degrees when they are on a maintenance ration. But to maintain such temper- atures as these during our winters north of the Ohio river requires the construction of warm stables ; and where warm stables are built for any considerable number of animals provision must be made for adequate ventilation. VOLUME OF AIR WHICH SHOULD MOVE THROUGH A STABLE. From various considerations we have assumed that we will be on the safe side if an air movement through the stable is maintained at such a rate that the animals are at no time compelled to breathe air LIVE STOCK breeders' ASSOCIATION. 201 which contains more than 3.3 per cent of air once breathed, and that with stables, having reasonably warm ceilings and walls, the moisture, given off by the animals from skin and lungs, will be removed rapidly enough so as not to condense upon the walls. If our domestic animals were obliged to stand continuously in the water from which they must drink, as they do in the air they are compelled to breathe, we would have no difficulty in realizing that a rapid flow of water across the floor of a stable of 40 cows, even if it were deep, would have to be maintained in order that it should be sufficiently pure to be wholesome drinking water. Suppose a cow were placed in an air-tight compartment 40 feet wide and 10 feet to the ceiling, how long would it have to be to hold enough so that at the end of 24 hours only 3.3 per cent of the air would have been once breathed? 231 feet. The volume of air required for a horse during 24 hours would necessitate a similar room 262 feet long; for a pig, one 82 feet; and for a single sheep, one 55 feet in length. From these statements it will be clear that the provision for needed air supply must be one of rapid change of air in the stable, rather than one of capacity. The necessity is for cubic feet of air moving continually in and out of the stable, rather than cubic air in the stable at any one moment. To supply 20 cows with air of the degree of purity stated requires a ventilating flue 2 feet by 2 feet, through which the air moves at the rate of 3 miles per hour or 264 feet per minute. A flue of this size, too, will be required to supply 17 horses, 51 pigs, or yj sheep. Double the number of animals named will require ventilation flues having nearly double the area of cross-section ; while for smaller numbers the size should be larger than in proportion to the number of animals to be served, for the reason that in flues of small cross-section there is rela- tively more friction and the velocity of the air current is less. The most common mistake made is in erecting flues too small. Several small flues arc never equal in capacity to a single one of the same total cross- section. ESSENTIAL FEATURES OF A VENTILATING FLUE. A good ventilating flue should possess all of the essential features and surroundings which are necessary for a perfect chimney. To pro- duce the strongest draft it must be straight, either round or as nearly square in cross-section as possible, because then the friction is least; the walls must be permanently air-tight, so that no air may enter except from the stable ; its top should rise well above throvision is imperative. Just as it is important that the walls of the ventilating shaft should be tight, admitting no air except at desired points, so is it important that the walls and ceilings of the stables shall be tight, excluding all air except at points where definite pro- vision is made for its entrance. In order that the heat of the animals may be utilized to the best advantage in keeping the stable warm, and because the air is used at the level or near the level of the floor, and further because the waste products of respiration are breathed by the animals to the floor, while the coldest air of the stable is also there, we draw the air out of the stable at the level of the floor. But the body of LIVE STOCK breeders' ASSOCIATION. ' 203 each animal acts upon the air of the stable, heating it, enabhng it to rise to and accumulate at the ceiling where, if it is sufficiently tight, it is retained, heating the ceiling, which then comes to act exactly like a heated radiator sending its warmth back upon the animals upon the floor, thus keeping the stable at a higher temperature than would be possible were the warmed air permitted to escape all at once at the ceiling. Now to utilize the heat accumulated at the ceiling of the stable to the best advantage, the fresh, pure, cold air must be brought in at the level of the ceiling and caused to mingle with it as completely as possible, so as to be warmed by it before it drops to the level where the animals use it. To secure this, provision is made for the fresh air to come into the stable at a considerable number of small openings just under the ceiling on as many sides of the barn as practicable, as represented by the arrows in Fig. i. In order to prevent the warm air escaping at the ceiling through these intakes, they must be carried downward by some construction so that the air is forced to enter them at some level on the outside four or more feet below the level on the inside, as represented in Fig. 2. When this construction is adopted it acts on the principle of an air trap, for the warm air of the stable cannot readily pass downward. A suitable size for these intakes is 4 or 5 inches by 14 or 16 inches, the long axis being horizontal. They should be placed at every 9 to 12 feet along the wall and be provided with lids hinged on the lower edge so as to regulate the amount of air entering the stable, deflecting it upward to the ceiling and causing it to fan out and dis- tribute well through the warm air of the stable. It is particularly im- portant that these fresh air intakes be placed on every side of the stable in order to take advantage of the wind pressure to aid in forcing the ventilation. It is important to recognize that there are three im- portant factors or forces, each of which should be brought into requi- sition to the fullest extent possible in maintaining the air movement through the stable. These are (i) the wind pressure against the side of the building, which tends to drive air into the stable through any openings on the windward side ; this increases the pressure of the air in the stable and so forces it to flow out and up through the ventilating flue. (2) The wind in passing up and along the roof sweeps with in- creased force across the top of the ventilator, as it does across a chim- ney, producing an outward suction, thus reinforcing the wind pressure on the side of the building. (3) Whatever rise in temperature the air of the stable experiences, making it warmer than the mean of the air outside, causes the column in the ventilation shaft to be, lighter than a corresponding column outside, and hence it is forced upward and out 204 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. by a force equal to the difference in weight of the columns. There are those who maintain that the last factor is the chief if not the only one which is operative in causing draft in chimneys, and these insist that the air should be admitted to the ventilating flue at the level of the ceiling. The universal daily experience with every properly constructed and placed chimney proves beyond a doubt that the temperature factor is secondary and not primary in producing draft ; for always before the fire is lighted there is a strong draft and it increases in strength with the velocity of the wind across the house. Figure 1.— Showing position of ventilators and fresii air int;ilies. In Fig. I there is represented the floor plan of a stable where the ventilating shaft is located in the angle outside formed by the wing and the main Irarn. To secure the strongest action of the ventilator a l>cttcr position would be at the center, at the point marked A, and if the cows faced out this would be the best place for the shaft, so far as ventilation is concerned. But, usually, the shaft, in such a position, would be so much in the way that it could not be placed in that posi- tion. It is usually possible to place it near such a position by sacri- ficing the stall of one cow. Tn Fig. 2 there are represented three methods of taking llio air into a stable. At A is shown the simplest method which can be adopted in a frame stable which is sheeted on both sides of the studding. In LIVE STOCK BREEDERS ASSOCIATION. 205 such cases the air is simply admitted between a pair of studding near the level of the floor on the outside and taken into the stable at the level of the ceiling on the inside as represented at A in Fig. 2. In this til- «-■-■ ■- A 7 A Figure 2.— Showing construction of fresh air intaljes. case there is represented a lid, hinged on the lower side, intended to regulate the inflow of fresh air when the wind is too strong. In B, Fig. 2, is shown a method of building the intakes into the stone, brick or concrete wall when such material is used in construction. In C, in the same figure, there is shown one method of introducing fresh air into an old basement stable where provision for ventilation was not made for it at the time of building. In this case a wooden box flue or one made of galvanized iron is carried up over the sill and then dropped through the ceiling just inside the wall as shown in the drawing. THE SHORTHORN CATTLE. (Hon. B. O. Oowan, Chicago, 111.) I appear before you this afternoon under considerable embarrass- ment ; not a personal embarrassment so much as the fact that I appear here as the representative of a gentleman who is on your program 206 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. and whom you have all heard, and who is abundantly able to entertain an audience upon any subject upoa which he may speak. I refer to Ex-Senator Harris, formerly of the State of Kansas, who was unable to attend this meeting. What I shall say will be somewhat at random; I have made no definite preparations. I come then as a volunteer; and while on the subject of volunteers, I remember a story that I heard sometime ago of a revolution that occurred in one of those little republics oft" the southern coast of the country; and you know that those revolutions in Spanish South America occur almost with every change of the moon ; and in consequence of those revolutions, the president of the United States oftentimes has considerable embarrassment in his application of the Monroe Doctrine. At this particular revolution the president of the republic was very much in danger of being overthrown ; and the commanding officer of the government forces was surrounded by in- surgents and likely to be captured. He sent an urgent telegram to the capitol for reinforcements, and after a delay of what seemed to him an unusual length of time, he received in reply from the commanding officer at the capitol this telegram: "I have this day sent you i8o volunteers by steamer Rio Janeiro. Please return the ropes with which they are tied." And so, as a volunteer, I come with a feeling some- what akin to that of those volunteers who had been sent to the front to relieve the commanding officer besieged by the insurgents. It affords me a pleasure, in a sense, to speak in Columbia. For eight or ten years, at an earlier period, 1 was a member of the Board of Agriculture of Missouri. I was a member of the State Board of Agriculture at the time that your eminent Professor Waters was a student, and he attended practically all the meetings of that State Board here in Columbia. We remember the excellent services he rendered to the State Board at that time and we are all proud of him — proud that he rose from the position of an efficient student to one of the recognized agricultural scientists of America. We think that the University of Mis- souri is fortunate in the possession of such a scientific agriculturist, and I want to say one word on that point — that at that lime and at a prior time the fanners of Missouri, the farmers of the country generally, did not recognize the value of these agricultural schools to the farming and live stock industry of the country. I can remember, as a boy, hearing farmers — and successful farmers and successful stock growers — sneer at your agricultural farming, "book farming," scientific farming; but I am happy to say that has changed. These institutions have been so abundantly equipped with men and means and their work has come up from what in its infancy was necessarily crude, to such an excellent LIVE STOCK breeders' ASSOC lATlON. 20^ work, that the whole agricultural world today recognizes the agency of these agricultural schools and the value of these scientific agri- culturists. I say we owe to them a debt of gratitude and the country generally owes them a debt that it cannot very easily repay. It affords me very great pleasure to give this testimony to men who are doing the work such as is accomplished by Professor Waters and his assist- ants, and by the general class of men who are doing similar work in other agricultural colleges of our land. I want to discuss in a general way the live stock industry of the country. I think you will admit that diversified farming is an absolute necessity. We all have recognized that. We were taught that before these agricultural colleges were established. Thoughtful agriculturists long since came to the conclusion that diversified farming was necessary,, and yet unfortunately there is a large number of farmers today who' have not learned that valuable lesson. I shall not enter into any ar- gument to prove this to you ; neither do I think it necessary to take your time to prove that live stock husbandry is absolutely necessary to any well organized and successful system of agriculture. That being- admitted, the question naturally comes back to us, "what kind of live stock then will you have?" Why certainly the best kind — certainly im- proved live stock, because as your lands advance in value, as they rise from what formerly was considered a fair price of ten dollars per acre, up to fifty, sixty, seventy-five and in some localities of Missouri even above the one hundred dollar mark, it becomes absolutely nec- essary for the possessor of that land to determine the question of main- taining upon it a better class of live stock. You cannot successfully, you cannot economically, you cannot (and keep out of the poor house) maintain upon these valuable acres, these rich and broad acres of Missouri, a class of live stock that brings you a mean, low price upon the markets of the country. Then, I think you will agree with me that it is necessary to have improved live stock. Now then, the question of zi'Jiat kind of live stock, of course, depends upon the tastes of the man himself, depends, perhaps, somewhat more upon locality, upon his surroundings. But have improved live stock ; if possible, have pure- bred live stock. If that is out of the range of your possibilities, then have a class of live stock that is just as near pure bred as is possible for you to possess. This was recognized at an early day in the history of our country. Records show that the importation of improved live stock began at an early date in our country's history. We have a record of the importation of shorthorn cattle as early as the latter part of the i8th century, about the year 1794. There is a record of pure-bred shorthorn cattle being imported from Great 2o8 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. Britain to the United States, and those importations have been kept up with more or less regularity from that time up to the present. There was no great amount of pure-bred cattle imported until possibly the years 1830 up to 1850. During that period, those two decades, there were large and frequent importations of pure-bred cattle, and of course they have had an influence in moulding the character of the cattle of this country. As a result of the shorthorn breed being first that was imported, their influence was stamped, their prepotency was stamped upon the character of the cattle of this country, so that today, if you go over the length and breadth of this land, you will find that the influence of the shorthorn breed greatly predominates. This is not only true of this country, but of other countries. But they were not alone. While they were the pioneers, and while this grand breed of cattle at an early day in this country was brought to a high state of perfection, so that they have from that day to this been held up as the model of what we consider a nearly perfect beef animal, still, I say, they were not alone, because in succeeding times representatives of other beef breeds and representatives of dairy breeds began to find their way into the country ; so that at the present time we have a pretty general representation in parts, at least, of the United States, of all the leading beef breeds that are recognized, not only in this country, but in European countries as well. We have the Hereford, the Angus, Galloway, and those breeds that are the ofifshoots of the Hereford and Shorthorn. And the represent- ative of any breed of cattle, the representative of any breed of horses, the representative of any breed of hogs or any other breed of im- proved live stock, who seeks to advance the interests of his own by pulling down that which is meritorious as a com{X'titor, is making- a serious mistake. We all have our favorites — our reasons for our favorites; and if those reasons will convince the live stock breeders of the country, then we have a right to make converts. If we cannot, by setting forth th; m r'.ts of the breed we chami)ion, convince our fellow breeders that there is greate merit in this than in some other, then we have no rig'.it to s^^ek to obliterate the olher by unfair means and by false statemen'.s. In order to show you something of the influL'uce that the Short- horn breed has upon the whole cattle industry of the country as com- pared with that of other breeds, I will say that I took the pains, a short time ago, to ascertain the number of registered pure-bred cattle of tin: various beef breeds. I only consulted the registers of four. I ft)un(l that the Galloways numbered almost 28,000; the Angus almost 85,000; the Hereford almost 230,000; and the Shorthorns have registered as pure- LIVE STOCK breeders' ASSOCIATION. 209 breds 640,000. In other words, there are three leading beef breeds claiming recognition in this country that are clamoring for the favor of the American public, the complete number of which, according to the record of the various associations, gives a total of a trifle over 340,000. The Shorthorn breed alone has 640,000. In other words, there have been recorded almost twice as many pure-bred shorthorns as all these three beef breeds combined. Now then, we recognize of course that our breed is moulding the cattle of this country in a much larger way than these others possibly can. We have a right to claim that — a right to expect that. The figures of the different records show that ; and the very fact that they have been before the American public so much longer a period of time, gives us the claim to superiority at least in numbers, and the record made at the leading live stock shows of the country, the record made on many a hard-fought battle field, convinces us that we have a breed that is not surpassed by any. And the highest compliment that I have ever seen paid to the grand old shorthorn breed is that the advocates of these other beef breeds, during the past forty or fifty years, in this country, have moulded the pattern of their cattle nearer to the type that was established for Shorthorn years ago and then improved by later breeders. I say this is the liighest compliment that has been paid to the Shorthorn — that he has been taken as the standard, as the model, as the correct type of beef animal. ' We recognize the merit of our competitors, and who would not? Think of the many live stock shows where the championship has gone to their breeds! The advocate of the Shorthorn, who would stand up and claim that his breed possessed all the merit, is a foolish man in- deed, because he only places in the hands of his opponent a club with which he himself can be driven from the field. The many live stock shows where the championship has gone to the other breeds show be- yond any question of doubt that they possess very great merit. Now, with regard to these <:hampionships, many of them have been won by grades. When they are won by pure breds, the successful competitor has a right to claim the entire honor. When they have been won by grades, as in a number of our leading live stock shows, then it is a question of dividing the honors. Of course, if the grade shows the characteristics of one particular breed, the advocates of that breed claim the honors, but in many instances, as we have found by analyzing the blood of those successful competitors, perhaps as much blood of the Shorthorn breed predominates as that of the breed that is claiming the honor and capturing the championship. In other words, the Shorthorn cattle have been in this country so long and their pure-breds and A— 14 210 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. grades have gone out and inoculated (if I may use the term) the com- mon cattle of the country with good blood to such an extent that many of the smaller breeds have taken on the good blood of this grand breed and produced a successful show animal, and then it is brought forth as the champion of that particular breed. Now, then, I am not trying to rob them of the honor they claim ; but I am calling attention to the fact that back of that other blood, and builded upon by that other blood, there was the Shorthorn foundation, and that was a splendid foundation to build upon. We claim that the Shorthorn breed, taking it all in all, is not only the equal but is the superior of the others. It is the equal, it is the superior, as we claim, from the standpoint of a beef animal ; and that phase of the question was, I think, most admirably set forth this morning in an interesting paper you heard from Mr. E. B. Mitchell. He showed you what was necessary in order to develop the ideal beef animal ; and he impressed upon you that he did not intend by that argument to detract one iota from the claims of the Shorthorn cow as a milk-producing animal ; and, in fact, since the discussion that followed that paper this morning, Mr. Mitchell has told me that he thought one of the highest compliments to the shorthorn cow was paid by the fact that representatives of other breeds, who were also trying to produce this ideal beef animal, were using as a nurse cow the old Shorthorn. We claim a dual purpose an- imal, and I wish to emphasize the position taken by Mr. Mitchell, that if you wish to produce the ideal beef animal, if you wish to bring out a herd that will win the honors in the great contests, it is absolutely necessary that you raise the calf of that cow upon the milk of another. Now, I am not defending this as the best system. As a matter of choice, I would like to see the breeding cattle of the country shown with the calves at side and the cows in milk; and if they all did that, then it would be possible for the man to win who gives the best care to the cattle on hand, providing he had the best to start with ; but the man who would attempt to feed a herd of breeding cattle today and main- tain the cows in milk, will find when he has come to the show that some other fellow will carry off the ribbons. So that, as a matter of fact, it has resolved itself into a contest of specialties. The man who will develop to the very highest degree possible the beef-producing type of cattle is likely to win the ribbons in case he has chosen wisely at the start. The dairymen, of course, are doing the same thing in the dairy contests. But I say this, it is possible for Shorthorns to maintain a high standard of excellence as beef animals and also make a creditable showing as milk producers. Last night our friend, Wing, either consciously or unconsciously, LIVE STOCK breeders' ASSOCIATION, 21 T paid- a high tribute to the Shorthorn cow when he explained the fact that one of his shoulders was lower than the other by the statement that it was made lower by lugging from the barnyard to the dairy those large buckets of milk that were drawn from the old Shorthorn cow. If I can say one thing this afternoon that will impress upon the farmers here the necessity, the importance, of changing the character of the live stock upon his farm and eliminating the scrub as well as the scrub pure-breds, then I shall not feel that I have talked in vain. I say scrub pure-hrcds, and I say it advisedly, because not every pure- bred animal is good and there is not a herd in the land in which you cannot find a few that ought to be eliminated and sent to the markets if the owner expects to continue to improve that herd and to improve the general character of the breed that he represents. In some herds you will find that there are a very few of this class of scrub pure breds ; in other herds you will find, unfortunately, a larger per cent; some of these scrub pure breds are the result of an unfortunate method of handling — by that I mean that the man who has those cattle gives them a treatment that even scrub cattle do not deserve. He sends them out upon a scant pasture in the spring, and they chase back and forth, walking continually to get enough sustenance to merely maintain life. I can find pastures in Missouri, I can find pastures in any state in this country, that are nibbled so close to the ground that a self-respecting goose would not seek to find nourishment in them. That is no method of handling pure-bred cattle — no method of handling any kind of cattle ; and the farmer who takes cattle of any kind, no matter how well bred, no matter how well developed, and maintains them for ten generations in that manner, has got, at the end of that time, a herd of scrubs. You can breed feeding qualities into cattle, and you can also starve the feed- ing qualities out of your cattle, and it has been successfully done by breeders of all kinds of stock all over our land. I am speaking ad- visedly. I have seen men buy good, well developed representatives of the beef breeds ; I have seen the descendants of that same class of cattle ten years from that time, and, gentlemen, you would not know them, and the man who furnished the foundation stock did not desire it to be known that they were offspring of his own splendid herd that he was then maintaining. Now, then, if you expect to maintain good cattle, if you expect to maintain good live stock of any class, you must expect to give them intelligent treatment and reasonable treatment. I want to emphasize by repeating that you can starve the feeding qualities out of any class of live stock, and it ought not to be done, because in doing that you are only taking money out of your own pocket, checking against your bank account. Take the advice of our friend, Wing, and 212 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. take your calves from their very birth and develop them so as to keep them growing and expanding and developing without any back-set, without any loss of time, why? Simply because it is money in your pocket to handle them in that way ; it is an absolute loss to handle them in any other way. The only way that the live-stock breeders of America can down the scrub is not in trying to down some other breed, but is in a reason- able in a sensible in a manly fashion joining hands in this combat and making a common issue against the scrub of the country, and by this united effort driving him from the fields and from the pastures of the American stockmen. We cannot hope all to admire the same breed. If I should take this audience to a great picture gallery and there ask you to pass through those rooms, the walls of which were adorned with the handi- work of the best arlists of the age, and ask you to point out the picture you thought the best, would you all select the same? Why, certainly not. Some of you would select the landscape scene ; some of you would select the mountain views, where the artist has drawn a range of hills, the foothills covered with the rich verdure of the plains, and sur- mounted by the great snow white peaks that lift their heads and dis- appear in the clouds ; some of you would select that as the acme of the artist's skill. Others would take the picture, probably, that repre- sents the sea coast, wh.re the artist has portrayed the inrolling waves that come driven by the tide and by the wind, and break into spray, and are hurled again upon other incoming waves — and you would point to that as the picture that attracted your attention most. Others per- haps would select the human form or the human face — the picture that represents the beautiful woman ; and I will say that a beautiful face — a sweet face — and the form of a woman — a pure woman — is what would appeal to many. And so perhaps you would not agree in the selection of the picture that appealed to you most; and thus it ever will be while we have our fancies, while we have our fads, while we have our reasons for attaching ourselves to this or to that. But let us be united and let us be fair to our opponents. I want to say I honor the suc- cessful champions of our opponents, our competitors. I want to say to you in conclusion — you may sing me the sweetest songs that were ever written to commend the champions of these other breeds, and I will respond to the sentiment, I will echo the sentiment ; but when you sing those sonjjs I will insist that they be sung in crescendo to the praises of the noble Shorthorn. Go and gather the flowers that have been scattered in the pathway of all these champions of other breeds, and I will take them and place them upon the altar that has been reared to LIVE STOCK breeders' ASSOCIATION. 21 3 the memory of those departed champions ; but at the same time I will go and gather me flowers, I will select the best ones, I will gather me bouquets of American Beauties, of Heliotrope, of Cape Jessamine, and with all the rare flowers I will weave a garland, and with bands of immortelles I will hang it upon the altar that has been reared to the mem- ory of the noblest and the best — the red, white and roan. GRASS AND FORAGE PLANTS. (Dr. W. J. yplllman, Agriculturist, Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. O.) Some three years ago, when the last census figures were published, 1 fotmd a great deal of valuable data in them concerning the grasses and forage plants of the country. I made a set of maps showing the distribution of them over the country and the production of every grass and forage plant of any kind reported in the census. On these maps I showed the distribution of timothy or of timothy and red clover, because they are usually sown together. After I had made that map I was able to understand one thing I had not understood before. The office of Grass and Forage Plants receives a great inany letters from farmers ; but to my surprise, when I went to Washington City four years ago, I found that half of the correpondence came from the southern states, and that the other half came from the states west of the State of Missouri. We had practically no correspondence from the region which .that map showed to be the timothy region, except that relating to alfalfa. Why? Because in that section of the country the grass problem had been solved by the fanners before the experiment stations were established. Outside of the region of timothy and clover, the grass problem was the leading problem of the farmer. I took oc- casion, a little later, to go over the experiinent station literature on grasses and forage plants, and to my surprise, I found that nine-tenths of the literature that has been published by the experiment stations on these subjects comes from the region outside of the timothy region. For instance, taking up an old bulletin, one of Professor Sanborn's, from Missouri, this was about all he had to say : "Timothy is practically the only hay grass of the State ;" the bulletin also stated that blue grass was about the only pasture grass of the State. But from Arkansas, Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, Louisiana and Tennessee there are stacks of bulle- tins on these subjects. Now, for four years past, most of the energy has been devoted to a study of the subject of grasses and forage plants, a study which is of vital importance to the farmers of Missouri. You will be interested 214 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. to know that the line drawn axound the margin of the timothy region showed that that region occupied the whole northeastern quarter of the United States. It cuts off a portion of the Fouthern boundary of this State ; it dips down into one or two counties in Arkansas, and in Southern Kansas takes in a tier of two rows of counties, running north- ward and inchiding three rows in the northern end, cuts off three coun- ties in Nebraska, goes up the Missouri river to Minnesota and turns across Minnesota. Now the work of my office has been mainly for people outside of this region. About the time I went to Washington City, or perhaps a year or two sooner, the farmers in the timothy region, as well as in all other parts of the United States, began to get interested in the alfalfa plant. Now, I should except alfalfa from the statement which I made about the correspondence that comes to us. We have had more correspondence with farmers for the past four years about alfalfa than about all other subjects put together, and it comes from every state in the Union, and has been coming for five years. That indicates that there is a genuine interest in that subject all over the country. I am glad that you had Mr. Wing to talk to you on alfalfa. I have been on his farm and have seen his alfalfa; he feeds it to his sheep. I have seen corn growing on his land after the alfalfa, and it was certainly looking fine. The problem in this timothy region then, including this State, in connection with grasses and forage plants (aside from alfalfa, which J will mention later), is not that of the introduction of ncz(j grasses — it is the problem of better utilizing timothy and red clover and blue grass, and learning how to grow them better. In my early boyhood down in Lawrence county, Missouri, I re- member the farmers were then clearing off' the timber and putting in farms. Some of those farms produced pretty good crops. Barnyard manure was not made use of on the old farm where I was raised. T re- member that it used to get so deep around the stable door that tlic horses could not get in and out. But we got very good crops then. I recently purchased a piece of that land down there and am farming it. It used to produce 25 bushels of wheat to the acre, but we considor that it does well now if it produces 12 or 15 bushels to the acre. I re- member that in my early day I never heard a farmer talk about the soil becoming exhausted ; but now I hear a good deal on this subject down there. Every farmer I meet says, "Will, what can you tell us about commercial fertilizers?" Now, I want to tell you all I know about commercial fertilizers. I have experimented a little and learned a great deal and have talked to a great many farmers about the use of com- LIVE STOCK breeders' ASSOCIATION, 21 ! mercial fertilizers, and there i_s just one thing about them I have learned, and that is this, that barnyard manure is a splendid thing to put on the land, and that is all I know about commercial fertilizers. "But," some farmers say, "it is out of the question for us to put manure on our soils, because we have not got the live stock." "What shall we do then ?" The only answer I can make to that is, get the Jive stock. There is no other answer to the question that I know of. I am not saying that commercial fertilizers are not a good thing. I know one state — the state of Georgia — which spent ten millions of dollars this year for commercial fertilizers, and I presume it paid. I don't know whether it did or not. They produce a good deal of cotton down there. The average family of five people who grow cotton on rented land in the state of Georgia has an average yearly income of $80.00. So it must pay. And that is what the people back on the Atlantic Coast are coming to, who are depending upon fertilizers instead of live stock. Now, I have been preaching to the people of the south just what Mr. Cowan has preached here today, just the same sort of sermon over and over again, although I was not particularly championing that magnificent breed of cattle which he represents, but live stock in general. One thing I tell those old playmates of mine in Lawrence county when they talk about commercial fertilizers is, "you have got to get out of the method of farming your fathers used and go to raising more live stock." And they are doing it, too. We have established a rotation on our farm down there for the express purpose of raising feed for live stock, and we are going to see if it can be made to pay. I think there is no doubt about it ; in fact, it has already paid for the manure we put on the land. A short time ago there was a farmer came into my office to talk over this question of commercial fertilizers. I don't know why they come to me, for I don't know a thing about it. After talking with him for a while he saw that he and I did not dififer much about the use of fertilizers, and he said, "Well, Mr. Spillman, I have always thought that commercial fertilizers are to the soil just what the lash is to the jaded horse. You put the lash on the horse and he will make speed, but it does not do him any good." I am inclined to think that is what com- mercial fertilizers do for the soil. I may be wrong. I don't know much about it. Instead of using commercial fertilizers on my own farm, which was all run down when I took hold of it, I am growing alfalfa and red clover, timothy, corn, hay and oats, and feeding every bit of it to stock, and I don't believe I will need any fertilizers ; that is not saying I shall not at some time use them ; I may find it will pay to do so ; but I am depending on other means to build up my soil. 2l6 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. I see some interesting things in my travels of the country. This past summer I was down in Augusta, Georgia. There I found a little group of farmers whose land had been taken by Johnson Grass — that was where it was first introduced — and they had been compelled by ne- cessity to quit growing cotton. They thought they were ruined, and many abandoned their farms. Then some of them went to growing Johnson Grass hay. They are now growing cowpeas, Johnson Grass and Vetch, and nothing but hay has been grown on those farms for sixty years. Well, those farmers are still living in fine mansions in the city of Augusta. When you pass an unusually fine house you ask your companion who lives there, and his reply is, "Oh, he is one of those gentlemen who grow hay." They get $20 per ton for their l:>est hay ; that's because the rest of the south are growing cotton. Then I was up in Iowa later — in fact, went right from Augusta up to Clar- inda, Iowa. There I rode out among the fields with Henry Wallace, the well known Farm Journal man, when I saw a lot of hay. I said, "What is hay worth here, Mr. Wallace?" "Five dollars a ton," he said. I said, "Why is that? Down in Georgia it is worth $20 a ton, in New York City $15 to $18, in Ohio $10 to $12, and in Iowa only $5 a ton ?" "Well," he said, "I will teU you why it is. It is because these fellows out in Iowa have farms that are too good, and they want to get rid of them. They are selling their farms in hay to eastern fellows, and the eastern fellows are building up their farms." Since I have been here I have met a gentleman who is thinking of going back to Virginia and buying some of that land and building it up, a thing demonstrated to be possible. You fellows out here are gradually selling the crops off your farms and ruining your farms, and the eastern fellows are getting rich off of them. Tiiis is an unfortunate thing, a great mistake. I tell you, that for the best results, for continued prosperity, in order that you may leave your farm in good condition for your children, you cannot afford to grow hay and sell it for any great length of time ; it will ex- haust your soil, unless we may learn enough about commercial fertil- izers to hold up the fertility of the soil, a thing we don't know yet. I will say t