Page:Tree Crops; A Permanent Agriculture (1929).pdf/342

 worth experimental study. It may permit substantial increase of fruiting on many kinds of trees. (See page 12.)

At the present time orthodox agriculture in America recognizes but two uses for unplowed land—forestry and pasture of grass and leaves.

This book finds its chief reason for being in the fact that pasture is a very low-grade use for land—low in return. Because of the low return of pasture, man appeals to the plow and causes ruin. Much semi-poetic stuff has been written about the beautiful blue grass of Kentucky. It is beautiful, and it is good poetry stuff, but it is open to question if it is any more productive than good blue grass in adjoining states where careful test shows such pasturage produces the paltry harvest of but one hundred and fifty to two hundred pounds of live meat per year. The same is true of the rich and beautiful pastures of England. And there are millions of acres of rough pasture in the United States east of Kansas and north of the Cotton Belt which will not make over fifty pounds of beef or mutton in a year.

These figures are little short of appalling when we remember that this meat is half waste. It is much less nutritious pound