DAIRY HERO RECORD AND CREAMERY NOTES 



BY il. W. CLARK. 



. Can dairying he made profitable in Alabama is a 

 qiiosiioii ofren askod. 



Sliort, mild wiiitei-s, long pasture seasons, and a great 

 varicly of soiling crops, along with tlie oufput of the oil 

 and rice mills, afford a large field from whicli to select 

 food stuffs. Th(> State is badly in need of such profits 

 as accrue from dairying and live stock growing in gen- 

 eral. The appeai-ance of our rural communities, the 

 inii^ovei'ished condition of oui- soils, the tremendous 

 growth of the commercial fertilizer trade, and the vast 

 junount of mon(\y (the proceeds of our only money crop, 

 cotton) sj^ent every year for hays, grains, meat and dairy 

 products, are convincing arguments against the exclu- 

 sive growing of corn and cotton and a strong one in 

 favor of divei'sified farmino;. 



Daii-ying builds up the soil. From 75 to 90 per cent, 

 of the fertilizing constituent*^ of the food consumed is 

 returned in the manure. Dairying makes the farmer 

 independent by giving liim, daily, a salable product. 

 Food consumed one day is turned into casli the next, 

 and much of the risk incident to making a crop of corn 

 or cotton is avoided. No line of farming in the South 

 is so certain of returns as dairying when intelligently 

 pursued. The long growing season makes the dairj^man 

 quite independent of drought, a great menace at times 

 in some sections, especially where the summers are 

 short. Our climate is most salubi-ious. Many of the 

 cattle diseases common in other sections, caused by close 



