DAIRY FARMING. 13 



America more for our butter tlian for the bread we spread it over, 

 twice as much as for our siii^ar and more than for all our otiicr foods 

 combined with the single exception of meat, liutter making is to tlie 

 farmer \vh:it steel making is to the iron smelter. Both change the 

 cheapest form of raw material into products of the highest market 

 value. The value of a week's pasturage for a milch cow in summer 

 varies, according to locality, from twenty-five to fifty cents. Iler 

 butter product alone, aside from the remaining skimmed milk,, 

 should represent from four to seven or eight times those figures. 



In making choice of any specialty in agriculture a farmer should be- 

 governed or guided in that choice by such circumstances and condi- 

 tions as hv may find surrounding him. If he is not located, l)ut has 

 decided upon some particular branch, as market gardening, fruit 

 growing, dairying or cattle husbandry in any of its forms, he should 

 select a location that is believed to be well adapted to the special 

 line he intends to follow. If, on the other hand, he is alread}' loca- 

 ted, he'should aim to select such a branch of the business of farming, 

 as is, or may be, best adai)ted to that locality. 



It is true that conditions may change ; that circumstances over- 

 which one has little or no control may so modify one's surround- 

 ings as to require one to change his methods of action, after having, 

 adopted a certain course. This locality' has already become famous 

 for its bountiful crops of excellent potatoes. The earlier settlers, 

 of these lands who selected the potato as their main dependence did. 

 not choose unwisely. The potato is the pioneer's main stay where 

 lie is not located too remote from civilization. As I have told 3-ou 

 already, the potato does not call for a very high order of skill in its 

 l)roduction. It will thrive on fertile soil though that soil ma}' be 

 in its very roughest and rawest state. But potato farming must not 

 be carried too far. New lands, upon which heavy growths of timber 

 have been burned for the ashes and to clear it for cultivation may 

 produce for a while without the application of fertilizers, bat there 

 is no land in the world, I care not how rich it may be, tli^at can be 

 cropped repeatedl}' for an unlimited term without having its fertility 

 reduced or exhausted. It was claimed, and I doubt not honestly 

 believed by man}' of those who first cultivated the rich prairie lands 

 of the West, that the fertilit}' of those lands was inexhaustible, but 

 the constantly declining yields of wheat and corn per acre on farms 

 that have been long cultivated without manuring has convinced 



