MANAGBMEXT OF PASTURES. 73 



and 150 lbs. of nitrogen. And so with potash and the other ele- 

 ments of the animal carcass. That animal is a soil product. Wo 

 are apt to think otherwise. If we grow an acre of corn, that we 

 know is a soil product, but an animal, why, that is like Topsy — 

 it is something that growed, that is all we know or think about 

 it. But it grew from the soil as much as did the corn. All flesh 

 is grass. Now the growing of animals year after year and send- 

 ing thera away has been a great source of deterioration to our 

 pastures. Not in one year, but in the course of 150 years, has 

 there been a great drain. 



The next source of deterioration of which I shall speak is the 

 production of dairy products. The great farm crop of New Eng- 

 land has been the products of the dairy, — cheese, butter, milk. 

 In the vicinity of all our large cities the supply of milk sold from 

 the pasture lands causes an immense drain upon them. Now, 

 then, 1 say the milch cow, for the pasture, is the worst animal 

 that ever trod it or ever can. A milch cow that gives a large 

 quantity of milk is an enormous feeder. You could not, with all 

 your Yankee ingenuity and skill, devise a machine that could 

 deplete your pasture lands so fast as does this machine for pro- 

 ducing milk which you drive into them empty every morning and 

 drive out full every night. Assume that your cow gives 15 

 quarts of milk a day for five months in a year — they often give 

 from 22 to 26 quarts a day, but call it 15— she has carried away 

 in the milk 30 lbs. of nitrogen, 8 lbs of potash, and 10 lbs. of 

 phosphoric acid. But this machine cannot produce milk unless 

 you keep the machine in order, and provide for its wear and tear. 

 There is a waste in the system that must be supplied, and this 

 supply comes from the pasture. Then there is the indigestible 

 part of the food — the refuse, which we call manure. Now in 

 these three — in milk, in waste of the system, and in manure — your 

 cow carries off every year, 70 lbs. of nitrogen, 20 lbs. of potash, 

 and 40 lbs. phosphoric acid. IIow many years have you been 

 running this machine at that rate ? Through how many gener- 

 ations cf cows have the farmers followed this practice in New 

 England ? Multiply and see what is the whole amount of which 

 your milch cows have robbed your pastures. In 30 years each 

 cow has carried away 2,100 lbs. of nitrogen, 600 lbs. cf potash, 

 and 1,200 lbs. of phosphoric acid. I am well aware that during 

 this period your tillage and mowing fields may have been im- 

 proved by the manure that has been robbed from the pastures. 



