Fundamentals ix Daieying Go 



might be doubled. Fully 50 per cent of the plant food is in the 

 liquid, most of which is often wasted. AYhile it is impossible to 

 save it all, I am very certain, if the time and energy expended in 

 tirades against milk handlers were put forth in an intelligent 

 effort to save and properly utilize this by-product, the results 

 would be much more satisfactory to the pockets of the dairyman. 

 Without attempting to discuss methods of using the above 

 economically, I would say that any good farmer can retain 75 

 per cent of the commercial value of his manure. The agricultural 

 value of manure is usually more than the commercial, as evi- 

 denced bv the results obtained from manure that has lost at 

 least half of its plant food. Considering its hunms-making con- 

 tent and its ability to increase materially that of the sod to 

 which it is applied, and its value as a breeding place for soil 

 bacteria, I am certain it is within the truth to say that the 

 increased agricultural value will fully overbalance the loss in 

 plant food when the manure is handled according to f)i"esent 

 intelligent methods. A profit, then, of at least $20 a cow annually 

 from increased fertility is not to be despised. That this has a 

 financial, not an artificial, value, is evident by a comparison 

 of the selling price of dairy farms and those of the same char- 

 acter from which crops only have been sold, for farm values must 

 fundamentally be based on production. 



It is interesting to listen to the involuntary testimony of the 

 blacksmith-shop philosopher, when the production of some local 

 farm is discussed: "Wall, no wonder, he has ahvays kep a big 

 lot of cows." 



It is evident that a man whose cows have paid their costs, 

 who has profitably marketed a goodly amount of farm produce, 

 and annually turned $20 of fertility for each cow to the land, 

 need not fear the sheriff and is doing as good a business as the 

 average merchant, o^evertheless, the man who is satisfied with 

 the above is not possessed with the ambition necessary to achieve 

 the highest attainment. 



MONEY PEOFIT 



Having emphasized the fact that in many cases that which 

 has enabled the dairyman to pay for his farm and to educate his 

 children has come from profit on cro])s through the cow and 

 II-3 



