The BuLLETiisr. 89 



DAIRYING AS A BUSINESS. 



Helmer Rabild, U. S. Department of Agriculture. 



Mr. Chairman, Ladies, and Gentlemen: Before coming here, I looked up the 

 dairy statistics of North Carolina, and found that according to the census the 

 industry has made a wonderful advance in the last ten years in this State. I 

 found, for instance, that in 1900 you had 233.178 cows, while in 1910 you were 

 reported as having 308,608, an increase of 32 per cent. The amount of butter 

 made on farms has increased in the same time from 16,913,802 pounds to 

 26,060,000. This is an increase of 54 per cent. So if the amount of butter 

 made on the farms is au index to the productivity of the cow, you have made 

 a wonderful progress in the last ten years in increased production per cow. 



I understand that there are present at this meeting men representing 

 almost every branch of farming. I am particularly interested in dairying. 

 You have probably all guessed by this time that I was not born under the 

 Stars and Stripes. My native country is Denmark, that little two-by-four 

 country across the ocean which supplies the English breakfast table with 

 butter,' eggs, and bacon. Everybody in Denmark being so much interested in 

 dairying, you can understand why I have developed an Interest in it; and I 

 come to you with the proposition that it would pay you to become more inter- 

 ested in it. and to make larger investments in the business. 



In the hrst place, I realize, and I am sure you do, that one of the most 

 important problems before the American farmer to-day is that of the conserva- 

 tion or increase of the fertility of the soil. The time has passed when we can 

 go on depleting the soil and continue to raise maximum crops. If we want to 

 raise maximum crops, or even paying crops, we must put into the soil more 

 fertility, more humus, and more plant food. 



Speaking broadly, there are two systems of farming. One is the cropping 

 system. A man sows corn and other grain, reaps a harvest, and sells it. 

 That, to my mind, is more a system of mining than it is farming, because when 

 a man sells a crop off the farm he sells at the same time nitrogen, phosphoric 

 acid, and potash — plant food, if you please — and by so doing he robs the land 

 of fertility. The other system is that of live-stock husbandry. Instead of 

 selling off his crops, the farmer feeds them to animals, and sells only the 

 animal product. In this way the larger share of the fertility is kept on the 

 farm; husbanded, if you please; and this system of farming will conserve 

 and build up the fertility of the country. 



I am sure you all agree that we ought to have some sort of live stock on our 

 farms ; but what shall it be? Hogs, steers, lambs, horses and mules, poultry, 

 dairy cattle, or what? Now, I will say that I should like to have you go into 

 the dairy business, and keep more cows. It occurs to me that there are some 

 fundamental facts about the dairy business to which the farmer does not give 

 sufficient consideration. I believe even dairymen generally fail to realize 

 how good a business they are engaged in. 



In the first place, dairying is a safe business. No one ever heard of a 

 dairyman losing any great amount of money in his business. And you can 

 tell a young man to go into it with the assurance that you are not giving him 

 bad advice. I lived for a number of years in the fruit belt of western Michi- 

 gan, where everybody raises apples and peaches, and I know of many a young 

 man who went into the fruit business and lost everything he had. On the 

 other hand, I know of men who made a fortune in one year in the fruit busi- 

 ness. I know one man who made .$40,000 in one year from peaches ; but he 

 told me he had waited ten years for that crop. There is this about the fruit 

 business, that it is speculative; and so are a great many other branches of 

 farming. We have to take chances on the season being just right, and on the 

 trees coming through in good shape ; and if we win we make a lot of money. 

 But as I said, I have known a number of young men who lost everything 

 they had in that business. It is a speculative business, and you cannot advise 

 a young man who is just starting out to go into it unless he has plenty of 

 capital and can afford to wait for one good year which will make his fortune. 



But no one knows of anv farmer losing a great amount of money in dairymg 

 —and this is because of the nature of the business. If he finds that his cows 



