The Bulletin. 73 



tutes for the same will amount to at least one million pounds a year. Taking 

 a conservative price of 30 cents per pound, this would mean $300,000 for but- 

 ter. Cheese is now costing the grocer 17 cents per pound. Taking a minimum 

 of 15 cents per pound, and we have $252,204 that the cheese is costing. These 

 two items — butter and cheese — are costing the people of North Carolina 

 $552,204 annually. Besides these, there is a large quantity of condensed milk 

 shipped into the State, figures for which are not at hand. 



When we consider that by the last census this State has only about six 

 dairy cows to the square mile, while the population is about thirty to the 

 square mile, we can easily see the need of shipping in such large quantities of 

 butter, cheese and milk. The people of this State, like those in many other 

 States, have long depended upon one or two crops. as the principal source of 

 income; have failed to see that there is money in other things; have robbed 

 their soil of plant food and thus, often, have failed to appreciate or lost sight 

 of the foundation of all our agriculture — soil fertility. We must, therefore, 

 keep more live stock, as it is absolutely necessary to a good system of agricul- 

 ture. We must raise more rough feed and convert this into beef, pork or but- 

 ter. Of the different kinds of live stock there is none so profitable, if rightly 

 managed, as the dairy cow. But there is the rub ! So few herds are rightly 

 managed, and so few men are giving the subject the attention that it deserves. 

 There are three main reasons why the dairy business is not more of a paying 

 industry, viz., poor cows, the lack of home-grown feeds, and poor products. 



poor cows. 



The cows in the State only produce about one-half as much milk and butter 

 as they should. Unless a cow will give 5,000 pounds of milk and make 200 

 pounds of butter in a year she will not pay her board bill. How are better 

 cows to be secured? They must be raised. In the first place, it is necessary 

 to keep a record of every cow in the herd, weigh and test the milk from each 

 cow at least once a month. Throw out all cows that do not make at least 250 

 pounds of butter in a year. It is necessary to have a good bull at the head of 

 the herd, and he should be from a cow who has made a large yearly milk and 

 butter record. I should prefer a bull from a cow making not less than 500 

 pounds of butter a year. By the use of such a bull, by discarding the poor 

 cows and saving the heifer calves from the best cows, a good paying herd can 

 be secured in four years, and at a much less cost than they could have been 

 bought. 



The accompanying cuts show two cows : one making 9,531.5 pounds of milk 

 and 522.53 pounds of butter fat at a cost for feed of $68.60. The other made 

 1.752 pounds of milk and 102.8 pounds of butter fat at a cost for feed of $38.04. 

 Not only does the record work show what each cow is producing, but more 

 interest will be taken in the dairy work by every one employed on the farm, 

 and especially those doing the milking. 



HOME-GROWN FEED. 



Too many of our dairymen are depending upon the town merchant to fur- 

 nish the feeds for the cows; they are depending on cotton-seed hulls for the 

 cow feed. No man will succeed as a dairyman who follows this practice. All 

 the rough feed should be grown on the farm ; buy the cotton-seed meal and 

 perhaps some of the other grain feed if necessary. 



A silo should be a part of the equipment of every cattle farm, and especially 

 the dairy farm. Pea-vine hay, sorghum, shredded stover and the clovers 

 should be grown extensively. 



BUTTER PRODUCTS. 



After the cows and the feed, there yet remains the product, and this must 

 be good, and good all the time, in order to secure and bold a high price. It 

 is not a hard matter to get 30 cents per pound for butter, but it must be of a 

 high quality. One example will suffice. Last winter the writer went to see a 

 party making butter and selling it at 15 cents per pound, a drug on the market. 



