62 The Bulletin. 



It is natural when a man improves one thing for him to improve others, 

 so the cows were taken out of the old shed and put in a new barn ; a silo was 

 built for better feed and more of it ; the hogs were taken out of their muddy 

 pen and put into a new house with a concrete floor ; the horses were moved 

 into another new barn, with many more conveniences. The dairy house was 

 somewhat improved and a gasoline engine installed. I thought gasoline 

 cheaper than muscle and attached the separator, churn, pump and wood saw 

 to it. Water is now pumped to all the barns and the house. The old fence 

 seemed to need a lift, and the farm roads needed the pick and shovel. It 

 seemed, too, that the fields called for improved machinery ; so many improve- 

 ments have been made, with valuable suggestions from the Department of 

 Agriculture. 



There is still room for many more improvements, but these have already 

 had their influence over my neighbors, and there are new separators in the 

 neighborhood, barns and silos going up and record work begun. 



Without the scales and Babcock tester I do not know of any way in the 

 world that you can build up a herd that you will be proud of in the future. 

 We are not in the business simply to milk, for it is twice every day, and as 

 Mr. French has said, "All dairymen are bowlegged from holding the milk 

 pail 365 days a year." It does not cost any more to attend a good herd than 

 a poor one, and I am sure the profit pays you in many ways. 



If a man will keep a record of his herd for one year he will be no worse 

 off at the end of the year, but much benefited. But if then he decides that it 

 is too much trouble to weed out the "boarders" he is too lazy for a dairyman 

 and will soon go out of business. The quicker the better. 



What merchant in the city of Raleigh would think of selling goods without 

 a cost-mark and selling-price. He would not run long without some book 

 work, and all we dairymen would be ready to criticize and say : "There is a 

 man who didn't know how to run his business and failed." 



Now, my brother, it is just as important for we dairymen to keep an 

 account as for the merchant. How can any man ever run a dairy farm if he 

 does not keep a record of his herd ; he will always be making mistakes. He 

 may think old Daisy no good, because she gives such a little milk, and she 

 goes on the block when old Sport ought to have gone instead. 



I claim I am on the right track, and if I ever succeed it will be a great 

 pleasure in my old age to sit down and look over the records and think of 

 the old cow with the crooked horn, the stocking- legged cow, or the white 

 switch cow, and say to my children, "This is the cow that helped to educate 

 you." 



RELATION OF LIVE-STOCK FARMING TO SOIL FERTILITY. 



By C. L. Newman, Professor of Agriculture, North Carolina A. and M. College. 



The subject I am to discuss to-day — "The Relation of Live-stock Farming to 

 Soil Fertility" — is, to my mind, one of greater material importance to the agri- 

 cultural South than any subject that might be discussed by any man or any 

 body of men. It is both fundamental and perpetual in its relationship to the 

 welfare of this State and to the South. I can say, with reverence and with the 

 conviction of truth, that, should one great commandment be promulgated 

 throughout our Southland for the guidance and for the insurance of a pros- 

 perous independence to our farmers, it would be : Thou shalt not till thy soil 

 unless thou also maintain thereon its complement of live stock. 



The geological origin of practically all of North Carolina's soils, their anat- 

 omy, physiology and topography are such as to render them easily portable 

 under the influence of our heavy rainfall, and that portion, the surface, which 

 possesses the conditions and composition most suitable to plant growth is the 



