THE DAIRY 



The Products of the Dairy. Milk, butter and cheese 

 are the products of the dairy. Whether the farmer 

 should sell his milk, or make it into butter or cheese, 

 depends upon nearness to factories and markets, the 

 relative price of milk products, and other local condi- 

 tions. It must be constantly kept in mind that the 

 sale of milk to consumers takes from the farm all the 

 soil elements found in whole milk. The sale of 

 cheese returns a portion of soil fertility with the whey, 

 while the sale of butter removes practically nothing 

 of a soil nature. The milk required to produce a ton 

 of butter contains about 450 pounds of fertilizing sub- 

 stances; the cheese made from the same amount of 

 milk contains about half as much of such substances, 

 and the butter that this milk will produce contains less 

 than five pounds of soil fertility. The reason is plain. 

 Butter-fat is a carbohydrate, and carbohydrates, you 

 will remember, come from the air and the water, not 

 from the soil. Hence, with milk at the same price per 

 hundred at both butter and cheese factories, it is far 

 better to make butter than cheese for the market. 



