512 HANDY-BOOK OF HUSBANDRY. 



acid, potash, etc., become necessary to fertility they can be ob- 

 tained by farmers at paying rates. 



To take an extremely theoretical view of the selling of milk, 

 it may be said that we act on the principle that " sufficient unto the 

 day is the evil thereof." Practically, I am inclined to think that, 

 while the future deterioration of the soil is pretty certain, all of 

 the circumstances of the case being considered, this system is not 

 injudicious. So long as by the feeding of purchased food, and by 

 the careful use of the manure produced, the fertility of the land 

 may be kept at a satisfactory point, farmers, as a rule, will not, 

 and perhaps it is not necessary that they should, spend large sums 

 in the purchase of special fertilizers ; because, when they become 

 really necessary, they are morally certain to be purchased and to 

 be applied with judgment. Therefore, the most careful and 

 economical foresight need not be gready alarmed by the pres- 

 ent waste of capital. Or, to state the case in a few words, so 

 long as farming will pay without the purchase of foreign manures, 

 so long will they be dispensed with ; when farming will only pay 

 with their assistance they are sure to.be purchased ; consequently, 

 while in an operation of my own I should carefully eschew any sys- 

 tepi which removed from the soil in any single year more mineral 

 matter than the purchased food of that year returned to it, I am 

 fully aware that most farmers situated, as they often are, remote 

 from the sources of these fertilizers, either will not or cannot adhere 

 to this rule ; and while I believe that either they or their descendants 

 will suffer to a certain extent from their course, I do not believe that 

 the inconvenience will be very great, or that the ultimate profit of 

 their operations will be disastrously reduced. This question of 

 the removal of phosphates and potash is the only grave objection to 

 the selling of milk. Setting that aside, we see ample reason why 

 all farmers, who are so situated that their milk can be conveniently 

 sold, day by day, should prefer this means of converting it into 

 money ; for it is desirable to avoid the perplexing cares of the 

 buttery and cheese-room when possible ; and ordinarily the price 

 obtained for the milk is pretty nearly as great as would be obtained 

 for the various products of milk if manufactured at home. 



