14 THE BUSINESS OF DAIRYING 



value of the crops has been rated a little high, but 

 they were cut when in prime condition for feeding 

 and utilized, in some instances, at the season of the 

 year when no other crops were available. 



CHAPTER II 



THE DAIRY BUSINESS IN RELATION TO 

 SOIL EXHAUSTION 



THE keeping of accurate records of all fertility 

 elements applied to the soil in the form of manures 

 and fertilizers and the amount removed in farm 

 crops, as we have seen, is an important matter. We 

 will now look at the subject of the fertility of the 

 dairy farm from a wider viewpoint ; and endeavor to 

 show that a dairy farm, in selling market milk and 

 using good business methods in its operations, in- 

 cluding the feeding of balanced rations and growing 

 a large percentage of the food stuffs on the farm, 

 will tend to grow richer instead of poorer in plant 

 food. The records used for this purpose were kept 

 by the writer and cover a period of seven years on 

 a farm having about 76 acres under cultivation and 

 a herd of 30 to 40 milking cows. 



The following tabulation shows the amount of 

 fertilizing elements contained in the feeds purchased 

 and in the milk produced by the herd. There is 

 shown to be a decided gain to the farm in all the 

 elements of fertility each year. The total gain is 

 equivalent in nitrogen and phosphoric acid to that 

 contained respectively in 27.6 tons of nitrate of soda, 

 29.6 tons of acid phosphate and in potash to that 



