No. 4.] DAIRYING. 43 



DAIEYING AN IMPORTANT FACTOR IN AGRICULTURE, 

 AS DEMONSTRATED IN EUROPEAN COUNTRIES. 



PROF. OSCAR ERF, OPIIO STATE UNIVERSITY, COLUMBUS, OHIO. 



Experience has proven to be the best demonstrator of facts 

 in agricultural vocations. Time is required to prove these 

 facts. While science has made rapid strides, it has advanced 

 along lines in which results can readily be secured. Our 

 country is becoming more densely populated, the area of 

 new lands with virgin fertility is limited, and the fertility 

 of the old lands is gradually becoming exhausted. Our 

 country is facing the conditions that the European countries 

 have met in the past. It is a great economical problem that 

 we have before us, and the experience of other countries may 

 aid us in its solution. 



Those specializing in different lines of agriculture are 

 likely to have narro\v visions, and we do not mean to state 

 that dairying is entirely responsible for the great develop- 

 ment of agriculture in European countries, but it is our 

 desire to impress the fact strongly that dairy farming is a 

 very important factor in their progress. 



England, Germany, France, NTorway, S^veden and the 

 smaller countries, like Denmark, Holland, Belgium, Switzer- 

 land and northern Italy, show most plainly the prominence 

 of dairying in their systems of agriculture. The most 

 densely populated country of Europe is probably Holland, 

 which supports about 490 people per square mile, in com- 

 parison to our 34. Flowers might be considered the most 

 important crop there, and the gross receipts would indicate 

 that to be the fact. But upon a careful study of the situa- 

 tion we find the cow to be a necessary adjunct to the business 

 of growing flowers. It is the cow who makes the lands fertile 



