No. 4.] DAIRYING. 47 



Dairying and other intciisivo systems of agriculture are 

 being practiced to a considerable extent in some portions of 

 our country, but there is room for great improvement even 

 in those parts, and in many places no attempt is made to 

 weed out the poor cows from the herd. The Ijest systems of 

 marketing are disregarded, and the agriculturist is not alert 

 to the opportunities offered him. Considerable capital is 

 involved in the dairy business, and there surely is no invest- 

 ment so staple and so safe as an investment in a farm. 



If Germany by her systems of agriculture has been able 

 to become a self-supporting nation in less than thirty-iive 

 years, would it not be desirable to put into practice some of 

 her schemes, — introduce more dairying, organize more 

 cow-testing associations and more breeding associations, have 

 bettor roads, bring into practice the parcel post, — so that the 

 products of the farm can be sent to the consumer at a very 

 low rate for transportation, — and establish a credit system 

 by which the farmers can borrow capital at a very low rate 

 of interest. We should utilize and conserve the natural 

 resources of the country and not allow it to go into the hands 

 of large corporations. The underlying factors in the dairy 

 operations are constructive rather than destructive, and it is 

 the most conservative method of preserving the soil fertility 

 that we have. 



The dairy coav eats the grains and other feeds that are 

 raised upon the farm and makes milk of them. At the same 

 time, 90 per cent of the fertilizing constituents consumed by 

 the average cow are returned to the soil in the shape of 

 manure, which if properly a]iplied is of great value; 10 per 

 cent is used for the production of milk. We separate the 

 milk and feed the skim milk to the calves, churn the cream 

 and feed the buttermilk to the hogs, so that there is lost l)ut 

 an extremely small part of the fertilizing constituents, esti- 

 mated to amount to about 30 cents for every ton of butter 

 produced. Compare this Avith the enormous waste of fer- 

 tility in grain farming. The loss of soil fertility with a ton 

 of wheat amounts to from $8 to $8.50, and that with a ton 

 of corn is from $6 to $6.50. The value of these grains 



