122 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



animals, and we put the cow there between them and us as 

 a means towards an end. 



Unless we feed cows on our farms, we are ever under the 

 necessity of buying, buying, buying tons and tons of ex- 

 pensive nitrogenous commercial fertilizers, which very few 

 farmers on our side of the line have enough business skill to 

 make money by using. But when we feed cows on our 

 farms, instead of selling off the farms what the plants take 

 out of the land (and that was beautifully, scientifically and 

 eloquently explained this morning), four-fifths of it goes 

 back on the fields in the form of manure ; and we sell less 

 substance off the land and receive more money into our 

 pockets ; therefore we feed cows to protect the soil, and a 

 man who robs his land is the poorest kind of a farmer. 



We do more than that. We feed cows to provide remu- 

 nerative occupation for ourselves. What was it caused that 

 dire calamity across the continent a year and a half ago, 

 when so many people were without work, when money was 

 so wonderfully scarce ? Everybody's financial standing was 

 in jeopard}^ It was because a great many people had not the 

 opportunity of remunerative employment to which to apply 

 their strength and skill. A farmer on this continent in this 

 latitude cannot find remunerative employment on his fields 

 in growing crops for more than five or six months in a 

 year; and unless he finds' for himself some profitable em- 

 ployment during the other six months of the year, he will 

 have to earn as much in six months as will keep him and his 

 family comfortable for twelve months. Nowadays but few 

 men can do that honestly ; therefore he must find employ- 

 ment for himself during those months when he cannot work 

 on his fields ; and he can feed cows so as to aid him in 

 obtaining the results which he desires, — specifically to 

 make profit out of the operation. 



If a cow will turn what you do give her into a more valu- 

 able product, then you can feed her at a profit ; if the cow 

 will turn it into a less valuable one, you will feed her at a 

 loss ; and just as the cow has ability and capacity for turning 

 what you give her into a more valuable product, so far she 

 is a good servant. If she does not do that, she is a very 

 expensive boarder on a farm ; and from what I have heard of 



