CHAPTER XXVII 



DAIRYING: AN EXAMPLE IN SOIL BUILDING 



Dairying is one of the most effective practices in agri- 

 culture for retaining and restoring the fertility of the soil. 

 A great array of facts are on record that prove that soils, 

 devoted to dairying, may be as fertile after centuries of 

 farming as they were in their original state. In Euro- 

 pean countries, as well as in all parts of the United States, 

 we find farms that once were abandoned because the soil 

 fertility was exhausted: it did not pay to farm them. As 

 a last resort, dairying was introduced and the fertility was 

 restored completely. Many of these farms are even more 

 fertile to-day than they were in the beginning, and so 

 long as dairying is carried on, they will continue to in- 

 crease in fertility and productive power. 



Grain farming exhausts the soil; dairying does not. 

 In grain farming the fertility is removed from the farm 

 by selling the grain. According to Professor \Yoll of the 

 Wisconsin Experiment Station approximately $8.35 

 worth of fertility is removed from the soil with the sale of 

 every ton of wheat. With every ton of corn that is sold 

 approximately $6.50 worth of fertility is removed from 

 the soil. 



P>ut in the case of dairying where butter is made on 

 the farm and where all the by-products are fed to pigs 

 and calves we find that only 36 cents' worth of fertility 

 is removed in each ton of butter produced. The commer- 

 cial value of a ton of wheat at 75 cents per bushel is ap- 

 proximately $24.75; but the commercial value of a ton 

 of butter at 25 cents per pound is $500. Hence, for 



