54 PROFITABLE STOCK RAISING 



ers themselves do not know how to make it profit- 

 able. In the 13 southern states the average cow, 

 according to the census of 1900, produces annually 

 only 3,036 pounds of milk. This will test on an 

 average, 4% per cent of butter fat, and will make, 

 therefore, only about 170 pounds of butter. This 

 low production and low degree of efficiency of the 

 animals kept, is the greatest cause for small profits. 

 The standard adopted for a good dairy cow re- 

 quires that she shall produce at least 6,000 pounds 

 of milk and 288 pounds of butter annually. The 

 South not only needs more dairy cows, but it needs 

 vastly better ones. In 1900 there were a few more 

 than 4,000,000 dairy cows in the 13 southern states, 

 producing 1,444,291,536 gallons of milk. These 

 cows were in about the 3,ooo-pound class. If they 

 had been of the standard adopted by dairymen for 

 a good average dairy cow they would have pro- 

 duced 2,859,042,558. This would have represented 

 an increased efficiency of 1,414,751,022 gallons of 

 milk or 58,400,000 pounds of butter fat. This in- 

 crease would have been worth something like 

 $240,000,000. In other words, the South was feed- 

 ing to her dairy cows an amount of feed which 

 produced $240,000,000 less than its true feeding 

 value indicated. The southern farmer has begun 

 to see that it does not pay him to feed two or three 

 cows in order to obtain the amount of milk which 

 one cow should produce. He is beginning to see 

 that it does not pay him to raise cattle which are 

 worth $11 or $12 a head, when a good type of steer 

 bred especially for the export beef trade sells in 

 Virginia at from $60 to $80 a head. It takes as 

 much feed and a lot more work and worry to prp- 

 duce the former type than the latter. 



