MANUKE OX DAIIIY-FAKMS. 101 



CHAPTER XXII. 

 MANURE ON DAIRY-FARMS. 



Farms devoted principally to dairying ought to be richer and 

 more productive than farms largely devoted to the production of 

 grain. 



Nearly all the produce of the farm is used to feed the cows, and 

 little is sold but milk, or cheese, or butter. 



When butter alone is sold, there ought to be no loss of fertilizing 

 matter as pure butter or oil contains no nitrogen, phosphoric 

 acid, or potash. It contains nothing but carbonaceous matter, 

 which can be removed from the farm without detriment. 



And even in the case of milk, or cheese, the advantage is all on 

 the side of the dairyman, as compared with the grain-grower. A 

 dollar's worth of milk or cheese removes far less nitrogen, phos- 

 phoric acid, and potash, than a dollar's worth of wheat or other 

 grain. Five hundred Ibs. cf cheese contains about 25 Ibs. of nitro- 

 gen, and 20 Ibs. of mineral matter. A cow that would make this 

 amount of cheese would eat not less than six tons of hay, or its 

 equivalent in grass or grain, in a year. And this amount of food, 

 supposing it to be half clover and half ordinary meadow-hay, 

 would contain 240 Ibs. of nitrogen and 810 Ibs. of mineral matter. 

 In other words, a cow eats 240 Ibs. of nitrogen, and 25 Ibs. are re- 

 moved in the cheese, or not quite 10 per cent, and of mineral 

 matter not quite 2^ per cent is removed. If it takes three acres 

 to produce this amount of food, there will be 8 Ibs. of nitrogen 

 removed by the cheese, per acre, while 30 bushels of wheat would 

 remove in the grain 32 Ibs. of nitrogen, and 10 to 15 Ibs. in the 

 straw. So that a crop of wheat removes from five to six times as 

 much nitrogen per acre as a crop of cheese ; and the removal of 

 mineral matter in cheese is quite insignificant as compared with 

 the amount removed in a crop of wheat or corn. If our grain- 

 growing farmers can keep up the fertility of their land, as they 

 undoubtedly can, the dairymen ought to be making theirs richer 

 and more productive every year. 



" All that is quite true," said the Doctor, " and yet from what I 

 have seen and heard, the farms in the dairy districts, do not, as a 

 rule, show any rapid improvement. In fact, we hear it often 

 alleged that the soil is becoming exhausted of phosphates, and that 

 the quantity and quality of the grass is deteriorating/' 



