MAMKi; 0\ l»Ali:V-KAUMS. Hf- 



C n A r T E R XXII. 

 MANUKK ON DAII^Y FAHM8. 



Farms (l«'v<)t»"(l i>rin(ip:illy lo (l;iir\ mir imi^Mii to In- richer and 

 more ppMliKlive tliuu furius liri^rly dtvolod to I lie priKluttiun of 

 grain. 



Nearly all tlie proijuee of the f.iriii is used to feed Iheeows, and 

 little is sold liiit milk, or cheese, or Imtier. 



■NVheii butter alone iss<ili, there ouirltl to be no hiss of ferlilizini; 

 matter — iw pure butler or oil contains no nilroueu, phosphoric 

 acid, or p<>Ui>li. Il contains nuthin:; but carbonaceous matter, 

 which can be removed fn»m the farm without detriment. 



And even in the cxs<' of milk, or cheese, the advantajre is all on 

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

 dollar's worth of milk or ehei^e removes far h ss nitrogen, phos- 

 phoric acid, and potash, than a didlar's wortli of wheal or other 

 grain. Five hundred ll>s. ^ f cheese contains about '2'} lbs. of nitro- 

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

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

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

 8up|M)sing it to be half clover and half ordinary meadow-hay, 

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

 In otlur w(trds, a cow eats 240 lbs. of nitrogen, and 2."j lbs. are re- 

 moved in the cheese, or not qui'e lOi i>er cent, and of mineral 

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

 to produce this amount of food, there will l)e }:<J lbs. of nitrogen 

 removed by the ehee.se, per acn\ while IJO bushels of wheat would 

 remove in the grain 32 Ib.s. of nitnigen, and 10 to 15 lbs. in the 

 straw. So that a crop of wheat removes from live to six times ns 

 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 (»f wheat or corn. If our grain- 

 growing fanners can keep up tlie fertility of their land, as they 

 undoubtedly cin, the dairymen ought to be making theirs richer 

 and mon> productive even.- year. 



"All that is quite true," said the Doctor, "and y(t from what I 

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

 rule, show any rapiil imprfivemenl. In fact, we hear it often 

 alle^red that the soil is becoming exhausted of phosphates, and that 

 the quantity and qualify of tlie gr.iss is deteriorating." 



