COW-PASTUEES AND COW-PATHS 49 



All this does not contradict the fact that even 

 under modem conditions, pasture is still of prime 

 importance in dairying. There are now, and in- 

 creasingly will be, men located on very valuable 

 land which is level, fertile, and easily tilled, who 

 will feel that they cannot afford to pasture it, but 

 wUl depend instead on soiling crops grown under 

 conditions of intensive culture. In some cases this 

 will be good farming and sound management, but 

 on the whole, our dairying still rests on a basis 

 of pasturage. 



It is not a foolish boast, — ^it is a fact that New 

 York state is the real Kingdom of the Cow. 

 Among the states of the Union it stands only 

 seventeenth in available acreage, but it ranks first ^ 

 in the value of its dairy products. Up in the 

 North Country of New York the fields are fairly 

 level, but the old glaciers have made them a dump- 

 ing ground for their granite debris. These bowlder- 

 strewn and often poorly drained fields cover large 

 areas of no possible agricultural use except for 

 pasturage. St. Lawrence County has more than 

 96,000 dairy cows — a striking example of how a 

 people has adapted its farm scheme to the environ- 

 ment. 



Down in the southeast of the state are the two 

 remarkable dairy counties of Orange and Dela- 



^New York state seems to fluctuate between first and third 

 place. She probably stands first in value because so much of 

 her product sells as liquid milk. 



