8o ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 



of great fertility — but better adapted for the production of 

 grain than for dairying. The reasons for the general abun- 

 dant supply of rainfall during the summer and fall months 

 on the great water-shed of the Chemung sandstone forma- 

 tion, may be explained by the fact that lands elevated 

 15,000 to 18,000 feet above tide-water, attract the moisture 

 of the atmosphere, and produce a greater amount of rain- 

 fall and a more equal distribution than those regions situ- 

 ated much lower or much higher than this elevation. The 

 sources of supply of moisture are the Atlantic on the 

 south, and the great lakes on the north and west ; their 

 atmospheric currents meet on this water-shed and cause, as 

 a general rule, an abundant rainfall. The same influences 

 operate in part in causing rainfall in Illinois, Wisconsin, 

 Minnesota and Iowa. The moisture of the upper atmos- 

 pheric currents is supplied by the great lakes, and flows 

 southwesterly, and returns in the lower atmospheric currents 

 attended with rainfall — flowing from the south-west to the 

 north-east, as established by a long series of observations 

 made by the signal department at Washington. 



On the subject of the best means to increase the 

 adaptation of soils for dairying, I will mention one of the 

 most practical manners of doing it. On all dairy farms it 

 should be a standing rule with the owner of the farm to 

 make all the manure possible from the produce of the farm, 

 and judiciously apply it where most needed. It is a well- 

 established fact that the liquid manure of an animal is worth 

 quite as much yearly, if properly applied, as the solid 

 manure is. Every stable should be so constructed as to 

 save the liquid as well as the solid manures of all animals. 

 All portions of a dairy farm that are too wet to produce the 

 best qualities of cultivated grasses should be thoroughly 

 drained and cultivated, till fit to raise cultivated grasses in 

 the highest degree of perfection. Low, wet, sour lands 

 produce an inferior quality of grass, but illy adapted to the 

 production of milk for butter and cheese ; but when thor- 

 ougly reclaimed, by perfect drainage, are often the most 

 valuable portions of farms for grazing purposes. As a rule 

 there is no class of investments that pays better than thorough 

 drainage of wet lands. For dairy purposes grass for hay 

 should be cut while green, and never allowed to fully ripen. 

 When grass is cut before it is fully ripe the quality of the 

 hay is much more valuable than when left to ripen, and a 



