1891 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
3 
SHALL I SELL MY COWS ? 
And Buy Fertilizers and City Stable Manure? 
A young farmer in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, sends 
us the following note. We print with it the first of the 
discussion which it naturally starts. 
“ I keep 20 cows and find it hard to get good men to take 
care of them. Would it pay as well to sell off all the cows, 
and then sell all the crops and buy city manure and good 
phosphates to keep up the fertility of the farm ? How 
would It pay to put in a good hay press, press the hay and 
straw and ship them to New York and Philadelphia? 
Good manure can be bought, delivered at the station, for 
$190 a ton. I feed about 3,000 bushels of corn, eight to ten 
tons of bran and all the hay and oats the stock will eat. If 
it would amount to the same in the end, it would be a 
saving because there would be no need of keeping so much 
help in the winter, for as everything could be shipped by 
the car load, one extra day-hand could do it. I live. 25 miles 
from Philadelphia on the new line to New York. The 
freight on milk is one half cent per quart. We get about 
3X cents clear per quart for six months in the year and 
2X cents for the other six months. 
A Fertilizer Farmer Talks. 
I have had no experience whatever in the dairy business, 
and hence could not advise on that point. The inquirer 
says he finds it difficult to get good men to care for his 
cows. I might say that I find it difficult to get such men 
for any department of agriculture. In my system of farm¬ 
ing, I keep as little stock as possible and depend on my 
hay and potato crops for profits. I do not believe I can af¬ 
ford to buy stable manure even at $1.90 per ton. Experi¬ 
ence has taught me that by pasturing my meadows as little 
as possible I can secure maximum crops of hay, without an 
immediate outlay of money, for I calculate to apply all my 
yard manure to the sward to be plowed under for the corn 
crop. I make the soil specially rich for the potato crop, for I 
have learned by experience that my crop of potatoes, one 
year with another, will pay for the heavy applications of 
commercial fertilizers and give a good profit 
besides. I have in mind a farmer in an ad¬ 
joining county, who had this year 20 acres 
of potatoes from which he obtained over 
6,000 bushels. A remarkable thing is that 
on half the field no manures, except in the 
form of chemical fertilizers, had been ap¬ 
plied for 10 years, while on the other half 
heavy applications of stable manure had 
been made again and again, together with 
marl, yet though the application of chem¬ 
ical fertilizers last season was equally heavy 
—1,000 pounds per acre—on both plots of 10 
acres, there was absolutely no apparent dif¬ 
ference in the yield or character of the 
crops. In view of this experience, can we 
afford to haul out stable manure ? 
Middlesex County, N. J. D. c. lewis. 
“Passed Through The Same Ex¬ 
perience.” 
An ancient writer—Cicero, I believe—re¬ 
marked that the feeding of cattle is the 
most important part of agriculture, and 
this is true to day, and will be true ever 
and always, and for these reasons : Under 
reasonably good management the feeding 
of cattle may be made a profitable busi¬ 
ness of itself; the manure made then costs 
nothing, and thus the land is enriched 
without cost. No grain or hay crops could 
be grown profitably with purchased manure, 
even at $1.90 per ton. This would be in¬ 
creased to $2 50 per ton at the farm, and as 
10 tons per acre is a light manuring made annually, the 
culture of every acre would cost more than the grain 
raised would bring. But, no doubt, there are crops that 
might be grown that would bring in several times as 
much as grain, and more than milk. Clover, potatoes, 
cabbages, fruits of various kinds, with occasional crops 
of corn, wheat, oats, etc., would be very profitable so 
near a large market, and some kind of special culture 
might certainly be made much more profitable than 
keeping cows for milk at 2% cents a quart net on the 
farm. With clover less manure would be required, as the 
sod turned under would be equivalent to a heavy dressing 
of manure. Two hundred bushels of potatoes per acre, at 
50 cents per bushel, would yield $100 per acre and this crop 
might easily be made the staple, as the market would take 
almost any quantity. The same may be said of cabbages, 
sweet corn and several other crops that are easily salable 
in a large city. 
I once passed through the same experience as this young 
farmer. I was 20 miles from New York and the very same 
questions occurred to me. The plan I adopted was to buy 
manure and fertilizers until my land was brought up to a 
fertile condition, and to get 15 good cows and buy feed for 
them and sell the milk. This plan was followed for two 
years, but I got five cents per quart for the milk. I found 
that potatoes,sweet corn, cabbages, melons and cucumbers 
brought in more money than any other crops; but as I had 
a good deal of waste from these crops I concluded to keep 
on with the cows and turn the dairy to butter making. I 
sold the butter to private parties in the city at 50 to 75 
cents per pound. I got an average of 11,000 ears of sweet 
corn to the acre, bringing in more than $100, and the fod¬ 
der was fed to the cows; it paid better to feed the hay than 
to sell it; melons paid $300 and upwards per acre and 
cucumbers about $100. I made nearly all the manure I 
wanted from the 15 cows, with a large addition of muck 
from a swamp on which I grew water-cress that sold for 75 
cents the peck basket. Potatoes made over $100 per acre. 
Clover hay and the corn fodder fed the cows, with meal 
and other feed purchased, and a ton or two of complete 
fertilizer made out the supply of manure. After the third 
year 70 acres yielded a profit of about $2,500 yearly, but 
half of it was in pasture. With 15 cows I had one man 
only, regularly, with more help in the summer. Then the 
cows were dry at pasture, milking only from September 
to June, and the crops occupied my whole time. Of course 
I did half the milking and cared for the milk and made the 
butter myself and helped with the field crops. The winter 
was the leisure time; the busy time was in the late summer 
when the crops required cultivation and marketing. I don’t 
know of any more profitable or pleasant way of farming 
than this near a large city and a good market. It is cer¬ 
tain that a farm without stock is much like a man with 
one hand or one leg. Grain and other feed can be bought 
cheaper than it can be raised where land Is worth $100 and 
over per acre, and straw is always worth more on the farm 
than off it. By this sort of management the help required 
is reduced to a minimum, and the more costly labor and 
machinery of growing grain on a small farm are avoided. 
Macon County, N. C. HENRY STEWART. 
The Whole Thing Figured Out. 
It would be a difficult matter to give more than a general 
answer to the question. The only definite point given 
is that milk brings an average of three cents per quart 
clear of freight charges, and he asks whether it will pay 
better to continue dairying or to change to grain and hay, 
and buy manure at $1.90 per ton. I am, however, led to 
give the matter more than a passing notice, since it in¬ 
volves principles worthy of careful consideration by the 
thoughtful and progressive farmer. It is a well known 
fact that in New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania the ma¬ 
jority of farmers still pursue what is termed the old-line 
practice, viz : a rotation consisting of corn, oats, wheat and 
hay, the farm stock kept being sufficient to consume the 
rough stuff of the farm—they are young animals or dairy 
cows as the case may be. In this case, then, let us assume 
that the young farmer has a 60 acre farm ; that he follows 
this old rotation and that 12 acres are given to corn, oats, 
wheat and hay respectively, the other 12 being devoted to 
hay for the farm teams, and to pasture, garden truck, or¬ 
chard, or any purpose outside the dairy; that the land is 
in a good state of fertility and produces 50 bushels of corn 
and two tons of stalks per acre; 20 bushels of wheat and 
one ton of straw : 60 bushels of oats and three quarters of 
a ton of straw and two tons of clover hay per acre. Let us 
assume also that he prepares all his stalks and straw for 
feed. The first point for him to decide in the management 
of his dairy would be whether to sell or feed all his grain. 
This would involve a determination of the actual digest¬ 
ible food compounds in the materials raised ; if they were 
of good average quality an application of the average 
chemical analyses of American grains and feeding stuffs 
would be admissible and would show that by feeding his 
whole product to 20 cows there would be a waste of the 
class carbohydrates. Wheat at $1 per bushel would be an 
expensive food. Corn is composed largely of the class 
carbohydrates; oats in themselves are a well balanced 
food, but at 40 cents per bushel would be much more costly 
than the mill feeds—middlings, bran, etc. It would seem, 
then, that it might be possible to sell his wheat, corn, and, 
say, one half his oat crop and still utilize the remainder of 
his produce. Calculated on the yields above assumed, the 
actual food still remaining in his straw, stalks, hay and 
oats would be approximately 1,815 pounds of digestible 
fat, 6,769 pounds of digestible protein, and 63,591 pounds 
of digestible carbohydrates, sufficient fat for 20 cows for 
227 days, of protein for 135 days, and carbohydrates for 254 
days. The chief food compound now lacking is protein, 
which must be secured from some source to supply the 
herd for 230 days in order to make out the year. Inas¬ 
much as protein cannot be procured in the markets with¬ 
out at the same time getting the compounds fat and carbo¬ 
hydrates, those materials must be selected, other things 
being equal, which furnish the least amounts of the latter 
and the greatest amount of protein. 
A calculation based upon the analyses of the different 
feeding stuffs on the market, taking also into consideration 
their relative cost and advantages in a rat-ion, shows that 
if there were added to the food already on hand four tons 
of cotton seed meal, two tons of linseed meal, 10 tons of 
wheat bran, seven tons of wheat middlings, and seven 
tons of dried brewers’ grains, the total actual food would 
be 4,518 pounds of digestible fat, 18,226 of digestible pro¬ 
tein, and 91,374 of digestible carbohydrates. These 
amounts would give each of the 20 cows, of 1,000 pounds 
live weight, 62 pounds of fat, 2.50 pounds of protein and 
12 50 pounds of carbohydrates per day for one year—a 
ration which in the quantity and ratio of its food com¬ 
pounds has been found most economical for dairy cows. 
A good dairy cow should average at least nine quarts per 
day per year. The salable product of his farm and dairy 
would then stand as follows : 
65,700 quarts of milk at. 
3 cents 
$1,971 
600 bushels of corn at .... 
.. 50 “ 
300 
300 “ “ oats at.... 
40 “ 
120 
240 “ “ wheat at.. 
..$1.00 
240 
Total value of products 
$2,631 
Assuming the best conditions for the proposed method 
of hay farming, viz ; that it Is possible to keep 40 acres of 
the farm in permanent meadow, that would yield IX ton 
of hay per acre having an average selling price of $15 per 
ton ; that 10 acres could be kept in corn or an equally 
profitable crop, and the remaining 10 acres also for other 
purposes as in the dairy farming, the result would stand 
as follows: 
60 ton s o f h ay at.$ 15.00 $900 
500 bushels of corn or its equivalent... .50 250 
20 tons of stalks “ “ “ ... 6.00 120 
Toial value of products $1,270 
The cost of the food bought for the dairy at prices now 
ruling in the markets would be $613 ; deducting this from 
the value of the products of the farm in dairy farming, the 
results from the two methods would be: Dairy farming, 
$2,018; hay farming, $1,270. A difference of $748 in favor 
of dairy farming when the manures secured and the plant 
food removed are not taken into consideration. The 
amount of the fertilizing elements removed 
by the crops produced in dairy farming 
would be approximately 2,780 pounds of 
nitrogen, 852 pounds of phosphoric acid and 
1,978 pounds of potash. The amount in the 
food consumed by the dairy herd would be 
3,879 pounds of nitrogen, 1,688 of phosphoric 
acid, and 2,378 of potash. The amount re¬ 
moved from the farm in the milk sold 
would be 867 pounds of nitrogen, 361 of 
phosphoric acid, and 216 of potash, leaving 
in the manure 3,012 pounds of nitrogen, 
1,327 of phosphoric acid and 2,161 of potash, 
or 231 of nitrogen, 475 of phosphoric acid 
and 183 of potash more than was removed 
by the crops produced. The total value of 
these fertilizing elements in the manure 
from the herd would be $478 at the prices 
that would have to be paid for them in 
good quality manure at $1.90 per ton. The 
amount of these elements removed in hay 
farming would be, approximately, 2,014 
pounds of nitrogen, 724 of phosphoric acid 
and 2,086 of potash, which would cost, at 
the prices above named, $339. In the dairy 
farming, therefore, if all the manure was 
properly saved and applied, the amount of 
those chemical elements which measure the 
fertility of the soil would be increased by 
865 pounds of nitrogen, 361 of phosphoric 
acid and 216 of potash, which would be 
worth $118, while the hay farming would 
reduce the fertility by the amounts already 
indicated, and worth $339. The actual value of the produce 
of the dairy, with the fertility considered as money, should 
therefore be increased by these amounts, viz., $457. The 
financial standing would then be ; Dairy farming, $2,475 ; 
hay farming, $1,270, a difference in favor of the former of 
$1,205, The above is a fair statement of the matter from 
a scientific standpoint, while the conditions, though as¬ 
sumed to a large degree, are as favorable for one side as 
for the other. It remains for the farmer to decide whether 
for the $1,205 he can secure the desired help and pay the 
interest on the increased investment, or is willing to 
assume the consequent necessary study, care and responsi¬ 
bility; for business principles demand that the gradual 
increase in the fertility of the farm due to the manure 
made must be converted into money, hence methods of ro¬ 
tation must be changed, and intensive farming be sub¬ 
stituted for old line practice. That this change may be 
profitably made, careful study of the economical relations 
involved will be required, since it includes the whole sub¬ 
ject of the preservation and application of manures, the 
production, cultivation, preservation and use of the differ¬ 
ent forage and soiling crops, etc. It may be objected that 
scientific farming on paper is very different from actual 
practice; such objections are sure to coma largely from that 
class whose cry is “farmin’ don’t pay.” The highest 
science is in entire accord with the highest and best prac¬ 
tice, scientific farming is in Its best sense but reasonable 
farming, and evidence is abundant that it pays. In farm¬ 
ing, as in every other line of business, it is the one who 
studies, thinks and has the courage and energy to put new 
ideas into practice that succeeds. E. B. VOORHEES. 
New Jersey Experiment Station. 
The first lot of Louisiana sugar ever shipped to New 
Orleans in bags was received last week. Heretofore sugar 
has always been sent in barrels weighing over 350 pounds. 
The bags of sugar averaged about 126 pounds each. The 
bags cost about 11 cents each, which made the cost of the 
packages less than when barrels are used. 
A TYPICAL SUFFOLK MARE. See page 2. Fig. 6. 
