464 
it's  not  farming.  They  would  accomplish  more  if  the 
same  amount  of  labor  was  put  on  half  the  number 
of  acres.” 
THE  WIFE'S  HELP. — In  many  cases  where  the 
number  of  cows  milked  ranges  from  Id  to  1G  and 
there  are  no  boys  in  the  family  old  enough  and  no 
little  tots  to  prevent,  the  good  wife  prefers  to  go 
and  help  milk  rather  than  cook,  wash  and  care 
for  the  room  of  a  hired  man.  This  is  the  case  on 
the  farm  1  am  going  to  describe.  It  consists  of  about 
SO  acres,  nearly  15  of  which  is  a  steep,  rocky  wood 
lot,  where  the  principal  thing  the  cows  get  is  exer¬ 
cise.  On  this  farm  are  kept  a  team  and  19  head  of 
cattle.  They  expect  to  milk  15  next  Summer.  No 
hired  man  is  kept.  The  owner  is  willing  to  pay  a 
little  more  than  the  going  wages  for  the  sake  of 
getting  help  by  the  day  when  he  needs  it  in  ice 
cutting,  harvest,  silo  filling,  etc.  Now  some  may 
stick  up  their  nose  at  the  idea  of  a  woman  having 
to  go  into  a  cow  stable.  But  let  me  tell  you  there 
are  stables  and  stables.  I  have  seen  some  that  a 
decent  dog  would  not  care  to  stay  in.  Let  me 
describe  this  one.  Tt  is  well  lighted,  the  ceiling  and 
walls  are  lathed  and  plastered  and  as  white  as 
whitewash  can  make  them.  Floor  is  of  concrete  and 
swept  as  clean  as  many  house  floors.  There  is 
plenty  of  bedding  under  the  cows  and  litter  in  the 
drop.  The  manure  is  removed  every  time  the  man 
comes  in  the  si  able*  if  it  is  40  times  a  day.  The 
cows  are  carefully  cleaned  and  once  or  twice  a 
week  the  cows’  tails  are  washed  and  brushed  out. 
In  such  a  stable  a  woman  does  not  look  out  of 
place  to  me.  This  man  draws  his  milk  three  miles 
to  the  station,  and  while  you  may  find  one  load  of 
manure  around  his  buildings  you  won’t  find  two. 
ENERGY  AND  INDUSTRY, — Should  the  roads 
get  blocked,  he  is  the  first  man  out  with  a  shovel. 
There  is  nothing  “easy”  about  this,  but  they  have 
proved  that  a  young  couple  with  a  little  money, 
good  reputation  and  lots  of  ambition  can  take  a 
run-down  farm,  pay  for  it.  fix  up  almost  a  model 
set  of  buildings,  and  make  the  farm  better  every 
year.  I  do  not  advise  everyone  to  go  into  dairying, 
as  some  are  not  fitted  for  that  kind  of  work.  If 
a  man  does  not  like  cows  he  would  better  take  up 
some  other  kind  of  work.  However,  if  you  do  enjoy 
taking  care  of  stock  and  are  looking  for  a  farm, 
there  are  a  few  things  to  consider.  Try  to  locate 
within  a  reasonable  distance  of  a  station  where  a 
premium  is  paid  for  good  milk. 
VALUE  OF  SCORE  CARD. — When  you  go  to 
look  at  a  farm,  the  first  thing  I  would  do  would 
be  to  call  for  their  last  barn  score  card.  If  it  scored 
high  enough  to  get  in  the  grade  A  class,  well  and 
good;  if  if  did  not,  then  do  a  little  figuring  to  see 
how  much  it  would  cost  to  get  in  that  class.  I 
would  consider  this  point  even  if  there  was  no 
grade  A  plant  near,  as  I  believe  the  future  will 
see  more  and  more  of  them  operated.  Taking  the 
estimate  of  Mr.  Morse  of  8,000  pounds  of  milk  per 
cow  as  a  basis,  the  premium  of  10  cents  per  cwt. 
barn  score  and  15  cents  pet  cwt.  bacteria  count 
would  amount  to  820  per  cow  or  $”00  for  a  15-cow 
dairy.  Add  to  this  premium  given  for  cooling  the 
milk  down  to  50  degrees  F.  of  five  cents  per  cwt. 
in  May  and  .Tune,  and  20  cents  in  July.  August  and 
September.  If  a  Summer  dairy  is  kept  this  would 
go  a  good  way  towards  paying  for  that  auto. 
FEEDING  FOR  PROFIT.— By  all  means  try  to 
find  out  if  Alfalfa  is  grown  on  the  farm,  or  if 
Sweet  clover  grows  well  along  the  roads  and  fences. 
If  Alfalfa  is  or  can  be  grown.  I  would  be  willing 
to  pay  quite  a  little  more  money  for  said  farm. 
When  I  came  to  that  part  in  Mr,  Morse’s  article 
where  he  wrote  about  eight  pounds  of  grain  on  an 
average  would  do  for  a  cow.  I  thought  about 
how  I  had  once  made  a  similar  remark  and  the 
answer  I  received.  We  had  a  boy  living  with  us  at 
the  time,  and  he  had  a  flock  of  35  nice  Orpington 
pullets.  The  profits  were  to  be  for  his  own  use. 
He  was  asking  me  how  much  wheat,  corn  and 
other  grains  he  should  buy.  and  how  much  dry 
mash  he  would  need.  I  told  him  I  thpright  about 
so  much  would  "do.”  The  amount  seemed  rather 
small  to  him  and  after  studying  on  it  awhile  lie 
began:  “It  looks  to  me  like  this.  I  shall  have  to 
feed  these  hens  some  anyway,  or  they  will  die. 
Then  if  I  feed  some  more  I  may  get  pay  for  the 
feed,  and  if  I  feed  them  all  they  will  eat  without 
wasting  any  I  may  he  able  to  make  them  pay  for 
the  feed  and  give  me  a  little  spending  money  be¬ 
sides.”  This  remark  proved  that  somehow  that 
twelve-year-old  boy  had  grasped  one  of  the  funda¬ 
mental  principles  that  underlie  the  feeding  of 
animals,  I  care  not  whether  it  is  hens  or  cows. 
There  are  hundreds  of  farmers  who  have  never 
grasped  this  idea  or  at  least  have  never  put  it  into 
practice. 
VALUE  OF  OWNERSHIP. — There  are  many  rea- 
ZShe  RURAL  NEW-YORKER 
March  18,  191G. 
sons  why  it  is  better  to  own  a  farm  than  to  rent 
one.  I  have  only  time  to  mention  a  few.  Take  the 
matter  of  setting  out  fruit  trees,  berry  bushes,  etc., 
that  you  would  do  as  owner,  but  never  as  tenant. 
The  painting  and  fixing  up  you  could  do  at  odd 
times.  Also  the  moving  every  few  years:  I  would 
not  pick  up  and  move  five  miles  or  more  as  some 
do.  for  a  hundred  dollars.  It  easily  costs  that 
much  or  more  if  you  count  the  time  and  labor 
lost,  the  wear  and  tear  on  goods  and  horses  over 
the  roads,  rough  as  they  usually  are  at  moving 
time.  Now,  young  man,  if  yon  are  not  already 
the  owner  of  a  farm,  do  not  be  content  to  run  a 
Phosphorus  Potassium  Results  of 
r  &  ( Feeding  48 
Ration  I  Steers  Six 
Corn  Silage  ^  l^\ohw£x/sta. 
Mixed  Hag  10  ’<  \  Proportions 
Mixed  Grain  10  ” 
mro*en 
jl  Gram  ( ’Purchased) 
Mixed  Hag 
lUl  Corn  Silage 
r  1  Proportion  regained  in  Manure  under  normal  handling 
Fertility  Regained  in  Feeding  Experiment.  Fig.  155 
regained 
from  feed. 
farm  for  some  one  else,  but  take  stock  of  your 
own  resources  and  resolve  to  get  in  line  for  a  farm 
of  your  own  at  the  earliest  date  possible.  If  you 
are  the  right  sort  of  a  man  your  chance  may  come 
sooner  than  you  expect.  J.  c,  gordox. 
Does  Live  Stock  Maintain  Fertility 
ACCEPTED  OPINIONS. — The  question  of  green 
manuring  as  compared  with  the  use  of  stock 
manure  has  been  confronting  me  from  a  number 
of  directions  in  the  last  few  months  in  a  way  that 
has  led  to  a  careful  consideration  of  the  matter. 
The  last  items  are  the  exchange  in  The  R.  N.-Y. 
between  Mr.  Lee.  on  page  1509  of  December  25  is¬ 
Interior  of  Improved  Henhouse.  Fig.  156 
sue.  and  Mr,  Weeks  on  page  147  of  this  year’s  vol¬ 
ume.  together  with  an  article  in  another  agricul¬ 
tural  paper  on  the  subject  of  live  stock  versus  the 
sale  of  crops,  that  is  also  before  me  at  this  moment. 
It  has  been  the  accepted  opinion  that  feeding  cat¬ 
tle  is  the  way  to  improve  the  soil  and  that  the 
poorer  the  soil  the  more  is  it  advisable  to  feed 
stock  and  return  the  manure,  since,  behold,  the  ani¬ 
mal  returns  about  80  per  cent,  of  the  plant  food  ele¬ 
ments — nitrogen,  phosphorus  and  potassium  in  the 
feed,  and  further,  the  purchased  concentrates  in¬ 
crease  the  advantage  of  the  system.  The  usual 
discussions  of  these  matters  are  more  glib  than  de¬ 
finite  and  a  careful  examination  of  the  facts,  backed 
by  recent  investigations  in  soil  fertility  indicate  that 
probably  a  serious  oversight  has  occurred  in  con¬ 
sidering  the  effect  of  the  animal  upon  the  feed  con¬ 
sumed. 
HUMUS  NEEDED.— It  is  well  known  that  the 
presence  in  the  soil  of  a  fair  amount  of  organic  mat¬ 
ter  in  the  form  of  humus  is  desirable,  and  that  chem¬ 
icals  cannot  take  the  place  of  some  means  to  main¬ 
tain  that  constituent.  In  other  words,  partially  de¬ 
cayed  organic  matter,  commonly  designated  as  hu¬ 
mus,  has  a  specific  value  that  other  materials  even 
though  they  be  available  plant  food  cannot  take. 
This  being  true,  the  effect  of  an  animal  upon  the 
organic  matter  in  her  feed,  as  well  as  the  final  re¬ 
turn  of  the  plant  food  elements  requires  attention. 
The  usual  statements  imply,  perhaps,  that  the  ef¬ 
fects  on  the  two  classes  of  constituents  are  similar, 
and  further,  the  bulk  of  the  manure  as  compared 
to  the  feed  consumed  lias  encouraged  the  deception. 
Instead,  it  is  found  that  the  effect  of  the  animal  on 
the  organic  matter  in  her  feed  is  very  different 
from  her  effect  on  the  plant  food  elements,  and  re¬ 
sults  in  a  much  heavier  total  loss  both  in  the  animal 
and  in  the  subsequent  handling. 
HEAT  ENERGY.— Dr.  Armsby’s  tables  of  the 
heat  energy  in  the  different  feeds  and  in  the  solid 
feces  returned,  show  a  total  destruction  amounting 
to  from  55  to  60  per  cent,  in  hay  to  as  much  as  85 
or  90  per  cent,  in  the  concentrated  grains  such  as 
cornmeal  and  hominy  chop.  In  other  words,  the 
regain  is  only  40  to  as  low  as  10  per  cent.  This 
is  not  surprising  if  it  is  remembered  that  the  or¬ 
ganic  matter  is  the  fuel  of  the  animal  from  which 
she  derives  heat  and  power  of  motion  and  she  also 
puts  it  into  her  product — meat  or  milk  or  wool. 
Onee  digested  it  is  lost,  and  even  the  undigested 
part  suffers  loss  by  decay  in  the  digestive  tract 
that  Dr.  Arrnsby  shows  may  amount  to  more  than 
10  per  cent,  in  the  form  of  gaseous  products.  Stated 
in  another  way  the  figures  for  the  digestibility  of  a 
feed  as  given  by  Henry  or  other  writers  may  be 
taken  as  total  loss  and  usually  several  per  cent, 
may  be  added  to  that  loss.  Most  farmers  purchase 
feed  and  this  might  be  considered  to  offset  tlie  de¬ 
struction  by  the  animal. 
LOSS  IN  ROTATION.— Using  a  ration  generally 
available  and  commonly  used  consisting  of  40 
pounds  silage,  10  pounds  mixed  hay  and  10  pounds 
Cornell  mixed  grain,  assuming  the  grain  to  be  pur¬ 
chased.  the  result  is  as  follows:  Regain  of  organic 
matter  is  .”,2.5  per  cent.  Net  loss  in  spite  of  pur¬ 
chased  feed  is  30  per  cent,  of  the  organic  matter 
produced  at  home.  In  the  case  of  the  nitrogen, 
there  is  a  gain  at  the  stable  of  25  to  30  per  cent, 
of  phosphorus  of  15  per  cent,  and  of  potassium  a 
loss  of  10  per  cent.  But  the  further  loss  in  handling 
the  material  must  he  taken  into  account.  Here 
again  Hie  loss  falls  heaviest  on  the  two  most  valu¬ 
able  constituents — the  organic  matter  and  the  ni¬ 
trogen.  On  the  average  the  net  result  would  be  a 
loss  of  organic  matter  amounting  to  80  per  cent,  or 
move,  of  nitrogen  amounting  to  40  per  cent,  or  more 
and  of  tlie  phosphorus  and  potassium  ranging  from 
20  to  50  per  cent. 
AN  OHIO  EXPERIMENT. — As  proof  stands  a 
very  careful  experiment  at  the  Ohio  Station  in 
which  48  steers  were  fed  in  two  lots  on  a  concrete 
and  a  clay  floor  respectively  for  six  months.  The 
manure  was  amended  with  floats  and  bedding  was 
used.  All  feed  and  the  manure  was  carefully 
weighed  and  analyzed.  The  loss  of  the  organic  mat¬ 
ter  amounted  to  88  and  90  per  cent,  respectively. 
The  loss  under  (lie  best  conditions  of  handling  was 
— nitrogen  28  per  cent.,  phosphorus  54  per  cent., 
potassium  16  per  cent.  The  point  is  that  if  the  lack 
of  organic  matter  is  the  limiting  factor  in  crop 
yields,  one  cannot  afford  to  burn  it  up  in  an  ani¬ 
mal  but  would  better  turn  it  under  directly.  Fur¬ 
ther,  this  fact  indicates  that  the  poorer  tlie  soil  in 
humus  the  less  advisable  is  animal  husbandry  if 
the  direct  sale  of  the  crop  is  practicable.  It  means 
that  an  occasional  crop  may  well  be  plowed  under 
as  Mr.  Lee  did.  and  also  as  Mr.  Weeks  suggests,  it 
may  be  worth  considering  whether  the  system  can 
be  changed  to  sandwich  a  green  manure  crop  into 
the  rotation. 
VALUE  OF  GREEN  MANURE.— It  suggests  an¬ 
other  fact,  namely,  that  if  lack  of  a  mineral  plant 
food  element  is  limiting  the  yield  of  a  green  ma¬ 
nure  crop,  especially  a  legume,  the  most  profitable 
place  to  put  this  fertilizer  is  not  on  the  money  crop 
but  on  the  green  manure  crop,  and  draw  double 
money,  since  about  90  per  cent,  of  the  dry  substance 
of  plants  comes,  not  from  the  soil,  but  from  the  ele¬ 
ments  of  the  air  and  from  water,  and  tlie  mineral 
elements  and  nitrogen  are  the  keystones  which  sun¬ 
shine  uses  to  tie  them  together.  The  stock  farmer 
as  well  as  the  crop  farmer  needs  to  give  attention 
to  tlie  conservation  of  humus  making  and  producing 
substances  on  tlie  farm.  E.  o.  pippin. 
Cornell  University,  N.  Y. 
