Vol. LXXVIII. 
Published Weekly by The Rural Publishing Co.. 
333 W. 30th St., New York. Price One Dollar a Year. 
No. 4550. 
NEW YORK. SEPTEMBER 6,' 1919. 
Entered as Second-Class Matter. June 2G. 1S79. at the Post 
Office at New York, N. Y., under the Act of March 3. 1879. 
How Fruit Growers Are Becoming Dairymen 
A Natural Development To Cow Keeping 
S UMMER DAIRYING.—Advertisers of purebred 
livestock report an increasing number of in¬ 
quiries from fruit and general farming sections. 
These come from men who keep from two to three 
cows, oftentimes on quite large farms. The prac¬ 
tice in past years has been to have these cows 
freshen in the Spring, milk them through the Sum¬ 
mer. and practically dry them up in the Fall, just 
milking them enough throughout the Winter so as 
dairy sections (there being no particular market de¬ 
veloped. and the calves usually vealed), the income 
from the cows was such as might naturally lead the 
fruit grower and general farmer to regard them 
very lightly. 
LABOR SHORTAGE CHANGES SITUATION.— 
With the acute shortage of labor that began to de- 
\elop just before the war, farmers found that by 
far the most satisfactory man that could be secured 
in dairying is the strong market for dairy products 
that developed during the war, and the system has 
been established of shipping cream long distances 
to big central creameries. Then, too, on these fruit 
and general farms, the question of more manure has 
long been a problem which the high price and 
scarcity of commercial fertilizers has greatly accen¬ 
tuated. 
. GRADES BOUGHT AT FIRST.—For the most 
to supply milk for the family. Under this system 
of management, the cows were roughed through the 
Winter, usually running outdoors around a straw- 
stack, and given very poor pasturage throughout 
the Summer, since, during that busy season, they 
were looked upon as more or less of a nuisance. 
Cared for in this manner, their milk yield was prob¬ 
ably not over 3,000 to 4.000 lbs. a year, aud since 
the products were sold at lower prices than in the 
Refreshment fur the Farm Teams. Fig. 405 
was the married man, who could be lodged in a 
tenant house and employed by the year. On many 
of the farms, however, unless lambs or steers were 
fed. there was hardly enough work to justify the 
services of a year hand during some of the Winter 
months, and as one large fruit grower expressed it, 
he turned to the dairy cow as a means of furnishing 
continuous profitable employment for his year man. 
Another cause that has contributed to the increase 
part, the cows in the fruit section were those which 
were peddled through the country by dealers who 
picked up the cheaper stuff at such points as the 
Buffalo market. As often as not. these cows were 
descended from beef types rather than dairy types, 
and the cows in a section usually ran the whole gamut 
of sizes, colors, and types. With such experience, 
the men who made the first purchases had hard 
work to ijet their nerve up to a point where they 
