DAIRYING'S EFFECT ON FERTILITY.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 954, 22 October 1910, Page 8

DAIRYING'S EFFECT ON FERTILITY.

■/A. BIG, QUESTION. An;, important rdiaso of tho : dairying indutitry is dealt with as. follows in an American agricultural journal -to .band ,\by the last, mail:— ...'. ,Whore butteirhiakiug has been carried, oh in the, United States for a number of years, the,farms havo. steadily improved in production. Where cheese--making and milk, shipping has been the rule, farms . have steadily declined in producing power. Tho reason is not far to seek.- A ton.of butter contains only' about fifty cents worth of fertility, and that only in what casein is left in tho. butter, whereas a ton of cheese contains about thirty'dollars' worth of ferConsider what must be the: final .effect, on the fertility of a farm .where the. rhilk is constantly sold off.'... If the owner of tho farm has. realised what; h'e'was about, and .purchased fertilisers to .make up for this drain, the farm will riot suffer. But riot one farmer in a hundred will do this until .it is too. late.' .Thein'ilk of every.cow that gives 4000 •povmcls-a' year contains about' sis dollars' 'worth of. fertility. ■.■ If fed to calves and pigs after tho butter-fat,is taken out,',fully 80 per cent ..of;this fertility is' salved to i.the . 'farm.: 7'. This:, would .amount, to 4.80 -dollars' (£l).per cow.' Suppose the milk-shipping farmer has 30 : cows. This-would amount to 144 dollars (£2B Bs.) a;year. : Now, will the milk-shipping or cheese-making farmer buy. one hundred and forty-four dollars' 'worth',-of. fertiliser|a year to 'make.up for.the loss of .this, fertility? Not one in a thousand will.do it. Aid yet he.must do it.or else .the farm is being'steadily drained'of its fertility. ; . -Good dairy farming consists, first of all, in so managing as to. keep up'the fertility, of the, land'; next, in the production of the.right'kind,of crops and curing them in a -way that 'will, yield the largest amount of. nutriment to tho cows; lastly, in so.managiiig'as to have the best cows possible .to feed the crops to'. Hero are tho thre.e-cardinal principles of dairy farming, good land, good crops, good cows, but at the bottomlies good-land and.a farmer wise enough, tokeep it good. . ■ ■

;■:..-.Mr.■•■ J. C. Lanq, secretary,' Mana-:. watu A. and-P. Assooiatioi), returned froin. Hawke's Bay. this .week. / He was' successful in. securing a.,large:-.number of/entries for thc.-Manawatu .show,' and amoiig the exhibitors. be Messrs; Nelson Bros;, who have,, not shown at the -Manawatu fixture' for some: years. It ■' will, be pleasing to. local, men to. meet these '■'■ breeders on the Manawatu convincing ground: once more.