DAIRYING'S EFFECT ON LAND.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1077, 16 March 1911, Page 8

DAIRYING'S EFFECT ON LAND.

A BUTTER V. CHEESE PROBLEM. A Ifew Zealaud authority of high standing remarked to a. Dojiixiok representative., that, there are several phases of dairying which New Zealand farmers have gire.ii.no attention whatever to so far. Soon, lie says, they, will have to. Cine' of these- phases is .tho effect of dairying oh fertility. . .Farmers have considered which nays best, ckoese-niaking .or but-,ter-making, from. the . market point of ■view, and fvom the manufacturing point of view, but have they, ever given. a moment's thought, he asked, as to. which is tho most profitable from, the standpoint of,maintaining tho quality of the farm. An. American ■ authority has gone into this question, arid says that "where but-ter-making has been carried on in tho TJnited States for a number of years, the farms have steadily improved in production. , "Where cheese-making and milkehipping has. been the rule, farms have' steadily declined in producing power. The ..reason is not far to seek. A ton of butter, contains only about 50 cents' worth ' of'fertility, and that only in what casein is. left in the- butter, whereas, a ton of choese contains about 30 dollars' worth of fertility. Consider, what must be . the final .effect on the .fertility of a farm where the milk is constantly sold off. If the owner of. the farm realised what'he was,about, and purchased fertilisers to make, up for this drain, tha farm would not. suffer. Bnt not one farmer in a hundred will do.this.until it. is: too late. The milk of every cow..that gives -JOOOIb. 9 year contains nboiit six dollars' worth /of fertility. If fod to calves and pigs after the butter-fat N is taken out, fully 80 per. cent, of this fertility i-s saved to .the. farm. This would amount to MO flollars per cow. Suppose.the milk-ship-..png farmer has .10 cows.' . This would ■amount to lit dollars a year. . Now, will Jtha miik-shipping or cheese-making far- ; mer buy Hi dollars' , worth, of fertiliser a year to make up for the loss of this fertility? Net one in a thousand will do it. And 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; nest, in the production of the right kinds of crops and curing them in a way that will yield, the largest amount of nutriment to the cows; lastly, in so managing, to have the best cows possible, to feed tho crops, to. Hero are the tlirea cardinal principles of dairy farming—good land,, good, crops, good cows—but at the bottom lies good land.nnd a farmer wise enough to keep it good." . ...