FERTILITY OF DAIRY FARMS.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2160, 27 January 1881, Page 4

FERTILITY OF DAIRY FARMS.

Much misapprehension exists in regard to the rapid Ipis of fertility of dairy farms, by reason of tho carrying away of the phosphates in the milk. Now 1000 lbs. of milk contain about 4 to 6 lbs. of phosphates, of which nearly the whole is phosphate of lime. Of this, less than one-half is phosphoric acid. Therefore, 5000 lbs. of milk contain but 7i lbs. of pbosphorio acid, which may be taken as tho yearly consumption, in this way, of each cow. As wheat bran' contains 2.9 per cent, of phosphoric acid, it needs only that about 250 lbs. bran be fed to each cow yearly to replace the draught upon the soil. There are few dairy cows that are fed less than this quantity of bran or some feed equivalent to it, and it is pretty certain very little, if any, phosphoric acid is really taken from the soil of tho dairy farm. On tho contrary, to say nothing of the natural supply in the soil, which slowly becomes soluble, there is good reason to believe that every well-kept dairy farm becomes gradually richer in phosphates every year—American paper.