Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1877-01-25
Farm AMP. A0ussAolO.
VIA: % Cows Pay 70. Their Eay !


At the November session of The State
Board Of Agriculture, the writer was
called 10 discuss the above question.
In response,-spesking without stud
led preparation. the Stenographer made
me to say, COWS pay but $500 per ton
for their hay" a conclusion which did
not reach. A. this Is 4 question which
Genes home 10 every farmer, give me
space in your columns, 10 repeat my
propositions, and subsequent reason
ing.
OF the annual lay crop Of Maine, not
less than $50, 900 tons are manufactured
into milk, butter, and cheese. This re-
quires 10000 animali-ed machines, and
vast outlay of money and mnsclc, 50
that, '+"hat cows pay for their hay" Is
an inquiry, big with Importance, to the
farmers of Maine.
70 give mathematical outline 10 our
theme we take an ifeale NJ OF but
tcr-mAking cows-de5tt costs 0iF4eping,
ami credit, value OF product-strfke
balance each octennial year-divide the
balance by the quantity of hay consum-
cd,-which gives the price per ton.
The items Of aggregate cost, are, for
COWS, dairy utensils, pasture, field, dali
ry-room, barn, labor, depreciatiye val
ue, and incidentals. The factors of ag-
sregate credit, are, value of calves, but
ter. milk, manure, and octennial worth
cows.
With the Germans, cow with her
third cali. j. accounted as able-bodied
for the dairy. This, we assume, is
when she i tour years old, and that her
store OF vital force, is sufficient 10 "run
her at full capacity, for eight years,
when. having outlived her usefulness a.
4 butter-maker, she is fitted during q
brief autumn Of old age" tor the ten
der mercy OF the butcher.
Tie market quotations and statistical
estimates for 1870 show the "going"
price of cows TO be $50. OF such, we
select five, each of 500 pounds lire
,retgd. Ia eight years, or when they
are twelve years old, each will have de-
preciated in value from Sj0-their worth
as mixers to $40, their worth a.
beeycs, or figured by Napoleon's "bud- |
get Of things" the butcher will take
them at five cents a pound, lire weight.
81
3ead weight.-or live to dead weight, |
a. y i 10 y. The first "debit," then, |
i, times 10, or $3.50 for the herd.
PASTURE.
The next item of cost is that of pas
ture The required size of pasture is
not told by the number of square rods
but by the nutritive character of its
acres. y cow, ''by hard necessity COM
pelled." to,SEork her board" in CLEAN
ing the 81 eisr. heritage of an INDECENT
acreage, - .toll" of her milk, for
the foragAG Vcursion. Five acres is
said to De the utmost limit which cow
can sytas, and not diminish her flow of
milk.
; 1t is well known that pastures vary
pgTeatly in their milk and butter-produc-
>nG capacities; yet but few farmers ever
study the causes OF the admitted differ
hns1As
:. With altogether too many, pasture
Tis pasta.er Like W@dsvorth's Peter
Belly = - -
X plisrose BY the rivers brim.
. seaow primrose u 10 him,
And nothing more"
In the best ofAhstures, as many as
thirty dissisexst61lee of grass are found.
in the sodsa.~shrgie square foot; yet,
in many a pasture, where cows trough
it, for a living, considerably more than
half of the "feed' are weeds of no in
trinsic value, and are innutritious and
unpalatable to cows, and injurious to |
the favor OF milk.
The weight of green grass required
by an 800 pound COW, is from 125 to $50
pounds daily. The value of pasture
which can furnish this quantity q feed
within reasonable limits, be 1t six acres |
or, one acre, is estimated az equalto the
value of cow, or $3.50 pasture, for
our ideal herd.
Just here, another cost "puts in,".
the deterioration of pastures. The los
of fertility occasioned by the nitrogen,
phosphates, and potash, which are graz.
ed out and carried off by stock, is loss
which every dairyman feels, yet which
but few see, and fewer ever replace. A
COW affording an average yield of 9
quarts, or 10 Is pounds of milk, will
carry off in four months, % pounds of
nitrogen, and pounds of phosphate of
lime; OF of 100 pounds of nitrogen con-
sumed in green grass by COW in milk,
emily AZ pounds. ARE returned in manure.
OF the 50 pounds lost, II pounds are car