The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1877-08-17
Agricultural Department.
CONDUCTED BY ALBERT CHAPMAN
DAIRYING AND FERTILITY.

DAIRYING AND FERTILITY.
The twelfth annual report of the
American Dairymen's Association is
valuable report, full Of interesting and
instructive matter, from which We ex-
tract the paper read by Prof l.. W.
Stewart, of Buffalo, on the subject at
the head of this article:
Mr.. President and Gentlemen 1t is
pleasant thus TO meet in fraternal asso-
citation. Agriculture is the basis of all
human prosperity, and there is nothing
in its prosecution that need hinder the
cordial cooperation of our people with
yours. This association represents the
greatest single agricultural interest in
the United States and Canada; the dairy
is the right arm of the great stock in
terest.
If we deduct the cows used simply
for breeding purposes and furnishing
food for their calves, there will remain
i'm both countries about 100000 of
cows, producing an annual product, at
$40 per head, worth in the market $400, =
100000. This, although a moderate
estimate, is greater than the value of
the cotton crop, wheat crop, or any
single crop save that Of grass, which is
consumed by every class of stock, and
thus makes up part of the income
from all. This is the present status of
the dairy interest, but it is destined TO
an increase year by year until it shall
reach vast proportions. Throughout
the dairy belt of North America, the
COW is to be the great food producer
and the largest source of profit. 1t then
becomes most important problem to
determine the effect of dairying upon
the fertility of the dairy farm--for the
dairyman can not afford to pursue a
system that will lessen his capacity of
production. Happily knowledge of
this question is not surrounded by any
insuperable difficulties. For If we study
attentively all the facts connected with
the dairy system, we shall see, pretty
certainly, the effect upon the soil.
The COW has no Independent power OF
producing anything. Her own body,
AZ we'll as the milk she Yields, is made
from the food she eats, and if the most
important elements of this food, eaten
by the COW, is returned to the soil, it
will become more fertile than before +:
but if the product is largely carried off,
the soil will become impoverished to
that extent.
Milk contains about six-tenths of one
per cent. of mineral matter, and one
thousand pounds of milk will contain
six pounds Of ash, which is COM
posed of phosphate of lime, carbonate
of lime, soda, sulphur, magnesia, etc.
A COW, therefore, that gave 1900 lbs. of
milk while in pasture, would remove
from the soil "a lbs. of these mineral
constituents. Ifa steer is pastured dur
ing the same time and gains in live
weight 300 lbs, his flesh so put on will
contain two per cent. of ash, or lbs. of
mineral manner-only one-fourth as
much as the cow carries off in her milk
alone. Then if we examine the other
important fertilizing matters in the
milk-the albuminoids, the casein
amounts to about four per cent, or in
the 1000 lbs. of milk 1G0 lbs. of casein
containing 256 lbs. of pure nitrogen.
whilst the 800 lbs. of flesh put Oh the
steer would contain only about 10 per
cent, or 80 lbs. of albuminoids, and AS
lbs. of pure nitrogen, or less than one
fifth as much as the milk of the COW.
If, then, we suppose the waste In the
system OF the COW and the steer is the
same, the COW will carry off in mineral
constituents four times and in albumin
ODDS five times as much as the steer or
the COW il not in lactation. Now, in
either case, we only estimate the MINER
al and albuminoid matter-taking no
account of the carbohydrates carried
of. These being composed of carbon
and water may be derived from the at
mosphere. II will thus appear that
when the milk is sold, the COW is much
more depicting TO the soil than the beef
animal.
But all dairying does not bear the
same relation TO fertility. One system
Of dairying may even improve the fer
tility of the soil by constant feeding of
mich cows to the full capacity of the
soil, while another may surely deterior-
ate the same number of cows-all being
dependent upon the use that is made Of
the milk.
The best system of dairying TO pre-
serve the fertility of the soil is butter
dairying. What we sell from the pro-
ducts of the farm, not what we raise
and feed to be returned to the soil, inn
poverishes. The more crops we grow,
the more animals we feed-if all is re-
turned to the soil-the more fertile 1t
people renders cream the most valuable
constituent of milk, and when this is
converted into the most delicious butter
it brings more money than the whole
milk made into cheese. This has caused
butter-dairying to be the principal
branch carried on in the United States;
and until the cheese factory so improved
the quality of the product as to raise
the price of cheese, both in the home
and foreign market, butter formed four
fifths of the marketable product of the
market.
TWAS thus from the manufacture and
sale of butter that the so generally fay
orable impression of dairying was FORM
ed. And if we examine the compost
lion of butter we shall see that 1t con-
tains no mineral matter. II is compos-
ed wholly Of carbon and wafer, and, if
pure, is entirely combustible-taking no
valuable constituents from the soil all
its elements may be derived from the
atmosphere. Yet carbon has its value,
for it assists in the mechanical texture
of the soil, rendering il more porous and
friable; yet in selling butter the dairy
man sells no mineral or valuable consti-
tuent Of the soil-nothing which may
not be derived from the atmosphere.
This kind of dairying, then, does not
impoverish, but when the refuse milk
is fed to animals, the mineral constitu-
ents nearly all go back to the soil in
higher state of organization and may
even increase its fertility. II NAV be
mentioned that the pig has the least
weight of bone in proportion TO weight
of carcass, and it is therefore better for
the soil TO feed the refuse milk TO pigs,
for then the least phosphate of lime is
sold. But when the skim milk is fed to
calves only small proportion of the
constituents of the milk is sold; yet il
is not as profitable to feed calves, except
such heifer calves as are necessary to
replenish the dairy, as 10 feed pigs, for
the same quantity of skim milk viii
make more pounds live weight upon
pigs than calves, and pigs are usually
worth morn mar n I'm chit tho,, aolxvac