Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1877-03-16

cerIalnlng his financial condition,
must say in all candor that, practi
cdttH it looks quite as if you hac
shrunk your investment from so tC
rs per cent.
Many years ago, when l was g
practical dairyman, l confess to EN-.
tertaining fears that the outcome of
the business might be, what the COM
parisons of the facts here to-day
have demonstrated. In order to
make the stormy days and the win
ter evenings pass away agreeablY, I
was somewhas-in the habit of look
ing into books that trested of sub
jects akin to my business. fn-sGpe
of my readings / came upon a bit of
history of the, at one time renOwn-
ed, cheese county Of England, one of
the Oldest dairy counties in the
world-tbe county of Cheshire. The
fact, in brief, was, ''That under the
dairy system, the lands of that
famed cheese county had become so
impoverished many years ago. that
the farmers could not prosecute their
business with profit, In their dilem-
ma they sought the council of scien-
tife men; and the analysis of the
soil demonstrated that one of the el-
ements needed to produce in the
greatest perfection one of the best
milk producing grasses, had become
nearly exhausted on the old dairy
farms. This element was phosphate
of lime, the principal constituent of
bone and to some extent also of
milk. The dairy farmers resOrted
to the expedient of sowing bone dust
over their pastures and meadows.
They obtained bones from abroad,
reduced them to dust and applied to
the soil. By following up this pro-
cess, and giving close attention to
saving and application of other man
ures, after a series of years, the
farmers succeeded in restoring the
land to greater fertility than it had
ever possessed before, and the pro-
cess of improvement is still carried
on.
When I read of the effects pro-
duced by the dairy system on a
country much older than our own, I
could not get rid of the conclusion
that, sooner or later, the same causes
at work here, would eventuate in
the same results.
Men of science who have investi-
gated this question in its more prac
tical bearings, have told us that for
every COW that is kept upon the farm,
as a dairy COW, there is taken from
the soil every year not less than so
pounds of pure phosphate of lime.
Now, let this business be
carried on for so years in the
ordinary, slip-shod manner, and
every one can see at a glance
that the amount of exhaustion must
be simply enormous.
To some extent the elements of
fertility in the soil may be deter
mined by the kind of vegetation pro
duced upon the surface. l remem-
ber when | was a boy, and very
many of you will remember the same
thing, that the farms in this locality
were covered with rank growth of
white clover. In the months of June
and July the fields were white al
most, as if covered by snow, with
the fragrant blossoms of the clover
How is it to-day? On many of your
older fields scarce a vestige of this
best of dairy grasses remains. This
being ranked among the lime plants,
the disappearance, in my judgment,
may be directly traced to the special
exhaustion peculiar to the dairy sys-
tem.- a ~
l think the most Of you, if not all, !
are throughly convinced in your own
minds that some plan must be devel-
opebto restore and then preserve
the fertility of your dairy farms.
This question must determine your
or ultimate failure. First
the farm of restored fertility, with
such acquired knowledge of how to
preserve that fertility, and add
thereto if possible, and then the
quality of cows that shall in the full
lest measure meet the requirements
of your business.
Some 25 years ago | read in the
reports of the State Agricultural
Society, of the State of New York,
that the COW, that drew the first
prize at the Fair in that State as a
dairy COW, gave milk for one week
from which were made % pounds
of best quality of butter. Think of
that! Over pounds of butter per
day from a single COW. In company
with a friend, my earlier enthusiasm
prompted me to make pilgrimage
TO Madison county, New York, to
see that remarkable animal, aud it
was my judgment then, and is now,
that she was the best COW l ever saw.
With productive farms, and with
such COWS as the one l have Just de-
scr bed, and every farmer in our
county would at once be Oh the high
road to Independent wealth.
Fellow citizens-I have detained
you long, and perhaps convinced
you hat did once play trick on
our friend, the Colonel that left him
and his military trappings sprawling
on the ground.
After Col. Harris and Mr.. French
concluded their remarks they were
voted the thanks of the meeting.
A desultOry debate was then car
ried on relating to the dairy busi-
ness, more particularly to the use of
commercial manures. Mr.. Cook
said he had been solicited to act as
agent for the sale of Phosphate of a
certain manufacture, but wanted ad-
vice on the subject. Alvin Chaplin
found that corn was not troubled
with wire worms where the land had
been dressed with Phosphate. M.
V. Miller gave some facts that were
curious and useful relating to its use.
Mr.. Jayne related his experience,
but said as he applied it just exactly
N the wrong way, his experiment
was not a success. Mr.. Moses of
MORGAN, made some very sensible
remarks on the subject of manures.
pbo ,,,aatino, was a great success.