Connecticut western news., 1880-01-21
FARM AND GARDEN.
HOW TO PRODUCE MILK FOR TWO GENTS A QUART.

8OAN1s
 "For sale. A farm of 15O acres pas lures and cuts hay to feed 10 cows." Such an advertisement may be seen in almost any paper. The farm may we'll be for sale. Suppose the land be worth $50 an acre, which may be even now a fair rate in not the best dairy districts each COW then requires 15 acres, worth $750. At 6 per cent. the interest is $45, so that, with no other expense than the mere cost of the land, it is clear that to own such farm for dairy purposes is precisely how not to produce milk for two cents 8 quart, or any other price that could be obtained. Now, it is not difficult, after some preliminary prepa- ration, to keep COW the year round on two acres of land. But such land is worth as an investment, and for it's jn- trinsic value, $15O per acre. The in- terest cost per COW is, then, in this oaae SIS per year. Then there are cows, and cows. The first is an animal that will produce not more than 1900 quarts of milk per year, and will practically go dry four months before calvipg. The other will yield 25OO quarts of milk in 300 days, and should be dry the odd 65 days, if possible, to recuperate before again coming into milking condition. ....
 The dairyman Cor rather the man, for he cannot be B dairyman), who keeps 120O-quart COW on 15 acres of land, may pass out of consideration, except to re- main 8 subject of pity, doomed to in- evitable poverty. therefore consider how two acres of land can be made to support a COW, and then how the cows worthy to be kept on such farm are to be procured. Let me say here that it may not be judicious to atteEapt this feat anywhere and everywhere, because there is a point in the value of land below which it may not pay to expend labor or capital in improvement, just as there are places where it is more profitable to skin few crops of 10 bushels of wheat per acre, than by labor and fertilizing to grow 30 bushels, be- cause the fertilizers are worth more than land can be bought for. There are places where land is so cheap that @ COW may pick living from even 20 acres proftably. Wherever land is worth $50 per acre or over, it will pay to put it into such condition that two acres will support one COW. This cannot be done in year, and not, perhaps, in two; for time is necessary element; but it has been and can be done where there is the will and the perseverance. The skill simply includes these two. st
 Take for example 100 acre farm upon which 10 COWS have been kept-a fair average. There have been 50 acres in pasturage, 25 in hay, and 25 in corn, oats, potstoes, wheat, etc.; nothing has been grown for sale, except, perhaps, little -four, few potatoes and the milk, which have furnished very made quate recompenee for the labor and capital invested. What is needed in this case is to remodel the farm, and to make eight fields, so that on eight-course rotation can be followed. The fields might contain 12 acres each, leaving four acres for the homestead, yards, paddocks, orchard, etc. The rotation may be grass two years, and corn roots; oats or barley; clover two years and wheat then coming round to grass again. There would then be each year
 24 acres of potatoes, 24 acres of hay 12 acres of wheat. 12 acres of corn, 12 acres of oats, and 12 acres of roots.
 At a moderate estimate these would produce, as soon as the land was brought into good condition
 AS tons of hay, 12 tons of wheat, 12 tons of oat-straw, 18 tons of corn-fodder, 800 bushels of roots, 240 bushels of wheat, 400 bushels of oats or barley, and 700 bushels of corn.
 Twenty five COWS could be easily kept on farm thus managed, and something over two acres could be fairly apportion- ed to each COW. But if all the produce of the farm were fed, 50 cows could be kept, giving to each 16O bushels Of roots, 20 bushels of grain, and ton and a half of hay and other fodder, with some purchased feeds to be paid from any salable surplus, such as calves, pork, etc., other equivalent crops being grown in the summer to help out the pasture. This plan, however, is better adapted for mixed grain and dairy farm than for special dairy farm. I believe that milk can be produced more cheaply on mixed farm than on dairy farm. When grain and other crops are high they can be sold, and cheaper feed be bought; and when they are low they can be fed. l have made cheaper milk and butter under mixed system than when I have made milk solely but I have the best facilities for disposing of market vegetables, which return $l0O or more per acre.
 For dairy farm, where pasture grass and fodder crops are grown, milk can be produced the cheapest by sys- tenn of soiling, either wholly or partial ly, when more than 12 COWS are kept. One m an can attend to the feeding of 40 or 50 COWS, and the few cents day per COW for attendance is repaid by an extra quart or two of milk. In this case 100-acre farm might be divided into convenient fields, some of them in permanent pasture, some left for hay, and some cultivated in fodder crops, such az orchard-grass and clover for early and late cutting, winter rye, oats, peas, sweet-oorn, Hungarian grass and mangolda. By an effective system 50