St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1883-03-31
Dairying as a Renovator Of Exhausted
Farms. .ists5' ~ 32

L a :
To make the advantages OF butter
dairying most efficient, in recruiting an
exhausted farm, the butter should be
made upon the farm, or by a creamery
system, so the skim milk shall be fedon
the farm. While butter alone makes no
draft upon the soil, milk carries off no
inconsiderable amount of fertilizing
matters from the fields upon which the
milk giving animals feed. An average
COW uses annually in her milk about
forty pounds Of bone earth, which is
lost to the soil if the milk is carried Oft
from the farm for consumption or man
ufacture. This, in time, will impover-
ish the soil, because when land lies to
grass, and gets no cultivation or STIR
ring. its limited exposure to the ele-
ments will not cause a sufficient solution
OF mineral matter to keep up such a
drain, and sooner or later it will fail in
productiveness. Farms from which
milk is continually sold, soon show the
effects of the draft made upon their
stock of fertility, if they are wholly or;
chiefly devoted to the production of
milk for market, unless manure of some
sort is brought on from sources outside
Of the farm. When all the milk pro-
dnced upon dairy farm is sent to
market or to cheese or butter factory,
with no return of whey or skim milk,
there is not much difference, SO far as
recruiting the farm IS concerned. be-.
ts9een dairying and any kind OF stock
raising. In view of the fact that when
land lies constantly to grass, without
any stirring or cultivation, the develop
ment of plant food from decomposition
Of the soil is too slow, usually, to sup
ply the material for heavy crop Of
grass, it has proved the best policy for
most dairy farmers not to keep the
whole farm to grass or forage plants,
but to cultivate every year a consider
able fraction Of the arabic land for the
purpose of loosening and aerating the
soil, to hasten decomposit on. Such q
course improves the productiyeness of
the soil faster than to let it lie still too
long. and makes better division of
labor and a larger annral return than
when the whole farm is devoted exclu-.
sively to the production of milk. Or to
any other single product. and dimin-=
ishes the danger of fatal or distressing
loss from allure, when all is staked
on a single production.
When WORKOUT grain farms are turned
into dairy farms. better thrift sell
dom fails to be observed, whatever may
be the particular mode OF ,dairying
adopted. When such farms are seeded
down, much: better crops Of grass can
be grown than OF grain, notwithstand-
ing grass and grain belong to the same
family ofplants, and hence are expected
to use the same kinds of nutrient ele-:
ment in their growth. Then there is a
more certain reliance to be placed on
crops OF grass than on grain. Itismuch
less liable to injury from wet or drouth,
heat or cold. or from hail or storms of
wind or rain. This greater security
against adverse seasons is an important
element in favor of dairying, over al
most any other rural industry. In
whatever way we may compare them.
the chances are far better for the owner
OF falling grain farm to turn his atten-
ton to dairying, than to exc out scanty
and uncertain livelihood in growing di-
minutive crops of grain. to reduce year
by year the producing capacity of his
farm still lower and lower. ~ N atioasas
Lire Stock journal. II
The Man Who Swallowed Spoon.
The waiter Geniscain who swallowed