The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1889-04-17
Profitable Dairying in Iowa.

Mr.. Editor When on February )
DR.. George Bailey Loring, at the annual
meeting of the New England Agri-
cultural Society, briefly addressed the
members" as the report in the Plough
man stated, we knew that it foreboded
something, and we were not long left in
doubt, as the report goes on to declare
that the doctor referred to an article
that he had recently written, at the re-
quest of Mr.. Thorndike Rice of the
North american Recie,C, in response to
ex-Secretary McCullough's article in
American farming is largely unproft-
able"
There can not be doubt that this ar
ticle was intended as a direct bid for
the position of secretary of agriculture,
place in the cabinet being the sum-
nit of the DOCTORS ambition, unless, in
deed, he might even hope himself to
form cabinet, and this view of the case
is strengthened when one considers the
"taffy," as it is vulgarly called, which
he poured out to win over or retain the
increasing influence of the man from
Maine, since he speaks of the personal
observations made last year in the state
of Maine, especially where he had lived
much with farmers and found comfort
able farms, enough to eat and that
which was good, agreeable men TO talk
with, because they knew what they were
talking about, which, while perhaps
common in New England, is certainly
not universal" The doctor "asked
the attention of his audience to the
forthcoming article
Well, the long-heralded and elab-
orately-prepared article appeared in the
North American ReUieU for March,
and your readers may for themselves
Judge how true was the remarks of the
doctor when he declared that it is GER
tainly not universal that in New En-
gland men know what they lCrite about
l quote from page 366 of the Rerie,C,
where, in an article entitled "Does
American Farming Pay?" the doctor
says: When the wheat crop of Iowa
failed, the farmers turned their atten-
ton to the dairy. They improved their
cows largely by careful breeding and
iudcious feeding. On the lst of Jan
uary, 1887, they had ,243, 900 cows,
valued at S32, al ,792, and they pro-
duced butter and cheese to the amount
of S277 All ,429; milk, sold aud con-
densed, amounting to $500, 900 900, and
skinned milk to S50,417, 054. The
pasturage of this state is most luXuriant,
and the valuation of the live stock is
$50, 10, 0l6."
From the above we see that the
average COW in Iowa did, according to
DR.. Loring's statement, produce in
1887 the following products, valued al;
Butter ana cheese, S253a
MIX, sold and condensed. lb09O
SKINNED milk 1855
Total Sl-ib'
Now we submit that an Iowa COW
valued at an average of S26.lS, and
which returns an annual income to her
owner of 1924 60, even upon luXuriant
pasturage,' is, as the phrase is. "no
great slouch. and we endorse Horace
Greeleys advice to all young men to
SEQ VEST" especially if they can raise
$26.lS with which to buy a cow, and
they may then share in that wide
spread prosperity which pervades the
community and which would appear
to be inevitable where such cows exist
as these concerning which DR.. Loring
has given the carefully-prepared statis-
tics. PETER COLLIER.
New York Agricultural Experiment
Station, Geneva, n. Y, April 3, 1899.