Daily tobacco leaf-chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1890-1895, 1891-12-23
DIVERSIFIED AeR1ou.ruRE.
Dairy Farming, Hogs and Tobacco Grow
ing go Together.

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mers the importance of raising other
products in connection with tobacco
culture. This was the old system
that gave the GAINESVILLE district its
great reputation for fine tobacco. 1t
is utterly impossible to keep a good
farm aud raise fine tobacco without
plenty OF clover and stock to sustain
the fertility of the soil. Farmers
have gotten out of this system to &C.
cOmadate themselves to the share
practice, are willing to put up with
$l5 or $40 an acre yield from the
share croper, rather than be bothered
with stock or risk paying hire, adopt
ing the convenience of commercial
fertilizers altogether, and they are
growing poorer every year their
lands less productive and the quality
of the tobacco deteriorating. 1t is
only the few who do their own work
or hire their labor, looking after it,
and keep their farms well covered
and well supplied with live stock
that are prospering. Sheep are ne
elected on account of dogs. Hogs
die with the cholera, and cattle are
too cheap to pay for feed. We
insist that the cow of all
others is the poor mans and thrifty
farmers animal. We have said that
a good COW will yield $50a year net
in butter, and this is low estimate.
Besides this, each COW will raise a
calf worth So, and hog worth $40
from the buttermilk and dIoppings,
and make $40 worth of manure.
Hogs following after dairy cows
never have the cholera, and good
cows with good management will
yield from $50 to 800 a year. Try
and see. We know from experience,
but want to submit other testimony,
that of F. G. Smart, writing in the
McMinnville Southern Standard.
Mr., Smart says to the editor of
the Standard: 81 attended the
Farmers Institute at McMinnville,
last Monday, and the subject for con-
5ideratiOn, What kind of stock will
pay the best on the farm, and at the
same time restore the fertility of the
soil p was discussed at considerable
length, the members finally agreeing
none at all except enough merely to
supply the necessities, viz, pair of
horses to do the work, a cow to fur
nish milk and butter, and hogs
enough to furnish bacon and lard.
81 concluded that was fact, that
the fam lands of this country were
forever rendered useless, as l think
it an impossibility to restore them
to that fertility necessary to make
farming pay by the use of CONNER
cial fertilizers ami at the same time
make the crops pay the cost of fertil-
ization and labor. mean by farm
ing the raising and selling of crops
of of the land.
"Wh man in the county who
calls himself a farmer who hasn't
from fifty to 200 acres Of land? If
this land is rich, so much the better,
but if it will not sprout peas, get a
machine (fOr the dairy cow is ma
chine for making it rich) and go to
work on it.
81 had dairy of only ten cows for
two years, and while some of them
are good ones, there are some very in
ferior ones among them. The gross
earnings for these cows for 1890 were
$50 and some cents each, and for 1891
to date $4S.S0 for butter alone. The
sweet and sour milk as a feed for
pigs and calves, in fact any growing
stock, is of no small Importance, and
the manure from each cow is equal
to $40 worth of any fertilizer that can
be bought. Now you ask what it
costs to keep these cows? With the
aid of corn ensilage, that cost less
than 81 per ton to raise and harvest,
l feed them at y cents per day each
in winter, (which lasts about five
months. The other seven months
they do on pasture alone, although l
believe it pays to feed little in sum-
mer. Igive below the average earn
iDgs and expenses per cow:
CREDIT.
Gross earnings year in butter............S 80
SKINNED milk at cent per gallon......... 4.50
lo'OV
Total 30
DEBIT.
Cost of keeping 5 mouths at ~ cents
Cost % ensilage fed months, extra........ 800
Pasture, months, Sl.OO per montA......" 100
Total s2425
Profit on one COW in u months. ..........S39.G5
"In the above l say nothing about
the calf, as the skinned milk was
fed to it, which l counted at one cent
per gallon, neither did l count any
interest on investment or allow
anything for labor, as the more
cows you keep the less the labor
costs per cow.
"Now this is an ordinary cow. A
good dairy COW well cared for should
make 800 pounds of butter per year,