The record-union., 1891-07-15
FARM And ORCHARD.
Pastures and Dairying-The Real
Value of Milk.
Weigh the Growing Live Stock-Ferti-
Iizers With Wheat-A Hint for
Some One Dutch Cheese-S Special
Farming-Farm Notes.

AS long as the farms are large and land
cheap the pasturing of cattle will proba-
bly, be preferred to soiling. Soiling per-
mits Of more stock being kept, and less
area of land is required, but when the
pasture is used the profit therefrom must
be determined by the conditions of
climate, soil, crops and location. One
point in favor Of the pasture is that the
COWS harvest the crop of grass and bring
it to the barn, where digestion converts
it at once into milk or manure without
the necessity of labor or storage. This
fact has been the strongest incentive to
the use of the pasture, whether the in
terest on the value of the pasture be in
cluded in the cost of the milk or not, as
the land does not lose any of its value in
some sections, but increases, though the
milk carries away portion of its fertility
daily.
About two pounds of milk make one
quart, and the average proportions OF
solids in the milk is II per cent. If 100
pounds of milk be sold it is equivalent to
fraction of over eight pounds of solids.
At two cents per quart the 100 pounds
tabout fifty quarts) will bring 81, or
twelve and half cents per pound for the
pound of solid matter brings twenty-five
cents per pound. A large proportion OF
the solid matter from to 4 per cent? is
butter fat, which costs the farmer
nothing, as it does not come from the
soil.
The substances taken from the soil. if
the milk sells at cents per quart, de
ducting three pounds Of butter fat from
twelve pounds Of the solids, increases the
price Of the seven pounds of solids, not
butter fat, 25 per cent. more. If the
farmer Will omit the fat and water of the
milk, which does not come from the soil,
he Will be aware Of the fact that he de-
Iives a very large sum of the solid matter
taken from the soil, while his customers
can readily discern that to them milk is a
costly luxury, and at cents II quart is
higher in price than butter at 80 cents per
pound, in proportion to solid matter con-
tanned therein.
Dairying is a business that pays the
farmer better than any other, because it
enables him to secure a high price for
substances that sell in bulk. Milk is
largely composed of water and is sold by
liquid measure, the water costing him
nothing at all. There is also large ac-
cumulation of manure, which is also
brought from the pasture. Where the
farmer buys feed and allows his COWS eX-
ira rations, he secures manure in such
form also, and should return TO the past
ure all that is taken from it, The grain
food is concentrated, but the milk is
bulky; the consequence being that when
food is bought to assist the pasture in pro
viding for the cows the farm is sure to
increase in fertility.-Philadelph Rec
ord.
WEIGH THE GROWING LIVE STOCK.
One of the very best means of enlisting
an interest in the growing and feeding OF
live stock, especially such as are being
grown and fed for their flesh, is the
adoption of a regular system of weighing,
There Is no one too old TO begin and fol-
low this up, and as d lesson 10 the young
men Of the farm and TO the hands en-
ployed thereon it would be of the highest
value. No plan viii show so promptly
as this one which animals to eliminate
from the herd as being unworthy to be re-
tanned as breeders of meat producers, as
the progress in growth and fjlttening is in
dlcated with unerring certainty by the
evidences brought out upon the scales
The use of the scales when the animals
are sold of the farm is of course of value
and a necessity, but throws but little light
upon the comparative gain upon given
system Of pasturing or grain feeding. The
process of weighing at stated periods
would enable the farmer to detect accu-
rately the loss, or, on the other hand, the
gain. But very few experiments are
made upon the average farm to show the
the growth and flesh added through its
use. Experiments, it is true, are made
upon experimental farms, but this is
usually done under a system of feeding
not often practiced upon farms as con-
Quoted throughout the country; hence,
while the reports of these experiments
furnish good reading and are of value
they do not meet the want to which we
refer.
No account is kept against the grazing
beasts, separately or collectively, as TO
the value of pasture grasses consumed,
and very rarely Of the corn fed. 4 sys-
tenn of weighing would materially sug-
gest the putting of that and that together,
and, while now no lesson is learned, un-
der proper system ofweghing and esti-
mating pasture at its value and charging
for grain by the bushel there would be
no cropping in the dark as now. Business
Off the farm falls fiat when a balance
sheet does not make favorable showing.
II lives on the farm too often because the
farmer and his patient, long-suffering
family shrink expenses when necessary,
4 thing the merchant can not to any great
extent do. Under squeeze that the
farmer can stand the merchant would be
forced to make an assignment. Yet this
don't show that the farmer is making
money. lie may have leaks that will
sooner or later take half his tarm.-Prairie
Farmer.
FERTILIZERS WITH WHEAT.
One ofthe essential conditions in grow
ing a good crop of wheat is a good soil
worked into perfect tilth. A slight differ
ence in the yield viii often determine the
question ofprofit or loss by a few bushels
increase or decrease. One plan of sup
plying fertilizers is by hauling out and
applying farm-yard manure, and after
the ground is plowed for the next crop is
good time 10 apply. Gather up, haul
out and apply all that can be made. scat
tering as evenly as possible over the land.
The work necessary TO prepare ground
Tor seeding viii incorporate it with the
soil. Manure made on the farm is one of
the cheapest that can be used, but even
with the best of management it is diff
cult to secure anything like an adequate
quantity.
Another good plan of manuring for
wheat is by allowing clover to make a
good growth and then blowing it under
IL can be improved by giving a good
dressing Of lime before turning under
1ho limo hastens the process OF decom-
position and also 10 make growth
stronger.
The third plan is by the use of com
mercl3l Fertilizers. One advantage with
these is tnat largo per cent. of them is
1eadlIy available, and while the benefit is
not as laStlng an increase is secured, and
IN a majority of cases this is sufficient to
make the cost a profitable investment.
These can be applied when the seed is
Sown, either by scattering broadcast over
the surface or by using an attachment
with the drill that VIII distribute the
fertilizer when the seed is SoWn All
things considered, the latter plan is sup
posed TO be the most economical, as all
the work Is done at one time Continued
cropping with wheat in many fields has
so exhausted the available supply of