The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1892-06-03
LOSS OF FERTILITY.
western Farmers Are Sending Their
Farms to the East.

western Farmers Arc Sen0lnK Ineu
Farms to the East.
Too much cannot be said to the farm
ers of the west about keeping up the
fertility of their farms. The abandoned
farms of New England, the growing
distress of the farmer everywhere who
has wasted the energies of his farm, are
all examples of sharp import to point
the lesson A well-written statement
of the situation from western stand
point is found in the following from E.
c. Bennett in the Creamery and Dairy.
1t goes straight to the mark. and well
would it be for us all if we would learn
to obey the principles here brought out:
Sending our farms east is just what
western farmers are doing. The dairy
man is the least guilty of all, and he
can reverse the process; he can pile
some other fellows farm right on top
of his, save money while doing it, and
add to his possessions at the same time.
The conditions are these:
Plants feed in part upon the atmos-
phere and in part upon the soil. When
plant is taken off the farm the por-
ton of that plant which came from the
soil is lost. In selling 5000 worth of
wheat S4s worth of farm fertility goes
with it, figuring wheat and fertility at
their average market values. When
we sell $500 worth of beef we part with
SD worth of fertility. With $500 worth
of pork we throw in Sl2 worth of fertil-
ity. With horse selling at 5000 we
lose only 81 worth of fertility, and
when we ship 5000 worth of good butter
we ship with 1t but % cents worth of
fertility, for the fat of butter comes
from the air, and only the little caseine
in it Cless than per cent? comes from
the soil. But II we sell cheese or whole
milk instead of butter, the case is very
different. In that case all the caseine
loss in fertility (for caseine is nitro
genous and comes from the soiD is
nearly 100 times greater.
Eastern farmers buy bones by the
carload, gathered upon the western
plains, for use as fertilizers. They buy
our thin steers so they will not have to
grow bones at the expense of their
farms fertility, and buy our corn to
fatten them. In this way they save
the 500 worth of fertility Tor the most
of it) represented in the bones and lean
meat, add the fat of the corn and sell
the beef at gain of fertility to the
farm which comes by increased manure
heaps.
Our dairymen who sell only the butter
fat and feed the skim milk, lose but an
insignificant amount of fertility, and
using clover in rotation "a plant which
has the power of appropriating some
fertility from the air) keeps good the
stock of soil fertility. More than this
and this is point we especially de-
sire to make prominently buying
bran and feeding his cows he adds
fertility to his soil at the expense of
the fellow who raised the wheat. Near
ly all the nitrogen of wheat is found in
the bran and shorts. The wheat-raisers
farm is steadily leaving him in the coat
ing of wheat kernels. Now, the dairy
man who buys the cream of the wheat
raiser's land, if he sells only butter
fat, this fertile part of the wheat.
growers farm remains ON the dairy
| mans farm.
Dairying has a four-fold advantage
over other branches of farming. II
brings spot cash; it yields more money
for the feed consumed; it saves the
natural fertility of the farm; it makes
increased fertility easy.