The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1895-05-08
DAIRY FARMS IN CAROLINA.
A Profitable Method of Restoring Worn
Out Lands.

To tie Editor of the Nems on} C"n-
ricr-Dcar Sir / have your letter Of
recent date, asking me for some par.
ticulars about the dairy interests Of
the State
South Carolina possesses splendid
advantages for dairying. The dairy
industry has enriched and is maintain
ing the fertility of the lands of the
West that were fast being robbed of
their productiveness by the growth
and sale of wheel, and it will do the
same for the worn lands of the South.
At no period of the world history
has any country continued to prosper
under such conditions as obtain under
the tenant system of the South, and
it is only through the great but not
incxhaustiblc fertility of the soil that
permits this system to be continued.
With it contrast the tenant system of
Great Britain. There the trained
intellect of the landlord, often an Ok
ford or Cambridge graduate, directs
the minutest details of the manage
mcnt of his estate, sees that proper
system of rotation in cropping is car
ried on and that out of the returns
from the sales of produce, cotton seed
meal and other rich feeding stuffs are
bought to increase the fertility Of his
already fertile acres. The result is
| that her soil is far more fertile than
when the feet of C;rsar's conquering
legions first pressed her shores, and it
is to England that the world goes for
improved breeds of horses, cattle,
sheep and swine.
The wasteful and improvident meth
DDS of farming followed in the South
are rapidly exhausting the fertility
accumulated by centuries CT plant
| growth and decay. When the time
arrives, as come it must, where little
or no fertilizers are put back or the
land to take the place Of thoe. remov.
ed by the crops, when tie crop will
not pay the expense of growing it,
the farmer leaves the land for washes
and gullics to complete the dcstruc-
tion.
Under the old style Of gold mining,
much gold was lost owing to the crude
ness Of the machinery and the methods
| employed with improved appliances
| the waste of the old crushcrs is now
| being proftably worked over. In like
manner land that has been exhausted
by constant cropping can be proftably
worked and made rich again with that
improved machine, the dairy COW.
The great necessity of the farmer
to-day is better knowledge of his
business and better business methods.
Having the former, he will take greater
interest in the great and intricate
problems which he assists nature in
solving, and will endeavor to act in
cooperation with her, and the latter
will cause him to drop the old slip
shod methods of doing and to compete
with his fellows in other callings in
the struggle for existence. A herd Of
COWS requires the best attention the
owner can give 365 days in the year.
\ lazy man will never make success
full dairyman, never. Neither will the
man who works with his muscles only,
thereby saving hcad-work. TO sue
cecd, the dairyman needs to have a
natural fondness for cattle. When the
dairyman puts the same amount of
attention upon his business as the
average business or professional man
does upon his he will succeed and not
till then.
Much of the land in the upper part
of the State is too hilly for profitable
cultivation. Upon land of this char.
acter the sweetest herbage grows, and
with such pasturage, together with
the clear and sparkling water which
abounds, as fine butter and cheese as
is produced anywhere on earth may be
made. In Indian corn we have the
cheapest COW feed that can be grown,
except pasture grass, and with the
sifo the whole plant may be preserved
in a palatablc and succulent condition.
Because Indian corn does not contain
the different materials needed for the
animal body in proper proportions,
corn silage is not a complete food, and
it is not economical to feed it lone.
Supplemented with cotton seed or
cotton seed meal and COW pea vine
hay, we have a ration which, for COM
bining quality with low cost, cannot
be c1cellcd.
South Carolina herds contain large
infusions of Jersey blood, and the
milk yielded by them is far richer in
| solids than the milk of COWS Of milk
| producing districts at the North. The
health of our herds is also better.
| Bovine tuberculosis, that terrible
scourge, is known here only by name.
The advantage the North possesses
over us in the matter of climate IS
more apparent than real, in fact our
climate the year round is better adapt
ed for the production of frst-c lass
dairy goods than that of New York or
Wisconsin. Cheap ice, however, has
given the North decided advantage
over us in the summer production of
| fine butter, an advantage the dairymcn
have not been slow to seize. But
science is now coming to the aid Of
the Southern dairyman with artificial
refrigeration. So chcaply are small
ice plants now run in connection with
the other machinery in creamcries that
many crcamcrics, located where ice is
certain crop, are not going to the
small expense of cutting and storing
it. There can be no doubt but that
these small rcfrigcrating machines will
soon be made cheap enough for use in
the private dairy.
1t is often claimed that we have no
large urban population, and that if
largely made butter would become a
drug upon the market. Good butter
rarely fails to bring a remuncratiye
Price. Whenever We can make more
than enough butter to supply the
local trade we can ship our surplus to
! the Eastern markets. Elgin, ILL.,, the
great buttcr-producing centre of the
West, is farther from the markets
than we are.
Dairying is not sure and sudden
way to get rich, but it returns safe
and steady income the year round. In
! the matter of direct returns the pro-