The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1899-05-31
Degeneration of Dairy Intelligence

What is it n this dairy business that
seems to act like demoralizer of the
minds and judgment of the farmers in
the older dairy districts? TO illustrate:
Go into the old cheese making districts
of New York and Ohio, where they
have made cheese for forty years, and
it will be found that the farms have
declined in fertility until they will pro-
duce but little, if any, more than half
the COW food they did when dairying
was commenced Another: Let a
cheese factory be started in any COM
munity and it will be found that for
the first year or so it will take from one
to three pounds less milk to make a
pound of cheese than it does after the
factory has been running several years.
In other words, the farmers seem to
progress towards poorer milk as well as
poorer soil.
Another Go into any of the old
dairy districts in the west where there
is a large COW population, and there
seems to be less real disposition among
many farmers to improve in knowl-
edge, in their methods, in the quality
of their COWS, in the neatness and
those things that make up real dairy
progress, than was exhibited twenty
years ago. There seems to grow into
their thought and practice the idea
that there is more profit in being less
and less dairyman in the best sense
of the word.
There is departure on the part of
many from those sound doctrines of
faith and practice that build up the
business in the first place.
In his interesting letter on the
"Dairy Outlook in Northern Wiscon-
SIM" on page 103 of this volume,
Professor Henry speaks of the way the
farmers of Burnett county care for
their cows, in the following significant
manner:
"In this particular they are ahead of
some other sections in the state that |
visited, where, while more cows are
| kept, the farmers are more careless as
to their care and management"
Three things exist which should
nerve every dairy farmer up to setter
nal vigilance" in mind and method.
l. The sure prospect that without it
the farm will steadily decrease in fer
tility, just as it has in many older dairy
sections If we do not keep up the
bank account we cannot draw from it
in times of emergency.
2. If we do not keep our mind and
purpose alive to the study of our bust
ness, our COWS will naturally decrease
in quality and in profit. We will cease
to produce good COWS, and depend on
the haphazard, brainless breeding of
others, who know even less about it
and who make it a matter of mere ac-
cident.
3. As we increase in COW population
in any district, so do we increase the
hazard of infectious diseases. So do
we increase the danger of carelessness
and indifference. When there were
but few herds and few in herd, abor-
ton and other diseases were almost
unknown in the west, How is it now2
This fact alone should teach the
dairy farmer in such districts that he
cannot afford to be Indifferent to his
own intelligence and the saving effects
of good, progressive study and care in
stable sanitation.
But we recur to the question asked at
the head of this article: "What is it
that makes so many farmers in the old
dairy districts more indifferent TO dairy
progress than they were when they
started in business?" Can they afford
it in these times of low prices, when it
is good thought, good sense, and the
wisest of methods, only, that will bring
proht?-Hoard's Dairyman.