The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1901-06-11
The Dairy.
CHANGE YOUR METHODS.

WY 40 40 @
who know that they r not making
a cent resolutely hang onto the same
old loss-producing methods? Now,
without any t~heorizing on it, 1 will
launch right away into a statement
of certain facts TO show you, in the
experience of other men, that there
is the encouragement of much larger
profits in the practice of modern
ideas, and modern methods.
A man had heard that Jerseys
were good butter cows. He bought
one that was fresh in milk. He took
her from a kind master, a man who
understood a COW, to a cold, uncom-
Portable stable, and turned her out
TO drink ice water on a very coldday.
When she came into the stable she
shivered for an hour, and in a week
had shrunk her milk flow one.half.
That was his idea of management /;
his method. Don't you know of
men who think and act just like himP
He told me all the circumstances,
and said he did not think Jerseys
were hardy. That man would have
measured a diamond by what he
knew of limestone.
When I undertook to show him
that a highly organized dairy COW,
one that would yield twice as much
butter as any GOWN his herd, should
be treated according to the law of
her own being, not according to his
bad and ignorant methods, he re-
piled by asking if I thought he was
going to "change himself over to
suit a cow
Another: Two men in my county
have been dairymen for twenty years.
Each started with 100 of land,
and they live only about a mile apart.
One we will call A and the other B.
When they started with COWS, A was
in debt for nearly the price of his
farm. B was out of debt. A soon
saw that he needed the best COW he
could get. He was a good judge, and
he would pay a large price for a good
animal. He became interested as a
student in the physiology of COWS,
and read everything he could find
that would give him more light. B
said it was all nonsense to read so
much humbug. A bought the best
registered Jersey sire he could find,
and almost paralyzed the neighbor-
hood by paying $500 for him. Twelve
years ago he built a silo. That en-
abled him to dearly double the size
of his herd on the same land. Then
he took up the study of the feeding
problem. B called A crank. A is
now worth ten times what B is. A
has changed his methods for better
ones, and is to day wealthy, intelli-
gent, and widely respected. B is
worse off than he was twenty years
ago. He knows but little, if any,
more than he did then his COWS are
of the same poor sort he ''dOn't be-
lieve in all this blamed humbug
about breeding, feeding, silOs, and
such" His family have grown older
and his expenses have increased, but
his revenue has remained the same,
and how he is in debt. He has rolled
his spirit of nOn-progression under
his tongue like ga sweet morsel, -
until he is ugly and sour at every
body.
What is the cause?
This, he would not change his
methods. He would not imbibe
knowled enough to have a good
Judgment of methods. He would
not use his intellect, train it, guide
it, and refine it. He did not realize
how deep this problem of successful
dairy farming is, and that Il man
with a shallow, unfinished mind
cannot fathOm it.
We must make milk cheaper if we
cannot sell it for more. To do this
depends on the GOV and the way she
is fed and managed. Here is a bit of
practical experience for you:
A large milk producer in Ulster
county, New York, writing on the
subject, says:
1.-THE poorest COW 1 ever owned
gave me 1000 quarts a year, at d
cost of owe five cents a quart, while
another COW produced over 1000
quarts at a cost of less than three
fOurths of u cent a quart.
IA year ago my food-cost per COW
per day was 26 15-1OO cents. Of this
the farm furnished 8 cents, and is