The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1901-02-12
The Dairy.
NEGLECT OF DAIRYING IN THE SOUTH.

Although Prof. Frank E. Emery,
of The Progressive Farmer, and
many others have worked faithfully
for many years to convince our peo-
pie of the great advantages OF the
South as a dairy section, Southern
farmers are still losing heavily by
their indifference. That we may
''see ourselves as others see u.s. in
this matter, we give below an inter
esting letter written for the Southern
Cultivator by Mr.. w. M. Benninger,
q leading Pennsylvania dairyman.
The writer says:
In my showing dairy cattle and
operating model dairies at the South
ern fairs and being we'll acquainted
with the dairy business for a number
of years 1 am surprised hat no more
interest is taken in this line in the
South.s'
1 find in every one of the large
cities and places that 1 visited there
is a scarcity of milk and very little
consumed by the poor classes, and
find in a good many sections that
eight out of ten of the poorer classes
do not use any butter at all.
I also find that the greater ma
jOrity of the dairy farms I making
a poor quality OF butter, that there
is no surprise that not more people
are eating it and am sorry to say
that I saw the poorest butter in the
market in those sections that l yer
saw, while there is no excuse for
this, while in the same sections l
saw as fine and ~high-scoring butter
as l ever saw. l found only a very
few such in the States of North Caro-
lima, Georgia and Florida, while the
advantages of making good butter
with less labor and expenses far ex-
eeed any section that 1 have eve
visited.
l saw thousands of tons of the
finest COW feed wasted. l should
Judge from my observation that
three-fOurths of the corn fodder is
wasted, while the mild climate makes
it possible to raise green foods most
of the time on the cheapest land
with the cheapest labor and cheap
lumber so hat most COmmOdiOus
barns could be built at a lower cost
and these barns and shelters need
not be as expensive as our Northern
barns, while the care and manner of
sheltering cattle is undoubtedly the
most neglected.
fused to think that the hot weather
was against the Southern butter
maker and also the lack of ice. This
I find to be an error by my own OBJ
servatiOn, as l had occasion to run ii
model dairy operating in the south
ern part of Georgia and also in North
CarOlina< and find that l can keep
milk sweet longer and make d finer
favored and better grade of butter
in the South than can be made in the
North as the night air seems especi-
ally adapted to this purpose. l
specially found this so in southern
Georgia where the soil for raising
cow food is the best l ever saw.
1 would not advise the Southern
farmer as some do to discontinue
raising cotton as l find by personal
observation that that is the easiest
and most profitable crop to raise,
but 1 cannot see why every cotton
raiser could not have Il fine herd Of
dairy cattle and enjoy the benefit of
the profits of ii daily cash income
from "a good business dairy. 1 am
convinced that every single cotton
farmer could make enough from IA
good business dairy for d living and
have his entire cotton crop for profit.
This would not only give them the
proceeds of the products of the dairy
but also increase the value of their
farms by the buildings required for
the stock as we'll as enhance the fer
tilitY of the soil. / am further con-