The Lancaster ledger. [volume] (Lancaster, S.C.) 1852-1905, 1903-12-02
DR., NeSom Gives Suggestions
An Interesting Letter as to Stock
Raising, Dairying and Manu-.
facture of Cheese.
Special to The State.

Winnsboro, Nov 27.-The dis.
cussion of the establishment of a
cheese factory ut this point has
brought forth the following letter
from DIR. Nesom of Clemson Col
lege, which was written In reply
to a communication asking him in
regard to the practicability OF such
enterprises in this section and
which contains many practical sug-
gestions that ought to be helpful
at this time when there is search
for new enterprises for the farm as
we'll as for the factory:
"Iam delighted to hear that the
prospects for cheese factories in
your section are good. l have
frequently taken occasion to re-
mark that the principal reason
why farms all over the south are
decreasing in fertility and value as
they are in Fairfield county is that
our system of agriculture forces
the sale of field crops instead of
animal products. If all that will
do TO feed to animals were fed on
the farms where it is grown and
the manure returned to the soil
poor lands would soon be thing
of the past, for it should be re-
membered that all clay and sandy
lands in this section are suscepti>
BILE to the highest state of fertili
zauon. This is not true of prairie
and lime lands. Before we can
have cheese factories we must have
plenty of good dairy cattle, and
befre we can kee. these cattle
economically we must have good
pastures, hay meadows and grain
fields to produce all the required
food on the farm. Some things
produced may be exchanged for
others, as the exchange OF cotton,
cotton seeds and milk for cotton
seed meal. Some seem to doubt
the ability of South Carolina farm
ers to produce feed in abundance.
For the benefit of the doubter
l will say that northern cattle
man who recently visited this state
told me that cattle could be grown
here and maintained at half what
they cost in the north. We have
the three requisites for any stock
country, namely: good soil, a
warm climate and plenty of ram
fall. There is no doubt that dairy
cattle is the most profitable of any
class if they are properly handled,
and a ready market i found
for their product. The dairyman
near the city where he can sell
fresh sweet milk gets most out of
the business, while those located
in the country and at small towns
are forced to resort to the manu-
facture of butter and cheese so as
to get the product in condensed
form to enable him to transport
them to distant markets at the
cheapest possible freight rate.
butter will yield about half as
much as the sale of sweet milk,
But when the cheese factory comes
along 1t will pay as much for the
milk as it will bring if made into
butter and the dalryman is reliev-
ed of all the trouble of making and
marketing the butter. Experts
claim that milk in this State will
make more cheese and better cheese
than the same amount of milk will
in the north. This is no doubt
true and is possibly due to the
fact that much of the milk here il
gatten from Jersey and other dai,
ry breeds that give rich milk to
favorable climatic conditions and
luxurlant feeds. Dairy cattle in
the rural districts can only be
made profitable by using the dairy
products in the manufacture of
butter or cheese, and if they can
not be used it is better to discai d
them altogether and breed beef
cattle, so that the animals them
selves may be sold at a profit for
feed -