Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1903-11-13
DAIRYlNG IN KANSAS.


untroduetery by Us sec6stary F. D; coburn. in
Kansas State Board of Agriculture, entitled
Modern Dairying."1
Twenty years ago Kansas had but
Al ,548 mich cows, and scarcely a
creamery worthy the name, and their
product was unsought.
Ten years ago Kansas had 567,-
353 milch cows; creameries of better
class were being slowly established,
but their output begged market.
Today Kansas has ,802,738 mich
COWS, or more than at any previous
time, and many high-grade creamerles
and cheese factories, including the
largest creamery in the world, hun
dreds of contributory receiving and
skim stations, and their product is not
only favorably known in the principal
markets, but sought beyond the
supply.
Thus is marked the progress of
this industry in Kansas-in a decade
become one of the most prominent of
successful dairy states. While this
is true, and within that time the
aggregate annual value of our dairy
products has nearly doubled, and
while our foremost dairymen, by con-
stantly striving to raise the standard
of production, now have excellent
high-yielding herds, it is unquestion
ably fact that large numbers of our
cow population are not paying for
their keep, judging by the low annual
average value of produce per head.
The cause for this is to be found
either in the man or the COW, or both,
as Kansas, with her wealth of grain
and grass, produced at the minimum
cost, mild winters, and convenience
to market. furnishes ready made a
territory nowhere excelled for profit
able dairying; but brains in the man
and blood and feed in the COW are
essential to success in Kansas, as
elsewhere, although here nature has
seemed to be most lavish in her
benef1cence
If the oman behind the COW" in
Kansas would do his part, no un-
profitable animal would masquerade
under the fictitious appellation of
''milch cow" and she would either go
to the butchers block or be made to
return profit by intelligent care and
management. 1t passeth understand
ing why theft by a COW should be
tolerated more than theft by human.
In effect, the result to the loser in
either case is the same. Our govern
ment has found it wisdom to study
and establish far-reaching methods
for the detection and repression of
the latter; and by the same token,
why should our farmers and dairy
men be less vigilant in regard to
this possible proclivity in their COWS
beasts described as dumb, yet out
whiting their owners? So long as
COWS of this class are permitted in the
dairy herd, so will there be dissatisfac-
ton and failure. Improvement is the
route to success, whether by breeding,
better management, or other way,
and intelligence in our cowmen is the
power that will force advancement in
the right direction.
Dairying has come to be one of the
most important factors in Kansas
agriculture. and. rightly conducted,
is one Of the surest money makers of
our varied industries. 1t is incom-
parably more rational than any one
crop system, or even general farming,
as its practice tends to rotation of
crops, maintains or increases the fer
tility of land, and afford steady en-
ployment, with returns remunerative
according to the brains mixed with
the business.
Ever since the issuance of this
Boards publication entitled "Cow
Culture" there has been an extra
ordinary demand for kindred litera-
ture, and editions of former reports
on the subject of dairying have early
exhausted. The spirit of education
is abroad IN our state, and in order
in a measure to meet the increasing
urgency for light and literature con-
cerning dairying this volume is pre-
pared. The information it contains
covers the best modern thought of
wellknown authorities upon the re-
spective topics treated, and is intend
ed to be of practicable value to our
farmers and dairymen, as well as to
promote the prosperity of our cream
cries and cheese factories-the inter
ests of all these being inseparable.
AS dairying in our state has assum-
ed such immense proportions. mat
ter that has been given comparatively
but little attention heretofore is also