The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-12-31
Agricultural Department .o.0.c.Ooo.C-o.o.o.O.
 CONDUCTED LYON S WHITE.

amounts of plant foods from the air While the grasses may not draw as much plant food from the air as the clovers, yet it shades the soil and prevents dissi- patton of the plant foods furnished from other sources. The shading of the soil is one of the best means O. retaining plant foods in the soils, so that green crops of some sort, preferably grasses and cloyers, should be kept growing on the land the entire year if possible. Grasses and clover absorb large quanu- ties of plant food from the air, the soil and from that supplied to the soil by the farmer. Live stock eat these grasses, turning them back lato plant food, every particle of which should be saved and applied or restored back to the farm n inc most economical and available foi m. There is a proper time for doing this also to obtain the best results.
 The Dairy Cow In Rotation.
 Of all the live stock for this rotation, the dairy COW stands at the head. I wish I had the space here to show what the dairy COW has done and is doing in many sections of our country in building up the worn out soils and in furnishing plant foods for producing the great crops of grain that the world needs for bread Our dairy section not only have the richest 
 have the wealthiest farmers. and while we have today more money loaners among our farmers than we have ever had before in our history, when we come to inyesti- gate we find that most of these money loaners are daily farmers. Under the modern system of dairying in this country today, the by-products of the dairy herd, if properly managed, will pay all the costs for carrying on the business. and leave the farmer what he gets for his butter fat that much clear profit In cash. The fertilizer from one dairy COW for one year on the farm, If properly managed, Is worth SEQ, the skim milk is worth from 15 to 20 cents per hundred pounds for feeding to hogs, and the hog business should go hand in hand with dairying. In dairying 1t Is just as in- portant to know how to prepare a com plete of balanced ration for the COW as 1t Is to know how to furnish complete plant foods for our crops.
 While l cannot take the space here to enter into details of the dairy business, yet I will try to give a few pointers that will help the reader to succeed. The modern plan as now practiced Is to pro vide hand separator on the farm where the cream is extracted from the milk as soon as 1t comes from the COW. The milk should be fed to the pigs while 1t is yet warm. The milk should not be fed alone but used in making up complete ra- tion Everything connected with the dairy business should be kept scrupulous- ly clean; clean vessels should be pre- pared to receive the cream, and this may be stored in some cool place, and ship ments made from every day to three times per week. The profits or price of the cream all depend on how we'll it is handled. Cream should not be kept until 1t becomes over ripe or sour enough to churn. Some arrangements must be made for cooling the cream and keeping 1t cool and sweet until 1t can be shipped. The cream separator as well as all the vessels used must be kept perfectly clean. Milk is very quick In taking up and becoming contaminated with various foreign sub stances with which it may come in con tact. The COW, too. should be kept clean as well as the barns, sheds, stalls, etc., and she should have only pure, fresh water and feeds Much attention should be paid to the building up and keeping up the dairy herd. Every dairyman should know how and test the milk of each COW, and cull out from the herd every cow that is not paying her way Under the modern system of dairyng it will pay 10 keep a man whose whole time and at tention should be given to looking after the cows. Give him as many cows as he can look after, feed, water and keep clean He may need some assistance in the milk ing. The floors for the stalls should be of cement and arranged so as to catch every particle of solid as well as the liquid manures; and it must be kept in mind that we are using the dairy COW for fur nishing foods for our soils as well as food for man, In fact every animal on the farn from the chicken up should be a the details as outlined above be closely followed, there will be no trouble about getting profits out of the dairy business, But, If these things are neglected failure is sure to be the result. The dairy bus,- ness, like all others on the farms, pays in proportion to the amount of intelligent efforts that we employ in conduction of the business.
 Profits of the Dairy Cow.
 Of course did not start out to write bulletin on dairyins, but the COW is such an important factor in building up and maintaining soil fertility that too much cannot be said in her favor.
 The writer, engaged as I am in holding faimers' institutes and meetings with the best farmers of the country, has an op- portunity of meeting with a great many object lessons, and to learn what our best farmers are doing Only few days
 
 had gone to that state only a few years ago, bought poor, rundown farm that 1t was said no man could make a living upon. One of the first things this man did was to get few cows bought q manure spreader, and commenced to haul and spread manure on this farm Every time the manure spreader was loaded a good sprinkle of clover and grass seed was spread over the load. and these seed scattered with the manure The resuIt was that the farm was soon set to grasses and the live stock on the farm ate the grasses and all was returned to the soil. This man stated to me a few days ago that his cows for the first six months of the year 1906 had given him a net profit of S14 each per month, and he ex- pected them to do this ten months of the year. This would be for the six months sS4 This he had, and if the cows should keep up thelr record for another four months, it would mean S56 more or a total of $140 each for the ten months. The land on this farm produced in 1905 an av- craze of seventy-five bushels of corn per acre. The writer had the pleasure of a visit to this farm, where was to be seen a fine herd of dairy cows fine horses hogs and hundreds of sheep feeding on the grasses of this farm.
 Another farmer in Missouri bought a poor farm that would produce about six bushels of wheat and ten bushels of corn at best. Ir thirty years with his dairy cows and grasses he has made a rich farm that now produces as high as thirty bushels of wheat and seventy-five bushels of corn per acre. This man made his farm rich and the farm made the man rich He has a standard reputation for making good butter, which commands a high price.