Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1909-08-25
Change Your Methods
Says Governor Hoard
Ia an AddrsssIDeIivered:: FennimoreILsst::wssE

1
that OF Wisconsin for over forty
years. J have a right to come TO
you with this message change your
methods" Dairy schools have beer
started in various states to teah
/ the butter and cheese maker A
flood of light has been turned b.
scientific investigation On all the
! processes of dairy work. Everybody
/ in the procession has been benefit
ed by this work more than the far
mec Why? Because they have faced
the light They have been willing
| to learn. In the great majority of
/ instances the farmer, the man who
( is producing the milk the man who
/ is the foundation of the whole struc-
ure, he has turned his back to the
| light. You can see this everywhere.
/ You can see it in the loss of fertfl-
| ity. Farms by the hundred in the
east that / knew well so years ago
will not produce today over half the
COW food they did then. The fact
/ IS shown in The prices of farm lands.
1t is said that the state of New
York has lost over $3.50, 100000 in
the last 80 years by the decline of
values in farm lands. This is main
| ly due to the loss of fertility.
DO you think the farmers clearly
understood the scientific fact that
for every ten tons of milk or one
ton of cheese that they sold off their
farms they were selling $50 worth
of nitrogen, the most valuable OF
| all fertilizing agents? Wisconsin
cows produce about two tons of milk
per COW year That amounts to
loss of Sc per cow annually in the
productive power of the land for ev-
cry COW that has contributed milk
to the cheese factory and to the cit
les and towns Have the cheese
farmers seen this all these years?
Have they acted like intelligent, far
sighted. well-posted men and stopped
/ this great leak in the dam? To You
find them today crowding into the
| farm institutes and saying, Men ana
| brethren, what shall we do to be
saved ?" DO you find them quite gen
orally buying books and papers that
shed light on their business? On the
contrary, can you not hear all over
he state this talk among farmers, Il
don't want any book farming in
mine" No man and especially the
farmer, can afford to starve his mind,
or shut out the light of science, and
ba nf nfhnr
think he is going to lessen expense
and make profit by 1t. You are
making milk. as a general thing,
more extensively than did your fa-
theirs forty years ago. Is this true
of other men n other branches of
business? ! have been trying for Is
years to get my old neighbors in
Madison county to adopt the silo, so
as to reduce the expense of milk
making, and they are Just beginning
to take hold of it. See what they
have lost in all these years by such
undue conservatism. The silo was
Just as true Is years ago, as it is to-
day Education for the farmer
without the right kind of reading is
too expensive. 1t is putting the
hand before the head.
A gentleman writing from Duchess
county, New York, states that his
father purchased a farm of 125 acres,
which cost him nearly $4,000 besides
SO, 600 spent afterwards in improve
ments. a total of $40 600. In 1886 he
was offered SIS per acre for the
farm, or $9,S75. Two years ago he
was offered $4,000 for it, and today
the best NJ he can get is $4,000.
Another farm near him bought for
$4,000 with the additional cost Of 81
new house at $4,000, recently sold for
81 goo TO settle an estate. Now, what
about the character OF the farmers
lin that section? This is what he
said: '1}ut very few farmers here
have sufficient enterprise to build
silo and feed a balanced ration; nor
does one in a thousand know what
his cows are doing. In our town
ship, know of but four silos among
nearly 100 farmers
Let us give you picture OF an OPP
posite character; The township OF
Lake Mills, in Jefferson county, Wis
oonsin, is six miles square. The nat.
ural fertility of its soil is no better
than that o. Duchess county, New
York, ara that was greatly reduced
| by excessive wheat growing from
Ils-c to 1870. 1t has 100 silos today,
and it's farmers are most prosperous.
I They are wide-awake readers of dairy
literature, and many of their sons
have attended the dairy school IN
Madison, as well as the short course
/ In agriculture. Other towns in the
county are of similar character.
There are about rs creameries in the
county a COW to every inhabitant,
lover $4,000, and the farm products OF
the county. as shown by the census
OF 1905 were valued at $4,000, GOO
Now, here is the condition of two
communities OF farmers, both en-
gagged in the same business with the
advantage of markets and cost OF
transportation on the side of the east
fern farmer. What IS the cause OF
the difference? l believe l am speak
-. +~.,4N 81 -