The Farmville herald. [volume] (Farmville, Va.) 1890-1934, 1910-01-14
Dairy Farming As a Business.
Arcanum, Jan I, 10

LullDi lltldlu - may bN OniANh q
pessimist or a back-rumber by some
people VINO read what | have to say
on the above subject, but still shall
venture to give an outline Of my ex-
periences, and conclusions after more
than three score years Of life.
FarmvIlle has just started a cream
cry, and many farmers as far out as
radius of ten or more miles, have
bought cows and undertaken to fur
nish milk for it, and enthusiasm for
the new project runs high. With all
my heart, wish patrons and creamery
success. We read in Holy Writ in
substance: No man buildeth house
no king goeth forth to battle, - &C.,
&c. without first counting the cost.
This is what wish my fellow-farmers
who feel inclined to take the new de-
parture in Southside Virginia farm
inp to do, when hundreds of dollars
have been spent in cows and fix
ings," recanting would be done at a
great loss.
We have read a good deal, and
many of us know from experience
how exacting, how unceasing and con-
tinuous are the demands of the tobac-
co crop; how from plant bed in Janu
ary of one year to market in January
of the next year, tobacco calls for la
Dor of some sort with only few weeks
of intermission, but tobacco is not in
it" when compared to Dairy work
this knows no let up, no surcease-
every day in the year, and twice each
day the cows must be MIXED, Sundays
as well as weekdays. A tobacco
farmer feels inclined to spend a few
davs visiting friends and he goes, It's
true the suckers may grow a few
inches, and the worms eat a few extra
holes owing to his absence, but the
loss is slight comparatively-let the
mixer 90 away from his cows a few
days, and the loss is irrreparable for
that season at least.
Dairying is by all odds the most
tyrannical and eXacting of all the
branches of farming, and if fathers
want their young sons and daughters,
and woman-kind should not be called
upon to do milking, generally speak
inol to become thoroughly disgusted
with farm life; 20 into the dairy busl-
f ness of from 10 COWS up to 80. On
nv fathers farm in England, as a
youth. was one Of six mixers to
milk 70 cows twice a days O'Clock
in the morning, 6 O'Clock in the even
ing. must always be Johnny on the
spot, " other boys, my chums, could
90 off tc sea side, or visit friend
and stay all night - not so the milk
er. he must break trace if necessary,
TO be on hand at 6 O'Clock night and
morning and vowed in my youth
full heart, that whenever ! got to b'
man. there should be no cow milking
t for me, or my boys, girls, or wife
t except lust enough for home consump
7 ton of milk and butter, and am Inv
+ inc up to my early resolve, and Intent
z so to do.
o There is another feature too, whicl
works against the would-be dalr
farmer in Southside Virginia. | allud
z TO the scarcity Of men and women
r. black and white-whO know how t
/ milk COW. 1t is the rarest thing t
find a colored woman who can take
r seat under a COW, and with bot
- hands moving in rhythmic motion dra'
G ont. without discomfort to the COW
e gallons of milk in minutes-and
be LONGER. or TO strip" with on
j. hand. as most of them do is, very dc
- frimental to the cows usefulness as
IS milk-producer Again, think ! hay
D. known less than hall-a-uoIeh me
e white who can milk COW at al
l. and when wives and daughters al
f. sick. or hired-maid out Of place, tn
ll poor COW has to 90 unmilked, the
r. how would it be where such an on
was depending on the income troi
10 or 10 COWS.
Milking dairy Of cows, and ruI
ming truck farm require men Dor
Il for the purpose, men who can plo
2 and work day and night, and to whol
d incessant monotony is charm. Sue
.e find it profitable in a money sense
,- though frightfully narrowing IN a socl
10 or intellectual sense, and an old man
free advice to his many friends VII
.r read the Herald is go slow in tyir
d yourself up with cows until there al
:, more and better mixers to be hired.
- II. of b.
Gofnr