The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1911-12-22
PROFITABLE DAIRY
FARMING IS MADE
SUBJECT OF ARTICLE
COMPARISON BETWEEN TENNES-
SEE AND WISCONSIN oP-
PoRTUNlTIES.
NORTHERN DAIRYMEN MARKETS
Not a Get-Rich-Quick Avocation, But
a Chance to Reclaim Much Barren
soiI-Must Keep a Record of Feed
Used.
(By Capt r. F. Peck. Commissioner
of Agricultural
A Talk on Dairy Farming.
BY r. M. Murphy.


The soils on many of our farms
have reached such a state of deple-
ton that grain farming is unprofita'
BILE. We cannot afford to grow wheat
with a yield of ten busels per acre, or
corn with a yield of twenty bushels,
and use $500 worth of commercial
fertilizer per acre. In SO doing, year
after year, enormous sums are ex-
pended for commercial fertilizers, but
the yields get smaller and smaller.
The use of commercial fertilizers
in building up soils and increasing
yields, requires special study and a
better knowledge Of soil and crop
needs than is possessed by the aver
age farmer. On the other hand there
are many good instances of farms
where there is yearly increase in
the value Of productivity of the soil,
due to the fact that the crops raised
are grown primarily for the mainte-
nance of a dairy herd, and but little
Is sold except their products. In adj
dition to the feed grown, considera-
BILE quantities of concentrated feeds
are purchased, which add greatly to
the vale of the manure produced. By
such practice it is possible not only
to maintain the fertility of the soil,
but to gradually improve it, provided
the manure is properly cared for.
The fertilizer elements sold off the
farm in one ton of milk may be re-
covered by feeding 200 pounds of cot
ton seed meal; or If butter alone is
sold, the fertilizer elements in one ton
of butter may be returned by feed
ing so pounds of cotton seed meal.
Every farmer knows the beneficial
effect of an application of farmyard
manure, but it's real value Is not ap-
preciated, else it would not be allowed
to remain exposed to the weather I'M
der the caves of the barn, where it
may easily lse one-half of it's value.
The great dairy state of our coun-
try today is Wisconsin. With an
area of about one-fourth greater than
Tennessee, she has four times as
many dairy cows. The value of her
dairy products last year was over $79-
100000, or sum greater than the to-
tai value of all her farm crops, wheat,
oats, rye, potatoes, tobacco, etc.
Wisconsis does not possess the eli
matte advantages of Tennessee. From
the manufacturing standpoint, there
is certain ad, antage in the shorter
hot season of the north, since milk
products are especially difficult to
handle in hot weather, also the colo
winters enable them to store w a
supply of ice sufficient to last through
out their hot season. But with the
great advance in the recent years in
the perfecting of refrigerating ma
chinery the matter of maintaining
most favorable temperatures is mucn |
more satisfactorily accomplished
than by depending upon the natural
supply Of ice.
The northern dairymen have at |
their doors great markets, so that |
there II always ready sale for their
products, but the demand for butter |
in Tennessee is so much greater than !
the supply available, than annually
the imports from northern creamer-
les amounts to about 100000 lbs,
and the prospects for the continuation
of the rapid growth and development
of the cities of the south is sufficient
to Danish all fears Of possible over
production for years.
The fact that in Tennessee corn
grows from 20 to 16 feet high, while
in Wisconsin it grows from to 10
fefet, that alfalfa may be cut five =
times year, while they get but
three cuttings, tina: two crops may be
grown on the same piece of land in
single year, while their season per-
r'its but one, and that they must feed
their herds six to seven months each
Tear, while We feed ours only three
or i''ur months, counterbalances any
advantages that may BE- e.. tined fer
them, in that the initial cost of the
of milk is reduced fully
one-haIf
The trouble with dariying the south
today is the absence of business
methods. il the manufacturer paid
no m1re attention to the efficiency of
that he uses, or to the char
Peter end cost of raw material or Of
the finished products, than the aver
age farmer who keeps herd of COWS