The Greeley tribune., 1911-09-14
Editor Tribune:

EO1IOr 1IlOuuo
As the topic OF the dairy business
seems to be on and my friend Sa-
tiricus seems to think he has give
the industry black eye that will
make its friends lay still. Yet l
feel like coming to the rescue OF the
old COW. the poor mans friend, and
the dairy business, which is the
only branch Of farming that Is a
sure thing.
In the settling of all the eastern
states that l am posted on the
farmer would raise the crops that
was adopted to the country and
haul it to market. This was con-
tinued till the fertility of the soil
was exhausted and the only relief
was the old COW. Some lands got
SO poor there were no redemption
and today is barren waste A few
years ago Iowa was = grain state
pure and simple. Raised, wheat.
oats and corn and shipped It out of
the state. Land got poorer and
poorer and so did the farmer. Then
the papers began to talk about cat
tie and the dairy business Eastern
people came in the state. Seeing
we were getting in the same rut
that they had been in and advised
raising more grass and cattle and
dairying and less grain. The worst
thing the country had to contend
with with the old timer who would
say, Il have been farming in this
state for 40 years and l know more
about farming than all of you new
tangled fellows combined" But
the country had to come TO 1t and
when 1t did 1t made wonderful pro-
gress. The man that went into the
dairy business put at least one-half
his farm in grass and hauled out
the fertilizer and raised as much
grain on one-half the land as he
had been doing on all of it. He made
success of it and bought his neigh
bors farm that was too proud to
milk cows. and as the saying was,
He has busted up and gone to Kan
sas.' This was going on almost all
over the state. 1t caused me state
to fall of in population but the
wealth was there just the same. Is
this country following along in the
same foot steps as that of our east
ern states! Can we raise the same
amount Of produce that We used to
with the same work?
1t seems that all industries that
have life have enemies, when car
ried on to an excess. The fruit has
its enemies and has to be sprayed.
The small grain has its enemies in
the way of smut and bugs. Corn
has the root worm that makes it i'm
possible to raise more than two
crops OF corn in succession in lo
calities where they raise corn to an
excess. Cotton has the boel weevil
that mas attracted the attention OF
congress. Sugar beets last year had
new enemy, the green bug. that
may appear again at any time. The
potato has the bugs and grasshop-
per, and now there is a new disease
that no one, it seems, can give any
account for, called the blight. So
we will find 1t all along the line that
all live industries where thew are
carried along to an excess thare Ia
something that comes along and
practically says slow up" n this
country is following the foot stems
or other countries the best romedv
l can see is to do as they have done.
start dairying ' 0
My friend Satiricus saws ..+ho+ NJ
all the dod gasted varieties ~ rural
hardships and slavery tbis dairy
branch is the worst" Tan about
hardships and slavery on farm ri
have bucked spuds all dar - Tho
next morning could hardly aat out
.. .. p pea; l nave picked mp spuds and
al h'gh1 could hardly straighten up.