The Greeley tribune., 1911-09-14
he D|SACREES WITH SATIR|CUS

/ have sailed across the field with
a shovel at breakneck speed,
swinging a pair OF gum boots, and
perhaps lose one in mud hole ana
then run into a patch OF sand ours
trying to get q break in often. l
have irrigated spuds all night when
every mosquito on the farm was try
ing to get his bill in and when worn
out drop down between twoN spud
rows and not know l was in the
wrong row till l woke up and fouGd
the water two feet deep all around
me. Talk about hardships and grief
on farm. would rather set down
in cool dairy barn and milk a
dozen old gentle cows and hear the
separator hum as the dollars roll
ed out twice a day for 365 days in a
year than go through this spud
business two weeks. 1t seems to me
that one who would perfer that kind
of spud business instead of setting
down and milking'a few gentle cows
should be taped for the simples.
My friend seems to think one in
the dairy business is compelled to
work at night. This is all bosh.
There is no need to work at night
milking cows than any other busi-
ness. The writer was a dairyman
for Is years and made 1t rule to
get the milking done by sundown.
1t takes no longer to get ready to
milk a dozen cows than it does one,
or enough for family use. The only
argument / can see for not milking
more cows than is necessary for the
family is he can let the women and
children do the milking and IL he
had more the man would have to
be there himself.
My friend seems to think that
one can not keep cows unless he has
pasture for summer. pasture is
nice ,aing, l will admit, but my
experience has taught me that I can
keep cattle on silage cheaper than l
can own or rent pasture.
No one should be in the dairy
business without a silo. Seven or
eight acres Of good silage corn
planted thick will fill a 100 ton silo.
This will keep Is head of cows
year, with a very small amount of
hay or straw. My friend says that
the fertility of our farms is kept up
by blowing under alfalfa, which is
true, but he failed to give the fig
ures what 1t took to seed an acre OF
ground Considering the price of
seed the failure to get a catch on ac-
count or drouth, hoppers and frost
and perhaps lose the use of ground
one year, and about the time it gets
Dest when the roots had got down
Iar enough not to require SO much
water, 1t is ready to be plowed up
In the dairy business he could let
mis- alfalfa fields alone and keep up
his land from the dairy barn. II
has been said that dairyman is a
lazy robber, and sometimes 1 think
IL ID true. He robs the cows of their
annual crop of calves, he robs her
twice day OF her milk, he makes
her raise olt of hogs on skim milk
ana makes her keep up his farm,
SO he can raise bigger crops. and
sit around and watch her do the
work. II there was from ten to If
teen cows on one-half the farms 1t
would put the country on a cash
basis merchants could sell their
goods at cash price. There would
De Dig balance wheel to the
country. When a farmer has all he
mas got and more to in crop 1t is
chance business, but II he has a
dairy herd he can laugh at grass
hoppers and potato bugs and when
he sees a hail storm approaching
threatening destruction to his crons
he can console himself by saying the
old COW will come up tonight inst
the same. DAIRYMAN.
Kersey, Colo.