The Ellensburg dawn. [volume] (Ellensburg, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1913-08-21
REMOVE THE HORNS
OF DAIRY CATTLE
@ERSONS operating land for proht
l. need to study such questions
as these:


What commodities are easiest
to produce and sell in nearby markets!
To what line Of production is the soil
best adapted!
Suppose there are good cash markets
close at hand, which crops or products
pay the best!
What line of produce will distribute
the labor most evenly through the year?
A practical arrangement is to keep
one hired man for every dozen dairy
cows and to have such a diversity or
work summer and winter as will keep
the help proftably employed through
the day as well as at milking time.
good poultry plant balances the pro-
gram nicely. Twenty four cows are
none too many for place of fifty to
eighty acres. 1t is not the best kind or
farming to allow cattle to roam at will
In large pasture 1t Is more profitable
to give them merely a few acres or
range that may afford pasture through
May and June and depend on the cult
waited land to raise most of their fod-
der.
AS a rule pastures become dry in
midsummer and the supply of milk can
not be kept up without silage, hay or
soiling crops. By the LIST of July
farmer should have vetch, alfalfa or
combination like oats and peas. An ex-
celent kind of summer feed Is pro-
duced by sowing rye and clover in the
fall. This can be cut for hay in June.
There ought to be corn silage all the
year round for any kind of cattle, but
particularly for dairy animals
With well managed little dairy like
this the owner can clear 500 to $3.50
a month above the cost of labor and
the rental value Of the land. The prod
uce may be handled in the form of
cream and butter and this system
leaves a large supply of skinned milk
for pigs and poultry. The dairy should
clear at the least $1,000 year, be-
sides paying all the wages and other
operating expenses, and 5000 ought to
be made in hogs and 5000 in poultry,
besides something from vegetables and
fruit
With cows or poultry as the basis of
business. furnishing a regular in
come, additional money is to be made
from a variety Of products including
potatoes, onions. berries and large
fruits. The farmer needs to give at
tention to details. lie should know
which articles pay best and which dis
tribute the labor of his men most even
ly. There must be we'll balanced
program. 1t is of the greatest impor-
lance to learn how reasonably large
profits may be gained on n moderate
Investment of capital and labor. The
farmer ought to get out of the rut, if
he is in one. and familiarize himself
with the conditions which govern his
business.
If one asks farmer which crop pays
him best it probably will turn out that
he does not know. AS a matter of fact
IA crop of apples. potatoes. onions or
grain does not always pay a satisfac-
tory profit. although at times any one
of them makes big return. There are
few farmers who will deny that the
apple orchard is the most profitable
acreage on the farm but even here the
profit might be doubled if the farmer
would give more attention to the man
agement of his orchard, keeping the
soil cultivated, pruning and spraying
the trees, adding fertility to the soil
and selling to the best advantage.
A farm cannot be profitable unless it
pays interest on its cost, pays for all
work done. whether by the farmer
himself or by his sons or hired men.
and in addition a sum for the farmers
benefit. depending upon the season and
the business capacity of the owner.
Where the farm is very small or the
labor question is difficult to handle it
will be best to drop the cows and sub
stitute less laborious kind of agri
culture If all the work Is to be per-
formed by members Of the family
poultry, fruit, vegetables and flowers
are the best products.
If the tract is not more than twenty
acres it will hardly pay to undertake
anything in the line of dairying, but
place of ten acres is ample for quite