Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1913-04-02
WHAT THE.PAPERS SAY.


These Problems Need Attention.
The Rev. E.. C. Kinney, who has
been travelling up and down Vermont
for 18 years in the interest of Sunday
school work. finds little evidence of ap-
piled Christianity in the extreme rural
districts. In one section he could find
no one that attended church or Sunday
school and the nearest church was seven
miles away. One man said, Eyes, we
need a Sunday school. / have lived
here Is years and the only religious
service 1 have attended was funer-
al" This latter sounds barbarous
to some, but there are plenty of men
living in the cities who haven't been
inside church in 18 years. Mr.. Kin
ney says hard cider is responsible for
most of the hill town deviltry, but he
is optimistic regarding the future of
these people. Enterprise.
Dairying Up-to-date.
A bulletin of notable interest and
value just published at Washington is
devoted to "cow census - This CEN
sus work was inaugurated for the rea-
son that there was nowhere to be found
a basis of fair and comprehensive cal
culation as to the economic relation of
the dairy farmers of the United States
| to their business. The farmers kept
no records. There were no bureaus of
statistics that thought it worth while
to look into these conditions. Neither
the Federal Government nor the States
established agencies of inquiry and
analysis. Everywhere. from the farm
er to the state and General Govern
| ment, it was guesswork and only guess
work as to the actual relation of the
cow to the farmer.
Serious discomfort was felt in the
dairy ranks everywhere. Something
was wrong. It was believed by ex-Gov.
w. D. Hoard of Wisconsin, who origi-
| mated the idea, that thorough lnvestiga-
| ton would show that the lack of profit
in ordinary dairy farming was due to
the fact that farmers as rule did not
comprehend what dairy farming really
meant-that they did not comprehend
rightly the forces that must be put in
motion to bring financial success.
This "cow census work was started
as a private enterprise, to get at the
real facts Experts, who thoroughly
understood dairying, dairy cattle, and
right dairy conditions, were employed
to do the work. They would visit the
farmer and get hold of all the facts at
the farm end first. Then they would
visit the creamery. where an accurate
record was kept of the milk yield of
the herd and of the returns in cash.
One squared by the other told the
story. Many conclusions have been
worked out of this great mass of data
and these are given in the bulletin.
The one great and paramount conclu-
sion, overlapping all others, is that
loss of profit in dairying is occasioned
in nine cases out of ten by lack of
sound dairy intelligence on the part of
the farmer who is behind the cow
The results of the canvass of hund
red herds of cattle in central and
northern Vermont are summarized in
the bulletin. Here are some of them :
Of the IL owners of dairy type herds.
7 feed silage, 8 read dairy papers, l
reads general farm papers, l reads
none, and are not reported as to read
ing. OF this group 5, have excellent
stables, have good stables and four
are not reported as to stables.
Herds of dairy type return for each
dollars worth of feed Al cents more
than the average of the whole canvass
Of the 6 owners of excellent stables,
all have herds of dairy type except 1,
and that herd is of grades of a dairy
breed; 3 use silage, read dairy pa
pers, l reads farm paper, and are
not reported as to reading.
Of the 8 owners of good stables, 3
have herds of dairy type, feed silage,
read dairy papers, read farm pa
pers,1 reads nothing, and l is not re-
ported as to reading.
Of the II readers of dairy papers, 6
have herds of dairy type, feed silage,
have excellent stables, 4 have good
stables, has a fair stables, and are
not reported as to stabling.
Men who read dairy literature earn
with each dollar spent in feed 45 cents
more than men who do not read
Of the 10 most profitable herds, all
good dairy type; owners feed silage,
6 read dairy literature, 4 have excel
lent stables, have good stables.
Of the 10 least profitable herds,
none are of good dairy type, 6 are
grades of dairy breeds, are of mixed
breeding. only owner reads agricul-
tural literature, Z owners read MOTH
ing ! feeds silage. have poor stables,
and the stabling of is not reported.
Seven herds average $40 or more prof
it per cow per year. All these are of
dairy type, 3 are fed silage, have ex-
cellent stables. a owners read dairy lit.
erature.
Twenty-one heads lose an average OF
$40 or more per COW per year.. Only
of these herds is fed silage, none
are of dairy type, none of their own.
} ers read dairy literature. Five read
agricultural papers, 13 read neither
, dairy nor agricultural papers: none
have either excellent or good stables
j has either fair stable. z have poor
!. stables
The man who secures only the aver
: age returns has herd of uncertain
type, reads general farm papers mo
dairy papers,, and has only fail
stable.
{ These conclusions speak for them
selves. They emphasize he fact tina
the farmer must keep up with TIT
times in every respect in order to max,
a success of his occupation and of hi