The Oroville weekly gazette. [volume] (Oroville, Wash.) 1905-19??, 1913-02-28


OF milk out Of every ten produced in
New York state would not pay 4 cash
cost of production and this is true to-
day with the higher values upon milk
Men are not going TO the almshouse
who are producing milk by any man
ner OF means because present prices
will give them some sort of wages for
their work When the labor of wife
and children is credited. as it should
Re. the margin will disappear.
We need some real farm booking on
the dairy farms, and the first thing to
do is to disassociate the dairy from
the farm. dairy OF mich cows
should stand in the same relationship
TO the farm, or rather the soil, as the
buyer of hay, potatoes, and butter. and
cheese.
Cows have no more right to have
silage charged to them at $3.50 per
ton. the cost of production, than We
would TO charge the buyer in town
on that basis. Cows should pay
TOR hay and grain on the farm
just what the market will pay for t
and not less.
am inclined 70 think that this sys-
tenn OF bookkeeping would do more to
thin out Improbable COWS than a COW
test association. Cow test associations
are not all helpful. by any mean,
hen they permit under charge for
seeds grown on the farm. Such sys-
tenn makes possible a low standard of
production. We are discrediting the
land in order 10 steild Improbable
eows. | plead for the COW test asso-
citation as a solution OF the unprofit-
able COW problem but my mind is
changed and can see plainly that it is
falling short | believe now that the
bookkeeping which does not protect
the cow is the only hope. Let me re-
peat lest We misunderstood. The
dairy and the farm should be abso-
lutely independent units,-of course
this is first psychological PROPOSE
ton. 1t would help many man if his
| barn could be located off the farm and
| the COWS be treated as strangers. How
| many times have men said: Why We
can't milk and charge the cows what
feeds are WORTH For pity sake then,
7 be locked up in an insane asylum by
/ his family if he sold his products in
The market 10 the lowest bidder. In
| fact, most farmers are good statesmen
so far as canvasing among buyers for
the highest bid, and yet how many are
selling to the COWS at less than the
same stuff would sell for in market.
But, says the dairyman, We must
have stable manure. No more unfor-
tunate opinion ever beset dairymen
than the idea that their crop produc-
ton must be measured by stable man
ure.
Now stable manure is important and
valuable but it has in the minds of
most dairymen, fictitious value or
they would not keep cows to make the
stuff. What is the use of putting feeds
through an animal just to convert il
into manure? The animal has NO
mysterious or patented apparatus to
put plant food value into feeds. She
simply chews the stuff tolls it % per
cent. and puts the nitrogen, phosphoric
acid and potash in a form where 30
per cent. of it can easily be lost. That
is what an animal does. If it is man
ure we want. let us save all the loss
es and leave the crops in the field and
pillow them under.
No one realizes what stable manure
costs until the actual cost OF handling
is known and charged against it, We
must not forget that at the best a ton
is worth more than $3.50 and that il
must be handled at the end of a fork
or shovel This is not an argument
against manure. but an argumen,
against manure manufacture that
costs $1,000 10 produce what is only
worth $3.50.
In our accounting, at the school, We
are. for want of a better method
charging the crop for the manure and
for the actual cost of handling. and
crediting the COWS the same amount
Our first scheme called for a charge
to the crop of $500 per COW for her
manure.
This was a great thing for the COW
but would have put one farm out OF
business. We can get nitrogen. phos-
phoric acid and potash cheaper from
nitrate of soda, acid rock and murate
of potash and the organic matter TO &c
with it from sods and cover crops
There is no sentiment in this bust
ness. If We can get plant food cheap
er from Germany than from feeds
through a COW let us do it, | will adj
nit that it is not creditable to our
dairy business to have it so, but il
seems to me that we have been putting
up bluff in COW keeping long enough
and while it puts us to shame to have
the lights turned on, sooner or later