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Show i DAIRYING i I THE DAIRY COW ON THE FARM. By Joseph Ririe Ogden t? To"" the Editor of- The Dcscrct Farmer: In traveling around these beautiful and fertile valleys observing the large farms, the good crops of hay, fruit, , grain, beets, potatoes, etc., noticing that neighbors arc one-half to one mile apart in many parts, and seeing the weeds growing so abundantly on the ditch banks and roadsides that it , seems as if ten per cent of our farms arc weeds, we are imprcscd with the fact that we arc land poor. The farmer who works hard trying to care for so much year after year, cropping his land, selling all off and putting nothing back on, will, in a few years, find that not only he, himself, him-self, has played out but that his land will run down also. And when he pays the expenses necessary upon our irrigated farms, besides taxes, hired help, and wear and tear of implements, he must not allow himself very large wages, or he will be in debt at the end of the your. If our farms were quartered1 and four families placed where now there is but one, with eight to twelve dairy cows kept by each, our returns would be greater and our " work lighter. At one of our experiment stations they have kept a record of a herd of twenty-seven ofdinary cows for ten years. The average was 6,513 pounds of milk per year, making 336 pounds of ibuttcr. We have some in this community that will produce nearly os much. This is about 2 gallons per pay for ten months, and 332 pounds at 25 cents (which is an average aver-age for butter for the last year) would bring us $83. We figure our expense as follows: Five tons of hay, at $5 per ton, $25; six rnionths' pasturage, at $1 per month, $6;" allow $12 per year for labor. (Tn the east they arc willing to take skim milk and the fertilizer for the labor). The total would be $43, leaving a net balance of $40, besides a good! calf and the skim milk, which, for feeding feed-ing calves, hogs and poultry, they value as worth 25 cents a hundred. 1 If we feed a little grain, I "think- our returns would be large enough n to offset the cost of the grain. 1 Where can we find a better invest- 1 meat than a good cow, if .she brings 1 us from 50 to 100 per cent iprofit 1 yearly? I You who are familiar with condi- I tions in the old countries, where land is worth ten times what it is here and no better markets, know they arc getting rich with cows. In Denmark and Holland, .close to the large cities, where land is worth from one to two thousand dollars per acre, you find the dairy cow everywhere. ev-erywhere. But there the farmer not .only keeps good cows, he cares for them. He feeds and waters and salts them well. He grooms and stables them. He docs not allow a dog around, nor an unkind word spoken to his cows, and they appreciate his treatment by filling the milk pail two, and some three times a day. A few weeks ago I was impressed, on visiting a farmer in Utah, who invited in-vited mc to go down to the pasture and sec his cows. When we entered the gate the cows were a quarter cf a mile away. Hlo called two or three by name and his entire herd of twelve came up to., him. Fie patted them, went around rubbing them, talked as kindly to them as to his children, and they heard his voice and1 followed, him. He showed mc his returns for the past year, and he had received in cash from $110 to $160 -each month, besides feeding a nice lot of hogs and poultry. His cows were mixed Jerseys Jer-seys and Guernseys. Three were pure-breds. He said they averaged $7 per head. ITc fed .them bran and malt, kept an account of his expenses, expens-es, and declared his cows paid, $45 per head clear. What one cat do others can. He said: "I have thirty acres of land, a good orchard, good house, good barn and sheds.' I jiavc -a family of eight children, aridi we take life easy. Wc have plenty to do and arc happy. My boys and irls need not go away from home' fpr work to get spending money. We have money in the bank, nevcrj run in debt for anything, and our (ows re doing it all." ' Wc cannot afford to keep our cows on poor, dry pastures in the summer and leave them' out in the open yards m aiasBBBBaaVHSBBBBSBBBBBBVS H in the winter. It takes 60 per cent of what a cow cats to keep up her K body in winter. The other 40 per j cent goes into the milk pail. To starve cows and leave them out in I the cold causes them to become brcachy, kickers, poor milkers. We lose patience with them and dog. club and talk harshly to them, any one of which drives the profit away, We fully realize that changes cannot can-not be made in a day. nor in a year. But let's start now. Let us use our thinking powers, as well as out muscle. Get a good (fairy paper, spend a half hour each day reading the experiences of our neighbors in the East, profit by their experience, act upon it. Make an effort to select .better cows. Keep the best and dispose dis-pose of the poor ones. Join with your neighbors and get a good sire. Remember Re-member that the sire is half the herd. "Weigh and test the milk from each cow and keep a record! for a year, and you will be well paid for it. If, in any community, wc were unit-j unit-j cd enough to all join in selecting u good dairy strain, and in perpetuating it, in ten years wc would be famous for hundreds of miles around for our certain strain of good dairy cows. A few good dairy cows on the farm would lift the mortgage, pay the tajfes, keep our families, build bams and improvements, and furnish work ffSr the boys and girls at home, where wc can work with them, and not for them quite so much. Never think the dairy business will be overdone. We may have all the luxuries in the world upon the table, but if there is no butter it's a poor meal. I; The more butter that's produced the lUcttcr the article can be made, and hence the greater demand. The consuming chss is increasing over the producing class. Therefore, the farmer with the dairy cow is sure to sec brighter days by sticking to it. A cow is a machine for converting our rough feed stuff into a highly concentrated con-centrated food article. The better f care we give them and the more wc can get them to eat, the more profit- able our returns. This wonderful irrigated district, where peas, clover, alfalfa and orchard or-chard grass grow so well, is truly an ideal dairy district. There is ik.jng better for cow feed and nothing better bet-ter for fertilizer to make our beet crous larger. |