OCR Text |
Show THE VALUE OF THE DIYTDW" By Edgar W. Cooley, Agricultural Extension Department, International Harvester Company. (Contributed to The Chronicle) The dairy cow is by far the most economical producer of human food. The food produced by her is the most nourishing and helpful of all foods. The farmer who has a few dairy cows and a few chichens and a garden will always have plenty of t'ood for himself and family, besides having a surplus of dairy and poultry products to sell at good prices. For each 100 pounds of feed consumed the sheep produces pro-duces only 212 pounds of edible food solids, a steer a trifle more than three pounds, a hen about 5 pounds, and a hog about 5a2 pounds, and the average dairy cow about IS pounds. There are nearly 24 million dairy cows in the United States and the annual value of their product reaches the enormous enor-mous figure of over one billion dollars.' Only the corn crop exceeds dairy products as a source of income to the farmers of the nation. The dairy cow brings in money all the year around. She brings in cash at the end of each month in the form of a check from. the creameries and gives us additional profit each year in the form of a calf. What the cow produces today is sold tomorrow. to-morrow. If she produces when the market price of feed is high, her cream is sold when the market price of cream is high. There is small chance of having to sell dairy products for less than it cost to produce them. The dairy cow distributes the demand for labor over the entire year. She increases the amount of pork production and decreases its cost by providing skinimilk and buttermilk for feeding pigs. She furnishes a home market for hay, silage and other products easily grown on the farm. Prom the grass of the pasture and the roughage of the field she creates the greatest product of the farm and puts back into the soil the fertility these things have taken from it. The dairy cow has been called "the foster mother of the world," and no more fitting title could be bestowed on her. Without milk children languish, adults decline, the vitality of the human race runs low, |