sometimes it has proved wonderfully profitable, owing to the high price
of potatoes."

Sometime ago, I had a visit from one of the most enterprising and
successful farmers in Western New York.

"What I want to learn," he said, "is how to make manure enough to keep
my land in good condition. I sell nothing but beans, potatoes, wheat,
and apples. I feed out all my corn, oats, stalks, straw, and hay on the
farm, and draw into the barn-yard the potato-vines and everything else
that will rot into manure. I make a big pile of it. But the point with
me is to find out what is the best stock to feed this straw, stalks,
hay, oats, and corn to, so as to make the best manure and return the
largest profit. Last year I bought a lot of steers to feed in winter,
and lost money. This fall I bought 68 head of cows to winter, intending
to sell them in the spring."

"What did they cost you?"

"I went into Wyoming and Cattaraugus Counties, and picked them up among
the dairy farmers, and selected a very fair lot of cows at an average of
$22 per head. I expect to sell them as new milch cows in the spring.
Such cows last spring would have been worth $60 to $70 each."

"That will pay. But it is not often the grain-grower gets such a chance
to feed out his straw, stalks, and other fodder to advantage. It cannot
be adopted as a permanent system. It is bad for the dairyman, and no
real help to the grain-grower. The manure is not rich enough. Straw and
stalks alone can not be fed to advantage. And when you winter cows to
sell again in the spring, it will not pay to feed grain. If you were
going to keep the cows it would pay well. The fat and flesh you put on
in the winter would be returned in the form of butter and cheese next
summer."

"Why is not the manure good? I am careful to save everything, and expect
seven or eight hundred loads of manure in the spring."

"You had 60 acres of wheat that yielded 25 bushels per acre, and have
probably about 50 tons of wheat straw. You had also 30 acres oats, that
yielded 50 bushels per acre, say 35 tons of straw. Your 20 acres of corn
produced 40 bushels of shelled corn per acre; say the stalks weigh 30
tons. And you have 60 tons of hay, half clover and half timothy. Let us
see what your manure from this amount of grain and fodder is worth.

Manures from
50 tons wheat-straw, @ $2.68 $ 134.00
35 tons oat-straw, @ $2.90 101.50
30 tons corn-stal