Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1856-04-23
fm tge farmer,
IFrem the Country Gentiemar
DAIRYING.

MESSRS. EDIToRs--Some OF your cor
respondents of late, have been talking
about the profits of dairying, and accord.
ing to their statements a very lucrative
business it is 10 keep good cows and keeT
them well. At the recent and present
prices ofdairy products, a grazing farm o.
sufficient capacity to summer and winter
f ON 90 to 40 COWS, | have no doubt will
show a greater profit in this way than in
any other use it can be put TO, provided
the dairy can be managed by a skillful
and p:oper hand. But here is the diff
Guilty. No intelligent man in these times,
can wish 10 make a perfect drudge of his
wife or daughters; and to trust The care
of a large dairy to hired help will never
do. 1t is a business of all others upon
the farm, that requires the constant care
and supervision of the experienced house
wife, or of some one who feels an interest
and pride in having each and every part
of it done neatly, properly, and with the
utmost care.
But the wool-grower or raiser of olher
stock, can keep a few good COWS TO ad-
vantage. A farmer should always make
his own butter and cheese at least. 1t is
a serious drawback to be compelled to
purchase for domestic use any Of the ne
cessaries that he can easily get from his
farm. | stock my farm mostly with
sheep, but always keep from three 10 five
first rate COWS, and will keep o n but
first rate. The past year | have kept
five; and by referring to my book of sales
since noticing the dairy accounts of your
correspondents, | find the sales of butter
and cheese, with four fatted calves at FIVE
weeks old, (the veal of the fifth being
kept for family use, to amount TO S135.
The butter was sold at IS 10 % cents per
pound; the cheese 10 cents, home sales.
l have no means of ascertaining precise
ly the quantity of butter, cheese, milk
and cream used in the family, but the
number of person in the family through
The year has been eqaal to an average of
nine, and the table is never wanting in
butter or cheese three times each day in
the year, besides being sen. into the field
with lunch twice each day through the
haying and harvesting season. The val
ue of the dairy consumed in the family
cannot be less than 500, at the lowest
estimate. The sales have been S27,0
10 each COW, the home consumption $50,
making SAT income per COW, allowing
the skim milk and whey to pay for the
work, and | believe ii well pays.
The COWS were kept in fair ~pasturing
through the summer and fall, with a
small feed of pumpkins twice each day
for five or six weeks in the fall, and win
tered on corn fodder and oat straw, with
hay once each day, and two quarts Indian
meal each per day for two of the last
months of feeling at the barn. In this
way il costs here about S22 to keep a COW
through the year, thus leaving a profit Of
$25 Tor each cow.
| am sensible hat no other farm stock
pays so well, yet for the reason named,
1 have no desire TO go into it on a large
scale; ana again, should all we farmers
whose lands are suitable for this business
rush into it because it pays best, the bu-
siness would o be over done, the mar
ket glutted, and prices brought down so
low that it would moi be even a remune
rating business. There is no better way
than to pursue a regular routine of vari-
GUS kinds, wool, mutton, beef, pork, grain,
and dairy on a small scale, and those who
like it, colts and horses.
J. w. CoLBURN.
Springfield, Vt.