The weekly Ottumwa courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1857-1872, 1872-07-25
Farming BY q Farmer.
Complete " ith new
TYPES AND PRESSES

Farming BY . Farmer.
The above is the title of an excellent
article which we find i'm the New
Hampton Iowal Courier and which
we publish for the benefit of others.
| In the last Courier was talking
about farm Of eighty acres, fifty OF
which was under the plow, and had
asspme2 that the owner of ii, instead
OF buying a reaper and seeder, at the
expense of two hundred and eighty
dollars, had purchased eight cows at
an expense of two hundred and forty
dollars. ! had advised, such farmer
TO seed down, in timothy, one third of
the land he had under the plow, plant
fifteen acres of corn, SOW five acres of
wheat, five OF oats, three Of barley or
buckwheat, three to corn--sown broad
cast-one to peas and one to potatoes.
The question ofthe profitablencss of
such farm. SO organized was rcserv.
ed for consideration in this paper.
l begin with the cows.
l have taken considerable pains to
ascertain what is the average yield OF
butter per COW in this country. Ii is
not an easy question to answer. Very
few OF our farmers keep accounts. LIN
All families considerable portion of
the product is required tor home c0,t-
sumption. The part sold is carried to
market, pailfui at time, and its
value brought back in family supplies.
Anything like perfect accuracy is.
therefore mattainablc. But from my
observation and inquiries, / am salts.
fled that the product of butter, per
COW, does not vary much from one
hundred pounds.
do not believe | shall provoke
criticism or dissent if 1 declare that it
is perfectly easy to double that amount.
II our cows leave the shelter, care
and protection Of our stables in prime
order-if they do not have to waste
one half of 1t in recnperating from the T
starving they have undergone during
the winteT--if they havea couple OF I
quarts Of meal at night, during all the Z
month Of May--if they have timothy
pastures and corn stalks from the midi
die OF August till The snow flies-if
they are stabbed, bedded and carded.
and fed and watered through the Win
ter--ln short il they are well wintered
and summered, do not believe anv
sensible man doubts that their butter
making capacity would be doubled. AS
q matter of fact, i'm eastern dairies,
where cows are so cared for, two
hundred pounds of butter, per COW is
less than the average yield. Butt de-
sire TO be moderate and keep all these
estimates within the mark, and SO will
assume that under. this management.
the butter product per COW shall b.
ono hundred and seventy-five pounds:
and our eight cows will give us four.
teen hundred pounds of butter. Re
serve two hundred pounds of this TO,
family use, and we have twelve hun,
dred pounds for sale. Durin" in,
years that have lived iii Iowa butter
has some times sold for thirty tiv.
cents per pound, at the minimum fig
ures we have
1900 Id batter@D cts.
Of course our cows have each raisct
calf, worth at~one year old, unde
Ehe7system Of keeping which we ar
to have innugHrated. fiftes,
dollars apiece; but 10 keep all esfi
mates low, they shall boz valued
;welve dollars.
calvss@ 400. <ssi
The productivness Of the cows up
Ter consideration is not yet exhaus.
"a for the milk, after weaning III
alves. is fed to the hogs: but the r,
urn for this will appear in the sale
,ork.
: With reasonable good breed
logs, and under judiciOus system
eeding, they ought at one year oh
o weigh three hundred pounds. n,
erye two Of these for family use. an
he remaining six will furnish eigl
cen hundred pounds Of pork for IL
market. Since the close OF the wa
'ork has vibrated between six and ii
cen cents per pound, take the lowe.
gure, and as . product we have.
~ lb OF pork @e Cents. .sl0s,
Dfcourse one or two OF these soy
as been permitted TO raise pigs.
eep good the stock but as these a
be kept another year, they shall
xcluded from the products of Il
nm in this estimate. sE
To recapitalate:
90 ID buffers a0cts. au,
ca'ves 81 e xl2"o ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS a6
w lbs pork % 9 ts........................-,l
iotai ......,..............S.4a
About every farm house there shou
Q flock Of chickens and turkeys ;aI
lese besides being never failing la
ry to tho farmers family, should fl
ish from thirty 10 fifty dollars wor
products.
Besides furnishing an ample supp
food for the family, little short
We hundred dollars will thus ha
cen realized from farm of eigll
.res. cultivated, harvested and mark,
!, exclusively by the farmer and
ite. He has paid out nothing
achihcry for even if he has mo