Vermont farmer. [volume] (Newport, Orleans County, Vt.) 1870-1877, 1873-04-25

long and cold winters. Also that our barns
be at least measurably adapted to the pur-
poses for which they are to be used and
further that we be so situated that We may
bring skill and judgment to bear in the
making and sale Of our butter, otherwise it
would be best for us to adopt some other
branch Of farming.
The next step is to procure the best COWS
for our purpose. We have from various
sources rules and directions for selecting
good COWS, most Of which are good, and
some see good reason to doubt. Our agri-
cultural papers sometimes contain specific
directions on this point often from the pens
ofOur most practical dairymen. Frequently
are the directions repeated Choose a COW
with we'll developed udder, large teats,
large and well defined milk veins, fne hair,
delicate head and horns, yellow skin, etc.,
and large in size, heavy quartered, well
rounded, and meated SO that when she has
served her time at the dairy she will bring
a round price at the hands of the butcher.
Time and again has this advice been present.
ed to us by our best and most experienced
dairymen.
1t has been stated by good authority that
the dairy cows Of this state have not improv-
ed that they are no better now than in the
past. That the yearly amount Of butter per
COW has not increased nor the quality improv-
ed, and it is well for us to inquire what con-
stitutes good butter COW. l view these
constantly repeated requisites that your cows
be large, well meated, and rounded, with
disposition to take on fat easily, aud still ex-
ira butter and cheese COWS, as demanding
more than nature is apt to yield us in one
animal. Men versed in animal physiology
tell us that whenever we find q point Of great
excellence we also find inferiority in other
points. For instance, with the hotse, we
cannot combine the qualities Of the heavy
limbed, broad backed, ponderous work horse
and the trim, fine knit race horse in one ami
NAL and obtain anything like the results in
draft or speed which each is equal to in it's
own speciality. Let us then if We desire to
make butter a speciality select butter cows
Competition has so affected the supply of
butter that we can expect great profits only
by making the prodrct per COW double the
amount usually considered the average, and
by so improving the quality as to demand
an extra price.
One Of the reporters of the Boston mar
ket says that he must warn the butter makers
of New EnglOnd for the third time that they
have formidable competitor in the North
west A large supply of their butter is
finding its way to our markets 1t is OF fair
quality aud sold at moderate price. Make
your butter Of better quality or you must
expect low price.
If our dairymen saw in the Northwest
cloud no bigger than a mans hand, the
whole heavens are now overshadowed, aud
from some source our markets are flooded
with ordinary cheap butter, and the only
hope for us is to make our quality Gbove
and out of competition with it.
The difference in butter product between
a good aud poor COW is very great.
was acquainted With two dairies of
three cows each the owner of one informed
me that aside from milk and butter used in
his family he had sold from $40 to $50 worth
Of butter. The other with the same number
of COWS and nearly the same family to sup
ply received $500 for his butter, or 500
per cow Here is wide margin. Undoubt-
edly there was u difference in the manage
ment in those two dairies, and without doubt
q vast difference in the cows. If we have
poor COWS with all our labor and skill, our
neighbor who has good cows is sure to beat
us by large per cent. every year.
Let us then in selecting our COWS for but
ter purposes, whether We adopt some one of
the thoroughbred varieties or our common
native stock, let us have an eye not to the
size the well meated, rounded points, not to
the amount of beef she will present to the
butcher in some future day, nor the ease
with which she will take on fat, but let the
test be the quantity and quality of butter
she will produce in year. Mako the stand
ard high and bring the dairy to it. Let us
consider a moment large cows, German ex-
periments have shown us that COWS in like
condition require an amount Of food to sup
port life and health nearly in proportion TO
their weight For instance, if we have a COW
that weighs 400 she will require as much
food as two cows in the same condition
weighing 700 each,
In other words if at pasture, the large,
slow, | 400 COW has to perform the labor oI
cutting double the amount of grass to sus-
tain herselfthat the small, active, 700 COW
does, and when VIC consider that all we re.
eeive from COW in butter or milk is the
result of what food she receives and digesti
in excess OF what her system demands for itE
support, does not the small or medium sized
active COW stand the better chance Of obtain
ing this IN most pastures in this part Of the
state. A disposition to take on fat when not
in milk is certainly desirable, but when |
find COW in milk taking on an undue
amount of fat conclude that the oils she OK
tracts from her food which should come to tht
milk pail and bO reduced to butter she is stor
ing up on her body in the form of fat. Ia
the FIRST form it would be worth 80 cents OF
more, and in the latter but II.
1t has been shown that COW may be {