Vermont farmer. [volume] (Newport, Orleans County, Vt.) 1870-1877, 1877-01-26


I furnish the citizens Of Burlington with milk
at reduced prices, such as the times demand
aud other produce brings.
DR.. Horace b. Wakefield of the Massachu.
setts board of agriculture, who has had charge
Of one OF the state farms for eight years,
gave some interesting statistics of his exper.
ments for that period.
First he would speak of the machine that
manufactures the milk, and then the material
that supplies the machine. He regarded the
Ayrshire COW superior for milking, giving
larger supply than any others he had tried
but could not say they we're better for pur.
poses of making butter and cheese. He kept
the COWS for their milk. The best food is
the sweet grass which grows on the hillside
which the COW crops day by day and with
plenty Of this nothing else is needed. Dry
hay and stalks are inferior food for a milk.
ing COW. In the summer, for want of a sup.
ply OF grass, he had fed early mown hay cut,
with meal or bran on tin winter feed twice
a day with cut feed and two quarts of bran
each time, wet with warm notwithstanding
would be preferable if one had the convent.
ences), aud from peck to one.half bushel of
roots per COW. He would feed roots from
the time cows are put into the stable in the
fall until they are turned out to pasture in
the spring. The average number of COWS
kept for the eight years was forty.one, and
the average production Of milk was ninety.
five and one-half tons per year. The aver.
age number OF COWS giving milk every day
was thlrty-one, and these averaged eight
quarts of milk per day per COW the year
around, or six quarts day per COW for the
whole forty-one including the time they were
dry, each some two months in the year.
Twenty-nine quarts was the largest produc-
tion OF any COW for one day, and fourteen
and one.half quarts the largest average daily
production for the year OF any COW. The
total amount Of milk for the eight years was
765 tons Of milk. In answer to questions.
the doctor said that he had never found
that the feeding of roots injured the favor
OF the milk or tainted it in any way he al.
ways fed roots Immediately after milking
The reason for selecting the Ayrshire COW
is because she is compact and hardy and bet
ter adapted to climb the hills which make
up large part of our pasture lands.
DR.. Wakefield being called up again stated
that he top-dressed both meadows and pas
lures with various fertilizers aud by this
means, had brought up the Massachusetts,
state farm mentioned until three hundred
acres kept some eighty head of stock.
MIR. Wood Of Pomfret stated that he kept
COWS for butter rather than milk-fecds
meal the year round, two quarts per COW in
the summer daily, and the same amount in.
aa1 hu iun rio Of hron 10
leeds no roots; the cows give milk enough
feeds meal to enrich the milk roots and bran
will increase the aow of milk.
Mr.. Ellsworth Of Barre, Mass, said: My
business is to make butter and cheese from
the same milk. heat the milk directly
from the cows to 1902. In the warm season
set the milk IL and "a hours and later in
the season set it longer. churn the cream
while sweet and add the buttermilk to the
skinned milk to make cheese. The cheese
sells from one aud n half to two cents lower
than new milk cheese, but the profits of the
dairy arc about ono-third more than they
would be if the new milk was made directly
into cheese. Mr.. Ellsworth stated that he
had some cheese with him made the 18th of
October last, when it took twenty.seven
pounds OF milk to make pound of butter,
and nine and one-tourth pounds of the same
milk made one pound of skim cheese; the
settings were II, "a, 36 and 4S. The COWS
are high grade Shorthorns, running on a
meadow cropped short, with small amount
Of corn fodder, and four quarts of bran, night
and morning.
Mr.. Woods practice was to let the COWS
60 dry for two months each year. This year
he had tried the experiment of milking two
cows the year around with very unsatisfac-
tory results. Milk is much richer later in
the season than it is in June and July. He
had two COWS which he wished to dispose of
and fed them two quarts of meal daily until
later in the season he doubled that amount
In September they were nearly dry though
one was farrow. From this experiment he
became convinced that too much meal should
not be fed.
Mr.. Stoddard of Poutney had formerly
sent his milk to q cheese factory but this year
had made butter at home with much better
profit. He found that it took 22S pounds of
milk to make pound of cheese from May
18th to July lst; in July 3lI pounds in
August 274; September %, and in the
months of October and November 19i pounds.
The general average for the butter season
was 244 pounds Of milk to pound of but
ter. His butter sold at from thirty to forty
cents per pound aud the difference in value
Of the sour milk over whey and the trouble
and expense Of carrying milk to the factory
more than compensated for making butter.
Mr.. Ellsworth said the whey was better
from his mode of manufacturing cheese be.
cause the sugar was left in it. He could
make just as good butter in July and August
as in any other part Of the year. june "a,
1875 he made package Of butter which he
put into tin pail with tight fitting cover
aud set the same in his cellar on a cemented
bottom to test its keeping qualities. In June
1875 he carried the same to the Centennial
Exposition at Philadelphia and on the 22d
Of June was awarded a medal on the same
for old butter. 1t lacked but two days o.
being year old. He uses one ounce Of
salt to the pound of butter and covers the
top Of the butter after packing with cloth
thin layer Of salt and cup of brine, H'
always washed his butter twice with water
and handles it as little as possible, as hand
ling Injuries it.
,, The subject was further discussed by Mr.
! Whipple of Pomfret, Mr.. Ellis of Brandon
r j. b. Williams of Glastonbury, Conn.,, an,
Q A. w. Cheever of Boston.
EVENING.
The evening session opened with a goo
attendance, the proportion of ladies bein
noticeable, aud the force Of speakers was re
inforced by the arrival of Prof. Stewart Q
' Cornell University, Mr., Gardner B. Week
a of Syracuse, the former secretary of tn
o American dRirymens association, aud Otheri
}. The paper of the evening was a valuabl
= and interesting one, read by Mr.. A. "