Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1877-12-28

out of season always bring greatly enhanced
price. There are also purchasers for good
things put up in attractive form. Much good
butter, however. is spoiled in the manner of
putting up for market Butter of excellent
quality, presented in neat shapely prints, or in
clean. neat packages, need never go a-begglng
for market but in winter time, when 1t is
a scarce commodity. it never fails to bring
double the price of summer butter. rev
dairy men or women know how to manage
butter thoroughly well in the winter. There
must be fresh cows, and these must be such
rs yield fine favored and high-colored butter,
although the latter is not an absolute requi-
site There must be clean, well-aired, warm
stables, the best of feed well-arranged dairy
accommodations, and n skillful hand and
head TO manage all these. Some farmers
make special business Of winter dairying.
The summer is devoted TO growing and har-
yesting crops, and the winter to transforming
these into an easily and proftably salable pro-
duct.
For winter dairy COW the grade Jersey is
to be preferred. She is easily fed and pro-
duces butter of good flavor, color, and texture.
The grades greatly excel the pure-bred in
profit as butter cows. They yield far more
copiously and cost one-half or two-thirds less.
A cross of pure Jersey bull with Short
horn or Ayrshire COW, makes undoubtedly the
very best COW for ordinary butter dairy pur-
poses The bull should be selected from
well known milking family, and the cows
should also be chosen for their good dairy,
and especially for winter dairy Tho cows for
winter use should calve in September or Octo-
Der. This is a convenient time, both for rails
ing the calves, which are weaned before the
flush of business comes on, and for getting
the COW well established on her winter rations.
The stables for winter dairy should be warm
and heathful There are warm stables that
reek with foul air in which the cows sweat
and steam. No fresh air can gain admittance
to them and the butter from cows thus kept
is tainted before it leaves the cows udder.
stable with stone walls, half basement or cell
lar and open on one side to a clean yard fac
ing the south. is perhaps the best. There
should be double windows in front rear and
ends to admit plenty of light and exclude
cold and there should be ventilating shafts
from the ceiling through the barn floor above.
The ceiling above the cows should be plaster
ed, so that dust and dirt would be excluded.
This is important, because at the best at least
some of the dust that may fall upon the cows
will find its way into the milk, and if the
greatest care is not exercised in carding and
brushing them, much of the dust from above
will fall into the pail and become mingled
with the butter. In all the arrangements of
the stable there must be absolute cleanliness
The floors should be Uttered with absorbents
that will soak up all the liquids, and the drop
pings should be removed twice day The
most useful absorbents are dry earth sand or
dry swamp muck, because these are deodori-
zers, and sweeten the stable as well rs keep it
clean. 1t will be found advisable, if straw is
used, to run it through a fodder cutter and
cut it into chaff. Then occasional dustings of
the floor with gypsum will absorb and neu-
tralize all the disagreeable odors of the stable.
The daily use of the card and coarse brush
upon the COWS will not only preserve cleanli-
tlaf,
full and contented. In short, the dairyman
who would succeed in working his dairy to the
greatest profit in the winter time must study
and practice every resource by which the COM
fort of his cows and the purity of their pro
ducts may be secured
The feed that produces the best butter is
early cut hay. Clover, blue grass and timothy
cut early and well cured in the cock, with lit.
tie exposure to the sun, is certainly the best
fodder. Mixed with this may be given daily
feed of three or four quarts of meal consist
ing of yellow corn and wheat bran in equa
parts, or wheat bran and barley. When oats
are mixed in the feed the butter loses color
and sometimes the cream is long i'll churnng
Buckwheat produces white and tasteless but
ter, and no dairyman except milkman woulC
use it for feed Sugar-beets and carrots ar,
excellent roots for butter manges, turnips
and ruta-bagas are Objectionable on accoun
of the flavor. We have found steaminl
the feed to be an economy where the requisite
help is Mt hand without extra cost and if The
feed is given slightly warm it adds much t.
the comfort of the cows, aids digestion, an'
increases the milk product. In our own prac
tice we have found that carefully-grown anC
well-cured sweet corn fodder is equal to tn
best hay The daily rations for cows tina
were giving one pound of butter daily durinJ
the depth of winter in our dairy were tw,
bushel baskets of corn fodder, with three AM
one-half quarts of ground feed of corn ant
wheat bran in equal parts Half of this wa
given in the morning and half in the evening
At noon ten pounds of hay were given in til
racks, and Just before milking i'll the after
noon each COW received pailful of cut roots
sprinkled with corn-meal or bran Each feed
except the hay was sprinkled with salt at til
rate of handful to each COW. The butte
produced was of good color and pail whic
was kept over year was as sweet and we
favored when opened as when packed Tn
cut feed was sometimes moistened with he
water and covered to steep until it was nearl
COOL and was sometimes steamed, as Nigh
be convenient at the time. No difference i
results could be noticed excepting that whe
the food was steamed the COWS left some c
the hay and nosed over their roots consider
bly,, as if either dissatisfied or devoid of NJ
petite. The daily accommodations may no
be greatly simplited since the method Of col
is copied from the Swedish dairy, and col
sists in setting the milk in close covered dee
pans, which are either submerged III n tan
of cold water or are placed in a close ice close
where they are in either case kept at II ten
perature little above freezing, The form'
system il the Cooley plan, and the latter I'll
Hardin method, both being patented; or,
least, the necessary pans, tanks, and coolei
are covered with patents They are howeve
so desirable as to their results that one ca
well afford to pay the small cost charged f,
their use. The churning and preparing
the butter, however, are in no way difierel
in winter dairy from the methods of sun
mer dairy of the first class, excepting, pc
haps in regard TO colorng. This may som
times be needed. When necessary it shou
be done sklfully and by no means overdon
The color used is n preparation of annotto,
liquid FORM which is mixed with the cream
generally teaspoonful is sufficient for
quarts of cream. This is to be mixed thoroug
ly with a bowlful of the cream and the mi
ture is stirred with the rest in the chun uni
slight golden tint is observable. This
sufficient. If more is given the color is re
dish, and butter is never naturally red.
clear, full lemon tint is the proper color.
The most desirable form in which TO mark
winter butter is that of half-pound or on
pound cakes pressed in n mould or in ne
pals holding 80 pounds. Every good dair
man should mark his butter packages, Al
his butter when this is possible, with co
spicuous brand. 1t should be his ambition
be known to the trade and TO earn and keep
reputation among the consumers. When
dairyman's butter is asked for at the ret
groceries he is in the way of fixing his oy
prices. Some butter-makers known TO
have in this way secured a monopoly of a CO
tain trade at 75 cents or more pound throug