San Marcos free press. [volume] (San Marcos, Tex.) 1877-1892, 1878-10-12
FARM TOPICS.

WHAT is THE BEST BUTTER COwp-
WI. Abernethy of Minneapolis, Mimi,
in an essay read before the State Dairy
mems Association, says: The great ad
vantage of the Jersey cow over the COM
mon lies not only in the fact that she
makes richer quality of butter, which
Is therefore more valuable, but that she
is persistent mixer, often with diff
Guilty being dried off before calving.
MIR. Geo. II. Morrison's COW, /" Butter.
ball." of Minneapolis, can not be dried
off at all, but is MIXED from one years
end to the other. Fourteen pounds of
butter a week has she made in good
grass of Il quality that would fiji the
eyes of every dairyman here with aston
ishment at its beautiful golden tint,
while its rich and delicate flavor would
delight the taste Of the most fastidious.
So great is this tendency to give milk
that virgin heifers often take their place
at the pail with the others. I" Having
been bred so long with a view to early
and copious production of milk" says
the Country Gentleman, cit is not at
all strange that they should show great
precocity in this way. In herd known
to us there are two virgin heifers being
MIXED regularly, while third-a year.
ling-was brought to milk merely by
handling the udder and teats." A gen
tleman in South Carolina also writes
in illustration of this tendency,
that a half-blood, not due to
-, =. zo,,,,,,l ,>,ootb, ,,J tLo,, 4,rox,
ty-one months old, was regularly giving
two quarts per day, which amount was
constantly increasing. Now in this ten
dency to continued milking lies largely
the value of this breed. Ordinarily, I
suppose the COWS of Minnesota are not
MIXED longer than eight months in the
year. The remaining four months they
are simply a bill of expense to their
owner, ottener than otherwise running
him in debt, if the cost of all their food
should be recorded. The Jersey COW,
on the other hand, can safely be MIXED
ten and even eleven months, and sOme-
times within two weeks of calving. The
common stock are oftentimes great
mixers for a short season, yet, taking
the milk production for a year, it will
not equal that of the latter. Says a
writer on this subject: "We have had
COWS that gave forty pounds per day in
the flush, and yet that in the whole sea-
son fell behind the others that only gave
twenty-five pounds at the best. because
the latter gave comparative uniform
quantity for ten months, while the 9th
ers gave this large yield for only short
time, and soon ran below the Others,
and finally tapered down to nothing at
the end of the short season. Ii we
should examine the record of COWS
I have alluded to in this essay,
and of others that might be named,
we should find that they gave for ten
out of the II months nearly uniform
quantity of milk, thus amply repaying
their owners for their keep at a season
of the year when his common stock was
daily a bill of expense. But, says an
inquirer, is not the Jersey COW a ten
der animal can she safely be wintered
in Minnesota, taking her chances with
our common stock?" In answer let me
quote Judge Luse, of Iowa City, Iowa,
one of our largest breeders. He says:
"We do not keep our Jerseys in band
box. OF even blanket them in barn,
neither are we obliged to have bank
barns with underground stables to keep
them from freezing. In our six years
experience we have found them tough
and hardy and never sick, and general.
ly looking as we'll in the spring as fall.
We, as a matter of course, take good
care of our cattle, the same Us any
Christian should. We have good warm
sheds and stables, give them good feed
at regular times, and water but once
day in winter. There are no doubts in
our mind about Jerseys standing any
climate that any other breed of cattle in
any country can stand, yet we are salts
fled that if they were turned into stalk
field to shift for themselves with clump
of hazel bushes or a barbed wire fence
as their only protection against storms,
they would look in the spring as hard as
some farmers cattle do that we know
of, who give them the benefit of this
kind of treatment. Another point in
their favor, and only one, is that they
are easily kept. From a letter received
from Mr.. Stephen Gardner, of Hastings,
he makes special reference to this fact.
having been for so many years kept in
confinement, tethered by day and kept
in their stalls by night, they have ac-
quired the habit of quietly nibbling here
and there wherever they can find bit
of grass in summer, instead of roaming
about like many other cattle; while in
winter they patiently eat what is set be-
fore them, asking no questions, and eat
1t clean, too. Another and very import
ant point is their early maturity. Near
" every Jersey breeder now arrangcs to
have his heifer calve from the time she
Is twenty-five to twenty four months
old, if possible, while many have them