Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1879-03-07
Dairy Hints.

I At the meet1n8 OF tne OtAUo Jury
kmen's Association at Syracuse, George
Geddes read an interesting paper on
the "Supply of Cities and Villages
With Pure Milk" The operations of
the Onondaga County Milk Associa-
tion we're detailed. We select the fol.
lowing valuable points," Some talk
with these men enables meto state that
thew agree in saying that there is no
one breed of thoroughbred COWS that
are as valuable for milk production as
crossbred animals bred with the express
object of the production of the greatest
quantity of good milk, and that the
best method of procuring good COWS is
to breed and raise them. Holsteins
and Ayrshires are generally preferred
for crosses on the selected cove of the
country, commonly called natives.
Pastures of the best kind will pro-
duce more milk of the best quality
than any other feed. A quart of grain
twice day is worth something for pro-
noting gentleness.
Mixed grasses produce the best pas
lures, and no difference is discoverable
between the milk produced on the So
called grain farms, and that produced
on farms devoted entirely to grass and
permanent pasture but the milk from
high, dry lands is superior to that from
the low lands.
Corn and oats, ground and mixed in
equal quantities, make the most valu-
able meal, and greater quantity of
such meal is worth more than any
other, though barley meal in pearl
ing" and meal from making split peas,
and shorts and shipstuffs are held as of
great value to help sustain the yield of
milk during the winter.
\ Brewers grain, though the cheapest
D.i any food, as sold in this market, is
not approved, and if fed at all must be
in small quantities, mixed with other
food, or the milk will be of inferior
quality; and the directors of the asso-
citation discourage this kind of food for
the production of the best milk.
All the members of the association
are said to use sowed corn to be fed
when the pastures are poor in the
droughts OF summer.
There are two members who cook the
winters food for their cows. One has
sixty to seventy animals to feed, the
other eighty. Cooking is not thought
to be profitable when less than forty
cows are to be fed.
Some members of the association
feed higher than others, and it is fully
agreed among them that high feeding
and consequent great yield of milk
wears out the cow and renders them
ND longer profitable after from four to
six years use. One owner of large
herd long ago adopted the plan of rails
ing his own COWS. and finds that when
heifer has her first calf at about
thirty months old, she will last on an
average, about six years. He does not
attempt to produce an extraordinary
large average yield of milk, as he has
many young COWS in milk.
1t is very difficult to purchase first
rate COWS, and the greatest skill in
breeding from the best stock on both
sides does not always produce good
mixers. The larger the herd the more
difficult it becomes to have every COW
Sof the best quality, and 1 am of the
opinion that the man who produces an
average of :. $3.50 quarts from herd of
forty, performed quite as difficult
feat as did the man who averaged 1896
from his herd of ten. In each case the
management was most excellent, and
few men have both the skill and indus
try to successfully compete with either.
The next best yield from any herd fell
below the highest of these two ,040
quarts, and below the lowest 622
quarts.