Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1881-12-23

inducement for making whole milk cheese in
winter that there is in making hrst- class but
ter. It is the reverse Of butter in respect to
being consumed while fresh. II is the better
for age, and on the score Of health is obiec-
tionable when new Midsummer cheese made
in the Cheddar plan, with the whey drawn
sweet and the curd kept fine and warm and
well aired and well matured before pressing,
is better for winter use than any winter made
cheese can be, and is more palatable and
wholesome and also moro nutritious, as new
cheese is less digestible.
The main object in winter dairying is the
manufacture of butter to be used, while 1t is
less difficult TO accomplish than il the object
was fine cheese which must be warm while
making aud curing. II is not difficult to
make butter in winter, even where they are
long, il proper preparation is made for it;
but it would be a vexatious and losing opera
ton TO undertake il with the ordinary prep
arations for summer use and with the ordi-
nary stock of winter food for COWS. Without
rooms in which the temperature can be con-
troled, loss and trouble would follow in
working the milk and the attempt to make
fancy butter out of the straw, corn stalks and
late-cut hay, which often find their way into
the barns Of dairymen, would certainly be q
failure Butter from such food will be scanty,
white and low favored, no matter how fresh
in milk the COWS may be.
If full favored, fancy butter is desired,
late-cut fodder of any and every kind must
be avoided and green or early cut supplied,
unless grain is made the principal diet. As
good butter and as much of it can be made
in winter as in summer if good butter-pro-
duong food is provided There is nothing
equal to corn for making high grade butter,
and this can be fed better in winter than in
summer, on account Of its heat .producing
ID. -. 80
on grain and early fodder than it does on
the ordinary kinds of feed; but since silos
have come into use, the expense of winter
food has been so much reduced that it is
question whether cows in milk cannot be
kept on ensilage and little grain cheaper
than dry cows generally are on their custom
airy fare. Experience has demonstrated that
COWS will do well and that their milk will be
abundant and make excellent butter when
their food is from half to two-thirds ensilage.
But it is too sour to form the exclusive ra-
ton. Cows kept wholly upon ensilage fail
by degrees in the character of their milk. It's
butter-making capacity grows less and less
till it becomes so inferior that no butter at all
can be made from it. A too liberal use of
ensilage must therefore be avoided, but when
used within proper limits, | know of no food
which can be furnished at less cost.
The ordinary buildings prepared for the
protection of cattle in winter would not do
for winter dRirying. They are too open and
cold Cows which are giving milk cannot
stand the cold as well as when they are dry
and, besides this, pinching with the cold in
terferes most seriously with the secretion of
milk. Nothing will reduce the flow of milk
sooner than undue exposure to cold. No one,
therefore, need ever think of adopting winter
dairying without first providing the means of
keeping his cows comfortably warm in any
weather.
In regard to handling the milk, it can be
done as well in winter as in summer. II is,
in fact, easier to protect it against too much
cold in winter than against too much heat in
summer, and the labor and expense of refrig-
Grating will be greatly reduced. There are
some advantages in having cows come in in
the fall, by way of a better division Of labor
on the farm. The COWS being dry in mid
summer the important work of the season is
but little interfered with on account of the
dairy, and the less hurrying time in the win
ter season will be more fully occupied, thus
distributing the labor of the farm more even
ly through the year.
Dairymen in the Western states have adopt
ed winter dairying more extensively than in
other localities, and there are some special
reasons which have led them to do SO. Their
summer seasons are long and dry. The space
moist weather in the fall is much longer than
in the Eastern states or in Canada Their
pastures become parched and dry and water
often scarce, and flies become troublesome,
aud the COWS in consequence shrink in their
milk so much and for SO long time as to &C.
cason serious losses, besides having the re-
duction SO established that they do not recov-
or from it in the fall, when feed becomes
plenty again. All this is obviated in winter
dairying, and it often becomes a very impor-
tant consideration.
These circumstances do not everywhere
prevail to the same extent, but they are not
without some bearing in most dairy districts
Then the higher price of choice, fresh butter
in the winter, and the greater safety and con-
venience with which it can be marketed, are
items which should not be overlooked in de-
termining which is the better season for pro-
ducing butter. When all the bearings are
taken into consideration it becomes a ques-
ton whether, even where the winters are
long, it would not be to the advantage of dali
ryman favorably situated for the change, and
to the welfare of the dairy interest as a whole,
to relieve the surplus of butter in the market
in summer by having the cows in their dali
ries come in in the fall.