Daily globe., 1882-01-30
Wisconsin DRfrymen.

was held at Sheboygan on the 18th and
18th insts.. and was one of the most sue
cessful in the history of the association.
The subject of silos and ensilage was
discussed, but the prevailing sentiment
seemed to be that the system is not adap-
ted to the present requirements of Wis
consin dairymen. Mr. Lawrence open
ing the discussion on the merits of
winter dairying said:
New mich COWS did not thrive so well
on green fodder as on dry. The best time
for feeding grass was during the three
months when the cow was dry. In the
winter the farmer and his help had more
leisure to devote to the dairy. Winter
butter also was more profitable The
practice of making butter in summer and
holding it over to winter was rapidly
giving away. A great advantage, he
said, in western dairying, is the ease with
which the product can be preserved in
cold weather; that the large product of
summer dairies had tendency to glut
the market in June and July, which
would be obviated by general practice
of winter dairying; that the only figures
he wanted were contained IN the PROPOSE
ton that while hundred pounds of sum-
mer milk was worth in the market only
s. cents, the same amount of winter milk
was worth 81 40.
Hiram Smith, the well-known dairy
man of Sheboygan Falls, conceded with
the views of Mr.. Lawrence, and had the
statistics to show that the position taken
was sound Coed care, he maintained,
weuld produce as much milk from q cow
in winter as in summer. The gross
weight might not be as great, but the es-
sential milk qualities without the water
would average up as well. Out of his
herd of fifty-four cows, twenty-slx were
new milch COWS in October, and five or
six came in since. His receipts from
the butter produced by this herd
aggregated $3,se9.O9; from skim-milk
cheese, 1856; from curds, S153
from calves, $75; from pigs fed on the
milk in excess of their cost I $94: total
81, ,67S. Deducting 1922 paid for milk to
neighbors and 1863 for cost of manufac-
turing, leaves total profit of So ,4S7, or
net of $7043 per COW. This was the
direct result of winter dairying, and this
profit per cow, he was prepared to assert,
was $40 better than had ever been pro-
duced by the old method of farming. 1t
was well known fact that $50 per COW
was large average profit. If all his
cows had come in in the fail, he had no
doubt that his profit would average $50
per cow. He was willing to offer $1.35
per hundred pounds in the winter, but
would be afraid to offer 35 cents per
hundred during June, July and August.
Referred briefly to the prejudice which
so long existed in the East against West
ern butter. The international dairy show
of 1875, he said, had changed this sentl-
ment, however, the medal for June but
ter going to Iowa, and for October butter
to Illinois, and ever since that time the
comparison has been in favor of the
West. But he concluded that if Iowa
land cost $50 per acre, against $50 in New
York; hay in Iowa $40 per ton, against
$40 in New York; corn so cents bushel
in Iowa, against 10 or so cents in New
York; Iowa, Illinois and Wisconsin
farmers are prepared to dairy long after
New York dairymen had been forced to
stop by reason of the cost of manufac-
ture. The cost of transportation of dairy
products from Iowa to market
was only an average of 80 cents
a hundred pounds in advance of the
cost froml New York, which was
a very small item. In regard to the profits
of dairying, the speaker said that few
years ago Iowa farmers were growing
peor. Every crop of wheat vas put into
the ground at a dead loss, and the farm
ers were becoming discouraged. Now
that the dairy business had been intro
duced there, the counties that have en-
gagged in it were becoming prosperous
and their farmers were becoming rich.
In regard to the improvement in the quail
ity of product, the speaker said that he
had bought great many car loads of but
ter in Iowa in years past at six cents per
pound. 1t was now bringing forty cents,
and at no time last summer did 1t sell for
less than twenty eight cents. The speak
er, who owns twelve or thirteen milk fac
tories in Iowa, was sure that this increase
was direct result of the introduction of
the factory system. His factories paid
the farmers an average in 1881 of ninety
cents for the cream from 100 pounds of
milk. His factories consumed 10, IT'S 900
pounds of milk in 1881.
W. D. Howard, president of the North
western Dairymen's ASSOCIATION, read
paper, comparing dairying to farming.
He referred to the wasteful system of
farming which formerly prevailed in
Wisconsin, and said:
Dairying has proved great educator
and civilizer. 1t has taken the farmer
out of his isolated life and pushed him
into the busy channels of trade and COM
merce, and has made a business man of
him. Where ten years ago he had no
familiarity with the lines of business life
outside of his local market, he now may
be found consigning his butter to New
York, Boston, Chicago, or New Orleans,
as he deems best; and his cheese to Lon
don He has been forced to deal as prin-
cipal, with railroads and transportation
companies and the great commercial
world. He has been forced to the study
Of the great underlying economies of
business life, plant life, and animal
life. He has learned to solve
the vexed transportation question
in the most practical wav.
a way that Vanderbilt and jay Gould are
powerless to circumvent-and that by
condensing the bulk and increasing the
values of his products. From this latter
question he has learned the valuable les
son that the difference in the cost of
to market a dollars worth
Of grain and dollars worth of cheese is
as z to 20 in favor of the dairy dollar, and
there are but 100 cents on each dollar.
But the effect on our community life
n .~rA