Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1884-04-04
AMONG THE JERSEY COWS,
VISIT TO A MODEL PENNSYLVANIA
sTocH FARM.
Butter Which Sells at Fifty Cents n
Pound Twenty Cows Worth
More Than $4,000 Each.


FOund Twenty Cows Worth
More Than $4,000 Each.
"Gath," in the Cincinnati ENQUIRER.
gives the following account of his visit
to the stock farm of Joseph G. Sibley,
near Franklin, Penn. .---
Franklin is surrounded with the der
rcks of oil wells, looking like skeleton
church spires, to the number of scores
and hundreds, and most of these are still
pumping small quantity of oil per
diem. Overlooking the tower on the op-
poslte side of French creek is the Pros
pect Eill stock farm of Joseph G. SibIey,
perhaps the most complete in all its ap-
polntments now in this country. Con-
nected with it in different tracts are
about six hundred acres of land, and it
has a race-course used by the county ag-
rlcultural society. Near the gate going in
IS the creamery, which manufactures two
barrels of cream into butter in about
torty-tive minutes, and this butter is sent
all over the country at fifty cents a
! pound. On the top of the hill is the
barn, which is of an octagonal or almost
circular pattern. and contains the entire
herd on two floors. From the cupola of
the barn, which gives the ventilation,
descends pole, around which is wind
ing stair connecting the two floors. In
the center of each floor is large open
space, and the circle of cattle faces this
IN stalls, their heads all appearing above
the stalls, and the troughs at their knees.
Behind this row Of cattle is an open cor
ridor, also circular around which the
second greater circle of cattle stand at
their stalls.
On the upper floor a portion of this
second circle is devoted to the COWS with
|. calves or about to calve. The COWS in
calf are generally kept dry where this is
! possible, so that the calf can get the full
nourishment; but it is exceedingly diff
cult in some cases to dry the Jersey COW,
as the tenacity with which she makes
milk is the great secret of her value. She
is the most wonderful butter making ami
NAL known to man. Other kinds of cat
tie run to beef, but the Jersey so assimi-
lates her food that the globulos which
might make beef flow in her milk, and
hence the extraordinary production of
some of these COWS, and their high prices
in country where the chemist has been
at work with butter, and HIS given us
various forms of wagon grease and coal
tar instead of the Alderney produce.
The importation of jersey cattle into
the United States began about seven
years before the war. 1t has gone on
with such enthusiasm that we now have
about 81, 900 Jerseys, either imported or
born here, every one of which is register
ed IN the Jersey herd-book, that is now
assuming the proportions of library.
The Jersey cattle-by which general
name is meant cattle Of Jersey, Sark and
Alderney-improve in this country over
their condition in their native islands,
and they make more cream and butter,
and thrive wonderfully. They are dis
tributed over the entire country. They
are generally of fawn color, with rather
dark gray or blackish faces; the COWS
are very gentle, and the bulls vicious.
| was interested in two things in this
stable. In the first place the cream
separator, which is run by steam en-
gine, revolves with enormous rapiditv,
and the cream flows out of one spigot and
the SKINNED milk out of another Then
observed the apparatus for cleaning
COWS, which are carefully washed and
brushed once or twice day by means of
brushes operated by the engine The
COW, calf or bull is brought forward and
tied to post, and from above these
brushes are brought to her body,
and carefully raise every hair.
The cattle like it, but their tails
have to be tied up in a bag, for not long
ago one of the brushes tore out a tail.
The temperature in the barn is kept at
fifty degrees the year round, regulated by
the thermometer and the barn is lighted
with the Brush light on every floor, and
at midnight is as bright as day A storage
battery is kept near the engine for this
purpose. The light used is the ordinary
gas bracket and small lamp.
AT Prospect Hill farm the barn is
eighty eight feet in diameter. There are
thirty-two cattle on the inner rows and
forty-six on the rearrows. The engineer
has fifteen-horse power. The food given
the animals is boiled and mixed, partly
oats and partly ensilage, or leaves of
corn plucked when the ear is full of milk.
The cattle like this food very much, and
it improves their butter. The Jersey
COW can be relied on to make one pound
of butter a day; many of them make
sixteen pounds week, and some OF their
performances are almost fabulous.
By the machinery used at Prospect
Hill it takes thirty-five minutes only to
separate the cream from the milk of
forty-fve cows The separator is
Swedish patent. In one hour from the
commencement of the milking the cream
is in the creamery and the skinned milk
is being fed to the calves.
Mr.. Sibley says that the keep of his
cattle in the winter is some where be-
tween twenty and thirty cents day, but
that for a portion of the year they do not
cost above eight cents a day. There are
about thirteen men employed on the herd
farm, and the cost of running it is about
$4,000 year.
AT Prospect Hill there are forty-fve
milch cows, producing not less than one
pound per diem of butter, while good
deal of the milk without being skinned
is given to the calves. There are twenty
COWS in the stable that $4,000 apiece
would not buy.
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