The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1884-04-26
FOR THE FARMER.
A Visit to Model Pennsylvania Stock
Farm.
The Value OF Manure AS q Fertilizer
Wheat Farms in Dakota.
AMONG THE JERSEYS.

Wheat Farms In Dakota.
AMONG THE JERSEYS
""Gath," in the Cincinnati Enquirer,
gives the following account OF his visit
to the stock farm Of Joseph G. Sibley,
near Franklin. Pa.
Franklin is surrounded by the der
ricks of oil wells, looking like skeleton
church spires to the number of scores
and hundreds, and most of these are
still pumping q small quantity of oil
per diem. Overlooking the tower on
the opposite side Of French Creek is
the Prospect Hill stock farm Of Joseph
c. Siblev, perhaps the most complete
in all its appointments now in this
country. Connected with it in differ
ent tracts are about six hundred acres
of land, and it has race-course used
by the County Agricultural Society.
Near the gate going in is the creamery.
which manufactures two barrels OF
cream into butter in about forty-tive
minutes, and this butter is sent all
over the country at fifty cents pound.
On the top of the hill is a 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, de-
sends pole, around which is wind
ing stair connecting the two floors. In
the center of eacn floor is large open
space, and the circle of cattle faces this
in stalls, and the troughs at their knees.
Behind this row of cattle is an open
corridor, also circular, around which
the second great circle OF cattle stand
ut their stalls.
On the upper floor aportion 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 difficult in some cases to
dry the Jersey cow, rs the tenacity
with which she makes milk is the great
secret of her value. She is the most
wonderful butter-making animal known
TO man. Other kinds of cattle run to
beef, but the Jersey SO assmilates her
food that the globules which might
make beef flow in her milk, and hence
the extraordinary production of some
of these cows, and their high prices in
h country where the chemist has been
at work with butter, and has given us
various forms of wagon grease and
coal-tar instead of the Attorney pro-
duce.
The importation of Jersey cattle into
the United States began about seven
years before the war. 1t has gone on
-. 81 In, fhot hou
about 2l,000 Jerseys, either imported
or born here, every one of which is
registered in the Jersey herd-book.
that is now assuming the proportions
of a 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 distributed over
the entire country. They are generally
Vt 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-
CINE, revolves with enormous rapidity,
and the cream flows out of one spigot
and the skinned milk out of another.
Then l observed the apparatus for
cleaning cows, which are carefully
washed and brushed once or twice a
day by means of brushes operated by
the engine. The COW, calf or bull is
brought forward and tied to q 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 thermom-
eter, and the barn is lighted with the
Brush light on every floor, and at mid
night is as bright as day. A storage
battery is kept near the engine for this
purpose. The light used is the ordina-
nv gas bracket and small lamp.
At Prospect Hill farm the barn is SO
feet in diameter. There are thirty-two
cattle on the inner rows and forty-six
on the rear rows. The engineer has
uilccu hoISC poWVi. = hO iVoo 49,"
the animals is boiled and mixed, part
ly 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 day; many
of them make sixteen pounds week,
and some of their performances are al
most 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 a
Swedish patent. In one hour from the
commencing of the milking the cream
is in the creamery and the skinned
milk is being fed to the calves.
MIR. Sibley says that the keep of his
cattle in the winter is somewhere be-
tween twenty and thirty cents day,
but that for u portion of the year they
do not cost above eight cents day.
There are about thirteen men employ
ed on the herd farm. and the cost Of
running it is about $l7,OO0 year.