The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1889-03-13
A Caledonia Farmer Speaks.

A Caledonia Farmer Speaks.
Mr.. Editor:- In your issue of the
Feb. 10, | notice Mr.. Simonds' inquiry
What to do for sore teats in cows"
| will give him the best remedy | have
found in running dairy over twenty
years. Take three or four drops of
carbolic acid to a tablespoonful of lard,
mix thoroughly on a plate. This is
about the same thing you purchase at
the drugstore as " Carbolic cream"
good for man or beast. A good thing
for the cows is for the mixers to keep
their finger nails short. While l am
speaking of cows | will give you few
figures of my dairy for 1888. l MIXED
what l called an average of sixteen
high-grade Jersey cows during the
year, eight of them two-year-old heifers,
but fed and fattened and turned for
beef four farrow cows during winter of
1887 and 1888 to make the heifers equal
to good cows. Made and sold 1917
pounds of butter, put it into one-half
pound prints for which l received
81 ,069.42. fed an average of 4 quarts
each of equal parts corn-meal and
shorts during the entire year, but |
feed only when the cows give enough
milk to pay for the meal. My cows go
dry on an average about six weeks; so
they cot about forty bushels of meal
each during 1888, costing about 40
cents per bushel or S16 per COW.
Add to this two tons cotton-seed meal
fed to the farrow cows, and it would
each COW cost twenty dollars, which
.ol- Gee he
age income of each COW without any
grain feed. You can guess by the
above figures taat think it pays me to
feed grain to my cows. The first rea-
son is that the butter is worth five cents
per pound more than from the same
cows without any grain. 1 turn my
cows for beef at from 10 to Is years
old, but never feed over quarts each
to mature cows until get ready to fat
them, when double it and add third
cOtton-seed to my usual ration of corn
meal and shorts. have averaged about
$50 pounds to the COW for years. l
could crowd the feed so as to make
them average 300 pounds, but don't be-
lieve the profits would pay. This win
ter | have adopted feeding twice day
instead of three times, without any
shrink in the amount of butter made.
The first thing in the morning l feed
them their meal, then clean the stables,
sweep off the cows with short handled
broom, cut off square after being past
its best for household use, after which
we milk them and strain the milk into
our Junior Creamer." Then feed
them a good foddering of hay. About
eleven O'Clock / build a fire in the
heater, in water trough Gin winter)
and warm the water to about 90
or 60 degrees, when l water all my
cattle GO head) clean the stables,
and give the stock good bed of straw
at night and repeat the grain feed of the
morning; milk the cows and feed them
a large or small bushel of enslage, each
according to size, clean out the stables
again, and leave them in warm stable
to enjoy themselves. Besides the but
ter, | sold in beef and cows, S233.62;
wool and lambs, over $50; maple sugar
and honey, Sl52.S5; pork and pigs,
S162.53; lard, $40; veal, over $50; ap-
pies, SIS, making the income of the
farm for 1888 over S1.700, besides but
ter, cream and milk used in family
that averaged more than ten persons,
| WLlCu was WI VI thon IiOO- lhCal
and vegetables used, 800; sugar and
-four, 100; rent and tirewood would be
low at 800, making in the aggregate
over 50 100, for which must give the
farm (and grain purchased) credit.
And still, when we have paid our hired
help, taxes and interest money, gro
Gerry and store bills, the fact stares us
in the face that we have worked hard
but have nothing to show for it for a
rainy day except the Improvement of
our farm and buildings. l honestly
think if all the money that has gone
West in the past twenty years to i'm
prove Western farms had been used al
home here in Vermont to improve Yer
mont farms, that the returns would
have been as satisfactory as they will
prove to be, in the end, from the
Western investments. Vermont farms
would be in demand at Rving prices,
there would be less grumbling about
the lack or profits in farming, and our
boys would be willing to stay at home
with us. E. p. ALLEN.
DIR. HosKINs will be glad to send a
or 10 10, D,t 81