Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1891-04-02
FARMER ANDPLANTER.
DAlRYiNe IN THE SOUTH.
valuable Industry In which the Soutl
GnnIlnnea backward.

The backward condition OF dairying
IN the southern states is due TO two
causes; First the want of the requisite
knowledge of the business from the
feeding of the cows, the manner of
milking and caring for the milk up to
the final making and disposing of the
butter. In my own experience, | can
say that while the average butter
brought into the stores brings from ten
to fifteen cents, | can sell mine faster
than can make it for thirty-tive cents
and get the cash for it while the stores
pay for it only in trade. know many
southern butter-makers who do better,
having better market close ut hand,
or within twenty-four hours of them.
| have known dairymen in Geor-
gia to get seventy cents pound
for their butter, and know of many
places where fine butter will be
snapped off at fifty cents per pound,
but the average quality goes begging
at twelve to fifteen cents. This differ
ence is wholly due to the management
of the cows and the milk and the MAX
ing of lhe butter. The other cause is,
the summer climate which is too warm
for setting milk in the open air and for
keeping butter in open sheds or rooms
in the dwelling houses. As to the first,
all that is required is the proper bnowl-
edge of what should be done or what
should not be done, and in regard to
the second how the heat of the weather
may be moderated by simple methods.
AS "a rule, cows are not fed well
enough for profit. Very few cows are
worked mp to their capacity, and very
few farmers know what their cows are
capable of. They give their cows lit
tie meal at milking time, more to keep
them quiet than to increase the milk,
and thus get the least yield that the COW
can give. But the purpose of feed is
not to keep the cow alive; it is, or
should be, to get all the milk and but
ter possible out of her; and this is, to a
certain extent, in proportion to the food
and the kind of it given. A COW will fill
her belly with fodder and give. say four
quarts of milk with very little cream on
it. If the owner were trying to fatten
that COW for beef he would not only
give her all the roughness she would
eat, but all the meal she could pack
away with the other food and then she
would line her inside with the fat and
mix the fat with the lean meat, and the
meal would not he begrudged, because
every cents worth of it would come
back with profit.
This should be done quite as much
with every cow kept for milk as for but
ter making. The cows appetite should
be tempted to get the last OUNCE of meal
into her stomach. 1t would not go into
tallow as with a dry COW, but just
where nature intends cow that's Civ
ing milk to put all her spare fat, which
is in her milk, ana as butter is wortl
many times as much as the fat in the
| food is, the cows owner gets gooC
| profit from the food. There are very
| few cows that will not change gooC
food into good butter. My experience
with cows in both the south and thu
north has convinced me that the com
mon cows of the south are able to make
more butter from the same food thar
northern cows. The northern cow
pass through a very cold winter, sil
months long, and shivering through
this long, cold season, they lose theil
fat in keeping warm, and thus get int
a habit of using up the fat of the foot
in this way.
The mild winters of the south, il
which COW can get some picking il
the pasture every day and never suffel
from the cold, does not use up her fooC
in this way, but turns it to butter il
the milk, and thus, southern COW fee
as well as a northern cow will max,
quite one-half more butter from TIN
same quantity and kind of food.
every southern COW were given, wit
good fodder and hay and fresh pasture
six or eight pounds of corn meal daily
not pound of northern butter woul
be brought to the south, and our farm
ers (if they would make good butter
might be sending to every northern
town all through the winter fresh
made butter wh'h would sell for thirt
or forty cents pr pound. The table
would be comp etely turned, in fact
and, instead of buying stale butter at
high price, our towns and cities woul
have fine, fresh article for their use
and ship the surplus to the north.
To make this change we need to stud
how to feed cows we'll; to choose tn
best foods and to use them literally; t
improve the cows by the better rearin
of the calves, which in time will lead t
larger product of richer milk; t
make our pastures better; to grov
feeding crops to make silos to preserv
these for winter feeding by which on
acre will keep two or three COW
through the whole winter seasons t
study the best management of the COW
and of the milk and cream; and how t
make the best kind of butter; how
overcome the difficulties of our warme
summer climate which, unless met b
| tIp DGSU lucbuOuS NOulu plCNthJ vi
handling of the butter easily.
Illinois makes four times as muc
butter as kentucky. Wisconsin make
eight times as much as North Carolin
or Georgia, and twenty times as muc
as South Carolina. But in each one {
these southern states a COW can be fe
for half as much as in any norther
state, and on the same feeding wi
make one-fourth more butter on I'll
average on account of our milder VIII
tiers. A pound of butter can be mac
one-third cheaper here than in an
northern state. Why then should NJ
the dairy business become a leading il
dustry in the south as it is in nearl
every northern state? 1t will so becom
if we only set to work to do it
Stewart, in Home and Farm.
LANDLORD AND TENANT.
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