The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1892-04-08

LEARNING THE DAIRY BUSINESS.

gravel, and on this unprOmlslng soil Mr..
Gilbert has gradually built q famous
dairy farm and creamery. He began in
1876 by losing money. He only kept the
farm because he could not sell it. Mean
time he studied books and dairy papers.
His first progress was when he changed
old fashioned native COWS for Jersey
stock. His next was improved methods
of churning. Things most worth know
ing came to him through losses for want
of acquaintance with the better way,
and these things he never forgot.
He wanted granulated butter, and
learned that by adding water to the
cream he could get it. Next he found
that it was better to wash buttermilk
out of butter than to work it out. He
made no money to speak of for sew
eral years. But there was this differ
ence between Mr.. Gilbert and many who
make no money when first going into
the dairy or butter business. They give
up. He kept on. In a comparatively
short time he triumphed. The next
great stride forward was when he
learned the supreme advantage of silage
feed. After that things came easier and
faster, SO that in 1881 he built a cream
cry and engaged in the butter making
business on large scale. He raises all
his own dairy cows, though he also buys
milk for the creamery. In 1884 he had
on his place ninety-two cows, all of his
own rearing.
In explaining his methods to the editor
of The Rural New Yorker, Mr.. Gilbert
said:
~ use Cooley creamer, revolving box churn
and Cunningham butter worker with CORFU
gated rollers. When the milk is brought into
the creamery in winter l at once add to it about
II per cent. of water sufficiently warm to raise
the temperature of the mass from 95 to 50 dct,s.
1t is at once put in the Cooley creaner and as
rapidly as possible cooled with ice down to 40
or 45 deg5. 1t is skinned after about eleven
hours setting. We milk at a.. m. and p.
the year round. 1 use the Boyd starter to
ripen the cream. This is, as you know, made
from sweet skimmilk. The process of ripenin1
requires twenty-four hours.
when the cream is put into the vat and the
starter added ] warm it up to 70degs. in winter
and 65 degs in summer. use for this purpose
q cylindrical pail of tin about four inches in
diameter and two feet long l fill this with
hot water and then stir the milk with it, keep
ing Thermometer in the other hand. When
the required temperature is reached it is COW
cred air tight and not allowed to so lower than
&c degs. In winter l churn at a temperature of
bS QcSS. ana In summer at OO uc5S. use the
same cylinder for warming the cream for
churning. When the glass clears tho but
ter separates, / stop tho churn, open it and
rinse it down with cold brine, pouring it
through hair sieve, SO as to make it like
spray. l then carefully draw Off the butter
milk, when cold water enough to cool it below
55 degs. is added before the churn is again
agitated. If disturbed before that tempera-
ture is reached it will gather in masses and
you cannot wash it clean.
ut is desirable to get all the milky matter,
casein, ETC., out before the 3utter is maSSed.
use repeated washings until the water comes
away clear. To work it properly the butter
must be raised to about 60 degs. If worked be-
low 55 dogs. it will be crumbly, not compact.
To get it to the proper temperature in cold
weather use for the last washing water warm
enough to bring up the butter. 1t is then
salted. use from three-quarters of ounce
to ounce of salt to the pound of butter.
work it but once, when it is put in prints or
packed in tubs right from the butter worker.
No mature COW that produces less than go
pounds of butter annually should be kept in
the dairy. / would not discard a young COW
that made 200 pounds in her first year; she
may do better each succeeding year and at
maturity be a valuable dairy animal My best
record was in one year, when l millied eighty
COWS which averaged 27l pounds of butter
each.r
''What do you do with your skimInilk and
buttermilk?'
ecu tuoIu 10 CdlfcS auu pigs. pfcicr
grade Berkshires for swine. They seem to
thrive admirably with me-
What prices have you realized for your
butter2''
II figured up before going to dairy meeting
in the spring of 1899, and found that for the
seven or eight preceding years had received
an average of forty cents. 1t has been a little
lower since"
The editor The Rural New Yorker
says:
Mr.. Gilbert's barn is long, low build
ing, with only an attic for NOW. He
reasoned that with ensilage much less
NOW room would be needed, and he has
found what he has amply large. The
drop is covered with CRATE, through
which the droppings pass into a water
tight trench, into which some absorb
ents are put. At intervals the wagon
is driven right around the stalls, and
the manure is handled but once from
the drop to the wagon, and thence to
the fields. Sawdust is used for bedding,
and plaster is sprinkled through every
day, thus absorbing all the odors and
adding to the value of the fertilizer. A
swinging ,stanchion is used in the
stables. The lean-to is used for box
stalls, for COWS about to drop calves and
for young stock.
Water is carried to each COW in
trough, and she helps herself when it is
wanted. The bottoms of the silos are
on level with tho stable floor, and the
ensilage is loaded into car which takes
it to the cows. Mr.. Gilbert has several
improvements in the stables under way.
His success is capital illustration of
what perseverance, coupled with intelli-
gent and studious methods, may accom-
plish. He has proved that the soil Of
that section is fertile, and that dairying
may be made profitable industry-not
by controlling the price of the finished
products, but by reducing the cost of
production.
Neat Way of Putting It.
A neat compliment was uttered once
by General Romaine. Meeting Lady de
Brientz, whom he had known and ad-
mired in the loveliness of her youth, he
commenced complimenting her. "You
forget that | am an old woman" she
said at length. MADAME" returned