The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1894-05-17
OUR RURAL TOPICS,
Some Practical Suggestions for Our
Agricultural Readers
PAsTURISG PIGS.

/ should be turned to pasture through the
| Summer months. 1t promotes health and
{ thrift to give them the free air to breathe in,
| the clean earth to live on and burrow in, and
| the fresh grasses to pasture on. Don't be
afraid of the roofing. Ii does the pigs good
and never hurts the land
But, it is sometimes said, if the pigs are
all at pasture we lose the large pile of ma
nure that would be made in the cellar, and
the fields will suffer to that extent. Not at
all. The pigs make as much manure at
pasture as when confined in pens The only
difference is that in the case of the pastur-
ing it is scattered over the land where it Is
| always needed.
If one wants the effects of this method Of
| manuring on his titled fields a good practice
is to fence off lot proportiOnate to the
| number of pigs and give them the run of it
for the season. The matter of distribution
| of the manure is easily provided for by
| changing their feeding grounds from time to
time during the Summer. The next season
the lot can be plowed and cropped, the ma
nuring having cost no labor of carriage while
the pigs are changed to pastures new.
In many eases there are lots on the farm
rough and foul with brakes, shrubs, and
bushes, that may be cleared through such
management. But on larger scale, q more
intelligent management and the appropria-
ton of means easily within reach, there may
much more of this kind of stock be made
profitable on Maine farms than is now kept.
-MdiRe Farmer.
BUTTER-MAKING.
The great difference in price between
butter produced on the ordinary farm and
that made at creameries and the dairy
suggests the possibility that the difference
is caused by the different treatment given
to this important branch Of successful farm
ing. But this want of proper treatment
may not always be laid at the door of the
faithful housewife. Unless butter-making
is properly attended to from start to finish,
there can be no success. First, the cows
must be of the right selection Second,
they must be properly kept and given clean
| and comfortable quarters. Third, the milk
ing must be carefully done. Fourth, the
milk and cream must be kept In a clean,
cool place, and the head of the family must
provide nearly ali these conditions; so that
the fault generally found with poor butter
is placed on the women folks quite wrong
| fully.
Butter cows should possess quiet gentle
| dispositions, and must run to rich milk in
| sufficient quantities to make it profitable to
| keep them in the best manner possible.
| That there Is great lack in the farmers
butter is known and read of all men," and
women too. Those who have lived in towns
any length of time know how difficult it is
to obtain good butter at the groceries at all
times. That there is very general neglect
to supply all the favorable conditions on
the part of farmers is foregone conclusion,
established by almost universal observation.
If it pays to do anything well in any line,
it is also sure in regard to butter-making on
the farm. Thousands of farmers are keep
ing cows that don't pay their keep, and
thousands more do not keep their COWS so
that any profit can be had from them.
Good cows for milk, and not necessarily for
beef, are the best; for pound of butter is
always worth more than a pound of beef,
and the lifetime of cow will give many.
more pounds of butter than the weight of
the carcass for beef, so that the profit in
butter cow is far greater than that of beef
cow. 1t would appear, therefore, that these
conclusions speak very highly of the "httle
Jerseys" Jersey crosses can readily be OBJ
tanned at very small cost, and cross of
common good cows with the Jerseys is in
all probability the solution of the butter
problem so far as profit goes, and this goes
the whole length of the butter question on
the farm.
careful and painstaking system adopted
on the farm will bring up the farmers but
ter to higher price than either dairy or
creamery butter can by any possibility at
tain to- for the reason that few cows prop
erly kept by the farmer are subject to less
variations from true conditions than larger
herds kept by dairymen and the circum-
stances attending the creamery. A deter
minatOn on the part of the farmer and the
milkmaid to produce the best will soon
make such favorable change that there
will be no ground for complaint from Gus
toners, and the farmer and his family viii
reap rich rewards.-CiReiRnGti Gazette.
MILK Or BUTTER.
The farmer is often at loss to know how
much his milk is worth for butter making
and whether it would pay him better to sell
the milk.
The answer depends much upon his loca-
ton as to a market for milk. Near good
market where milk is worth at the farm and
at wholesale 90 cents or more per can of
eight and one-half quarts it probably pays
better to sell it than to make it into butter.
The dairyman who makes butter and sells it
at % cents per pound, receives for his milk, If
the latter contains four per cent of butter
fat, 81 per 100 pounds or about IL cents
per can of eight and one half quarts, or if
butter can be sold at 30 cents, then milk of
this richness will be worth $1.20 per 10G
pounds, or 20 cents per can. The buttermil
and skim-nilk will perhaps be worth rather
more than the difference of labor in convert
ing the milk into butter.
There is pretty good margin in dairying
yet, with good cows and good management,
and the milkmen near cities undoubtedly
are doing a profitable business where they
can wholesale their milk at 33 cents per can
in Summer and 81 cents in Winter, and re-