Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1896-11-05
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How One Farmer Manages to Make
a Profit Out of Ii.

in a competition conducted by the Prac-
teal Farmer:
1 keep a dairy, and will try and tell
how / manage to make 1t pay a profit.
over and above the cost Of their keep
ing, and Investment, labor, etc, bestow-
ed on them. The dairy will average
13 cows for the year. They are high
grade Jerseys, all but three Of my w
raising. They give milk that makes
5 pounds OF butter to 100 pounds OF
milk, and the herd will average 300
pounds of butter per head for the year.
We make and market our butter, saw
ing 5 cents on every pound, that we
would have TO pay the creamery, and
/ have about 8 gallons of buttermilk
left at home to feed for every days
cream. / have no costly or elaborate
outfit; a Cooley creamery, a rectangu-
lar churn, a Reid butter worker and
printer, and a good ice-house and eel
lar. My butter is all made into n e
pound prints, and is sold every Monday
to a leading city grocer for spot cash,
at an average of about 2 cents more
per pound than the New York quota
tons for best creamery butter. My
cows are kept in a cheap, but well
lighted stable, that is frost proof, the
temperature hardly ever going below
So deg. From the middle of October
they are kept in the barn night, and
out pleasant days. During the winter
they are turned out to water twice a
day, and on warm days allowed TO
remain out from n to two hours for
exercise. They come in fresh as near
the middle of November as | can have
them, and are dried off eight weeks
before com,1g in. Fol- Il winter ration,
they are fed a mixture of two parts
wheat bran, two parts gluten meal,
two parts ground oats, one part oil
meal, and one part c~otton-seed meal.
They are also fed about 10 Mounds
per head of this mixture, with 40
pounds of good mature corn silage,
and from 3 to 8 pounds Of hay per
day per head. They are brushed clean
twice a day before milking, and fed as
soon as MIXED. The milk is set at a
temperature of 92 deg. in ice-cold va
ter, and allowed to stand for twelve
hours. Il is then SKINNED, warmed
to 81 deg, and a starter added. This
Is made by taking sweet skim milk,
warming TO 30 deg, placing in a sealed
tin can. and allowed 10 stand In a
warm place until 1t thiekens. Add one
half pint of this starter" to each gal
lon Of sweet cream, keep well stirred,
so 1t will ripen even, and churn as oon
as slightly thickened. A new starter
should be made every second day, or
it VIII become too sour. Put the cream
in the churn at a temperature that
will require about forty minutes for
the butter to come. AS soon as the
lYyrtnr nian1U hrnnES Sfnn thn nh,rn
add a pail of water of about the same
temperature Of the cream, and before
drawing the buttermilk, then allow the
butter to rise to the top, then draw off
the buttermilk, and next add a pail of
good strong brine. This hardens the
butter granules, cuts loose all milky or
curdy matter, leaving the butter nice
and bright. Rinse twice with pure,
cold water, and let it drain for a few
minutes, then take from the churn,
add n ounce of the best dairy salt to
each pound Of butter, let it stand in a
cool place for six hours; place on work
er and work just enough to expel sur
plus moisture; print and place in cooler,
wrapping each print in parchment pa
per. Perfect cleanliness in every par
ticuiar, from the feed fed to the cows
until the butter Is delivered to the
market, Is Of the utmost Importance,
and the only principle on which first
class butter can be made. Establish q
record for having everything nice and
clean, and your butter trade Is guaran-
teed. My skim milk is warmed to 90
deg. and fed to calves, and it cuts quite
a figure in deciding the profits OF a
dairy, having brought me 80 cents per
100 lbs. since the first day Of January,
1896, and my buttermilk fed to 10 pigs
has made 1000 lbs. of live pig" My
new milk from January /, 1896, to Sep
TENDER j, 1896, has brought IS cents
per 100 lbs. AS long as 100 lbs. of but
ter will buy n ton OF good feed, there
is more money In the cow than there
Is in raising the feed, or in raising
most any other farm product at present
prices. The coy that comes fresh the
first day Of November will give 1000
lbs. more milk than the one that comes
fresh the first of April or May. Milk
will cost less per 100 lbs. produced
between the LIST Of November and the
1st Of April. than between the LIST of
April and the LIST Of November, allow
ing the cow to be kept on the farm
the year around, and there is no one
thing On a farm so certain to bring re-
turns, as a good dairy, well and intel
ligersl fly fed, and the products
ically handled and marketed In a bust
ness-like way.