The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1896-05-20
AGRICULTURAL.
over Three Hundred Pounds Per
Cow.

product of over 300 pounds OF butter
annually to the COW. He says:
For a man to say his cows did so
and 80 because he used the Babcock
test once a month, and weighed his
cows milk once a week or so, is Just
humOug Ca thing worth doing at all is
worth doing WELD. If you will use your
Babcock, and weigh the milk every
milking, readers, like myself will APP
preciate some reports much better.
Some reader may ask, Did you ever
use the Babcockp or say you don't be-
lieye the Babcock is correct, or give
other reasons for my lack of faith, but
common sense and experience teach
me that the richness of O cows milk
agine. If ii did not, l could give one
OF my cows a rousing send-off from
performance one Sunday last year,
when she gave thirty quarts of milk
from which / took nine and one-third
inches of as nice cream as ever was
taken off milk, and would churn one
mound of butter for each two inches OF
cream. Now, if l was to base esti-
mates for year on these figures it
would be just as reasonable as using
the Babcock test occasionally, and es
pecially in the hands of an incompe-
tent person.
Then there is another big drawback
against us sending in our reports, and
that is competition of large, stately
buildings, such as Mr.. E. D. Tillson
has, and lots of the "yellow boys to
help him out. In our case, it is get the
best you can, and, instead of the "yel-
low boys" in our pocket, it is brains
and muscle--a good share of the latter.
Now, l will try and answer your
questions as nearly to the dot as pos
sible.
1. Description of COW.
2. Methods of feeding, stabling and
growing the food.
3 Amount of butter per cow, per
year, together with the number of
acres it takes to support them a year.
l. My cows are all high-grade Short
horns, except one black one bringing
up the rear. They are general purpose
cows. | do not pretend to have all good
cows, neither do expect to have them
come in year after year just when l
want them, but ,ohen l can.
g. AS to feeding: A person needs
an eye like an eagle, watching his herd
morning, noon and night, allowing no
one but himself to feed at all times
excepting impossibilitles); give them
all they will eat, and of the kind cir
cumstances and cheapness will afford,
not forgetting at any time they must
give lots of milk in the pail, and good
cream on the milk. For this l find one
food indispensable, oil meal. What
one COW likes best is not always rel.
lished by the others, and some change
is agreeable to all.
Directly after milking in the morn
ing, feed each COW three to four and
one-half quarts of whole oats; after
breakfast they are turned in the yard to
drink from well water in tank, which
has good wind break all around, the
stable all nicely cleaned and we'll
bedded; the orts of the corn fodder re-
moved to the horses managers and suf-
ficient corn fodder replaced, and then
put in. Then at five O'Clock let out
again, barn cleaned, bedded, orts again
removed as before and sufficient corn
fodder to last The night, before them,
and in again. In cold weather, when
the COWS have sharp appetites, l feed
them grain three times day. besides
the corn fodder, when 1 milk them
three times. After milking in the
evening, feed from two to four pounds
oil meal, just depends on the COW.
This has been my programme since last
October, and by the above painstaking
methods l have, through the month of
January, received 100 pounds milk per
day from two of my best cows, and this
well up in butter fat.
In regard to growing the feed: In
these times of Iowa droughts, since hay
and pasture are almost complete fail
ures, for two years my chief and DULY
hold is corn and oats, which in our vi
cinity have been far from a failure.
My COWS had just two months pasture
last summer, also the summer previous,
and it took twenty acres for eleven
cows to do that well, whilst two acres
of good corn, we'll taken care of, will
feed cow year, with some good oat
straw for roughage. l cut twenty-five
acres of corn last fall and it would have
been plenty for twelve cows year,
and two teams have lived and are living
on the orts. My corn was planted in
hills three feet eight inches apart. Six
acres was evergreen sweet corn, bal
ance yellow dent. l prefer the yellow
dent.
My herd consisted of eight COWS, two
two-year Odds and one yearling. They
averaged $40 pounds of butter per COW.
Let me say right here, three of my best
COWS were taken sick from two to three
months after freshening, becoming
almost entirely dry. Any reader can
imagine the great decrease in yield this
caused.
My method of raising cream is the
deep-setting shotgun cans, submerged
in good cold well water.
l presume it is not necessary for me
to say my COWS are quietly handled. A
little seven-year old boy can do most
any thing with them, and sometimes l
almost need good club to make them
get up. One of my cows udders meas
ured five feet four inches around it be-
fore milking at one o'clock P. NJ, fresh