The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1896-11-21
DAIR Y.

Because the private dairyman can
control the the COWS, their feed and care.
and the milk from the time it leaves
the COWS until the finished product goes
on the market. he should be able to
make finer and more uniform product
than the man at the factory who has not
this control, and yet the great mass
which comes from the farms sells for
less than creamery butter today.
A calf which is dropped in the fall,
started upon whole milk. gradually
changed to skinned milk, with little
linseed meal. then to wheat middlings.
clover and ensilage. can be ready to put
on pasture in the spring in good shape.
The spring calf will have but little ad-
vantage over it at year old, and in the
end it will have cost more.
Take long narrow glass tube, hold.
ing pint. and graduated at the upper
end; into this put half pint OF milk
and half pint of cold water. In three
hours all the cream will have risen, and
will show on the measure the quantity
OF cream and value of the COW for but.
ter. The owner may change his opin-
ion of his herd, and find that the last ia
fret and first last, in value.
In hot weather. when milk will sour
in few hours, with hardly vestige of
cream at the top, try putting cold water
into it, Ice is not an essential, and you
will find your experiments with water
prove just as satisfactory. On many a
farm the work of the housewife can be
reduced more than half.
Butter which has any decent quality
about it at all is in most localities bring
ing not fewer than 20 cents a pound,
and it is poor milk which will not bring
five pounds of butter to the hundred
weight. 1t is not hard to calculate that
if we put some Of our cheap grain into
our cows now it will pay better than
any other farm product.
Do you doubt if your milk will pro.
duce five pounds of butter to the hun
dred weight? Possibly you do not
know how much it could be made to
produce, for the reason that you have
not been getting all the butter out of it.
The old, careless way of guessing still
prevails to sad degree.
With improved dairy breeds home
dairying increases, for the farmer who
has high grade COWS does not like to go
to the factory with his rich milk, when
he can so easily make it into choice,
rich butter at home, and for his gilt
edged butter find city customers who
will pay him round price the year
around.
The bad butter comes from the farm
where the maker is ignorant, dirty or
careless, where the cows are mi ked at
the convenience of the hired man. where
the milk is strained into the creamer
when the hired girl gets ready, where
the cream is removed any time within
from one to four days-in short. where
butter making IS a side Issue and all
other duties demand first al tention.
There is such thing as the cream
getting too sour III hot weather and
not sour at all in cold; as churning at a
temperature too high or too low, and at
no time definite; as not getting out the
buttermilk, sailing by guess, and work.
ing the butter by main strength, instead
of with skill, and there is such thing
as fiavoring it with all the smells of the
kitchen.
Light and air are the great motors for
plant growth. and cannot he withheld.
Therefore, mulching should be delayed
until the ground is frozen ard enough
to admit of driving over it. This is es-
pecially true of Strawberries.