Free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1888-1908, 1900-03-24
DAIRY AND POULTRY.
INTERESTING CHAPTERS FOR
OUR RURAL READERS.
How Successful Farmers Operate This
Department OF the Farm-A Few
Hints to the Care of Live Stock
and Poultry.
Dairy Notes.

Dairy Notes.
One of the hard things that the man
ager of a creamery or cheese factory
has to contend with is dishonesty
among those that supply milk Where
milk is purchased by the hundred
pounds this condition is particularly
acute, and it even exists in consider
able measure where the milk is pur-
chased by the test. One cheesemaker
tells of the trouble he has with his
patrons that bring poor milk. He says
that one man continually brought milk
so near the souring point that it was
sometimes impossible to use it, and
once or twice it was returned. But the
man would always come back smiling
the next day and assert that the mana
ger was wrong in sending back the
milk-that it kept perfectly for long
time afterward One day the milk
brought was so near sour that the man
ager thought it necessary to refuse it.
He thought, however, that he would be
sure that this milk soured, SO he sly1y
slipped into the cans enough rennet to
make the milk thick in a short time.
The following morning the farmer was
back with a new lot of milk, but de-
cIared that the milk CT the preceding
day kept over night, and that some OF
it was used for making custard the
next day. Of course it was not policy
for the manager to give away the fact
that he knew the man was lying, or
that he had put rennet in the milk. It
illustrates one of the biggest obstacles
Of
Do not feed musty hay to dairy COWS,
nor in fact any kind of fodder that is
musty. Some believe that this musti
ness will not pass through into the
milk, and it may be SO, but we are
suspicious of the truth of the asser-
ton. 1t is a fact that there is diff
ference in the flavor of butter made on
June grass and the butter made in
the winter when the cows are fed on
dry hay. If this difference in feed
makes any difference in favor, why
may it not make a good deal OF Diff
ference if the feed be particularly
bad. Moldy feed is a bad thing to
have around in any case and should
be thrown out. Using it as COW bed
O4LS ID 41hOIy W udhO INC U4oISSA
worse, for the whole stable will be
scented with it. and in the morning
when the milk is drawn it will GER
tainly be tainted and this faint viii
grow as the cream ripens. It is not
advisable to use this for bedding and
depend on airing the barn enough In
the morning to get the smell out. This
would be seldom done at all, and where
done it would generally be done in a
very imperfect manner. The presence
of spoiled feed is very often the cause
of poor butter.
Whether or not Americans will ever
be able to build up a trade in London
depends on whether they can so i'm
prove the great mass of butter pro-
duced that it will grade mainly as first
quality. At present the amount OF
really good butter is said to be not
more than 25 per cent of the whole.
and this rs per cent brings a premium
in the American market. If all our
product were of good quality, the best
prices in this country would be much
less than at the present time, but the
rest of the butter would bring very
much higher price than at present
This, of course, is based on the suppo-
gition that conditions remain as at
present. American butter might then
| enter the English market in competi-
ton with Danish.
Man wants frequent change Of food
hut not so our COWS. They do best
when fed the same ration constantly
| The digestive system of the cow seems
to adjust itself to certain feed and tc
! be unable to change readily. Thus, i
silage be fed for long time, a change
to dry hay or corn fodder means {
sudden falling off in the milk flow, AMI
tlis flow cannot be restored by a re
turn to the first ration. The plan
therefore, of putting half of the corr
| fodder into the siIo and drying the
other half has no advantage in it; ant
it is a positive detriment if the two
| kinds of feed are to be alternated.
| the silo is large enough, it will PAL
better to ensilage the entire fodder
crop than to dry half of it,