The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-01-22

Philadelphia Record.

Philadelphia Record.
Inc work required on a dairy farm never
ends Every day and Sunday the dairvman
must rise long before daylight in order IN
iced and milk his cows before starting off
with his cans and if he is progressive he
will cool his milk as soon as he leaves the
stables. He must also begin milking earlv
In the evening, and he will seldom finish
his work until long after dark. There is
also the cleaning of the stalls, the prepar-
ing of the cut food, the handling of the
manure and other details The business is
such as to demand careful attention and in
cessant work. The dairyman might be well
paid II he derived all of the profit, but
such is not the case. The dealer who ham
dies the milk must have share of the
profits, which depends upon circumstances.
1t is frequently the case that the farmer
receives but cents a quart for milk
Wnen the consumer is paying cents
per quart, although where the farmer
serves the milk he secures ali the profit
put the bulk of the milk that is sent to
the large markets is from q distance the
middleman being a necessity When Ali The
facts are considered there is less profit in
dalrylng than may be supposed, consider
ing the labor involved, yet it is the dairy
farmer who is the most successfuI-a fact
which Is due to the labor he performs If
the farmer devoted as much of his time
and labor to his crops to his dairy bust
ness he would find larger profit in crops
One OF the principal causes of loss IN
dairy farmers is that they do not employ
the best COWS. The large majority of them
are content to fill their stalls with cows
that produce milk below the average in
quantity, especially if the COWS are fresh
but they give but little heed to improve
ment In fact, Improvement is an impossi-
bility on farms where the dairymen buy
their fresh cows, and it is this system of
buying fresh cows that causes diseases in
herds. No farmer can rid his herd of abor-
ton or tuberculosis as long as he goes on
the market to procure fresh cows to re-
place those that dry off. The only way to
secure larger yields is to breed for better
cows by keeping the heifer calves. This
means that the farmer must first feed a
calf until it becomes old enough to produce
milk. and that is just what they object to-
as they consider the keeping of the calf
TO maturity as so much wasted time and
labor. But II they will compare the value
of the calf as a future producer with that
OF an Improbable cow they will soon learn
that but few years will pass before their
milk yields are doubled and Lne cost Of
production greatly reduced.
When the time required for a well-bred
heifer calf TO become a producer is con-
sidered it may be noticed that there Is not
a great loss OF time incurred in raising a
calf. Some heifers come in before they are
two years old. The sows, the ewes and
progress considering that the heifer is
much larger and requires more time to
mature, while her product is much more
valuable. Ii, therefore, requires with some
breeds only two or three years to entirely
change the characteristics of a herd, and
every succeeding generation may be made
better than the preceding by careful selec-
ton Of the best dams. The scrub bull on
the dairy farm has been the dairyman's
curse in the past. and is a nuisance at the
present day. More attention has been
called TO his worthessness than 10 any
other animal and farmers admit his faults
but they hold on TO him and lose money
every year because they will not Danish
him from his place on the farms.
Dairying Is a business that brings many
farmers into strong competition. 1t is not
always the dealer or middleman who brings
down prices, but overproduction OF milk
Ii comes into the large cities by train
loads. and the amount Is enormous. Each
farmer desires 10 sell his milk and is a
competitor TO some other farmer. The one
who has COWS that can produce one or two
quarts more per day than the cows of his
neighbor viii have an advantage, as he
has greater production and correspondence
lower cost. and il is the farmer with the
better cows who will stand market fiuc-
tuations while his neighboT is losing money.
The solution OF the dairy problem is to
refuse 10 buy fresh cows from any source,