Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1903-03-31
A Model Dairy Farm.

| A dairy farm de luxe seems that OF
Walter William Law, a millionaire land
owner, who has 6000-acre estate in
| WestcheSter county, New York. His
methods may not be particularly apph-
cable to our conditions, but description
of them has not little interest.
Mr.. Laws farm contains, besides his
private residence and magnificent barns,
handsome homes for his employees, a
beautiful church, an excellent school
house, long distance telephone and tele-
graph station, in fact every convenience
to be found in city. The cattle kept
are Jerseys, and the herd numbers over
1000 head. Every possible care is taken
of its members. No heifers are ever bred
until two years old or over, and the SER
vice bulls are selected with the strictest
care, both individually and with respect
to pedigree. and none but the matured
ones are ever used. Owing to the special
care they receive the Law Jerseys are
said to average one-tifth larger than the
average of the breed, without any sacri-
flee of vigor, while better milking quail
les and more butter fat have been OBJ
taiued. The champion COW is Gusta of
Briarcliff, who, when only six years old,
gave for the year 10000 pounds of milk,
the average test of which showed per
cent of butter fat Marion of Oakland,
another famous COW, has given as high
rs forty-three pounds of milk a day, also
testing per cent butter fat.
The cattle of this herd, such being a
rule whose violation means discharge for
the offender, are always spoken to mild
ly and treated with the utmost kindness.
Loud talking is absolutely prohibited and
no unnecessary noises are allowed to agi-
tate them. Experience has shown that
mental disturbance decreases the milk
supply. The cows are MIXED regularly
ut ) a. m. and p. m. The mixers have
charge of about twenty-one COWS apiece
and the milking process is conducted as
if religious rite The mixers, prior tn
their duty, don a scrupulously clean,
white uniform. The first thing they do
is to clean the udders of the cows care
fully with moist cloths. Then the milk
ers wash their hands and at the appointed
time, everything on this farm is done at
the tick of the minute, with covered milk
pals in hand, having extra fine strainers
at one end, they proceed to milk. The
milk as it comes from the teats passes
through the strainer, with the exception
of the first few squirts, which are not put
into the pail. Each time, before sitting
down to another COW, the mixers are re-
uuired to wash their hands and blanks
are furnished on which the mixer enters
the amount of milk from each COW. The
business manager of the farm from these
slips can tell the condition of every ami
NAL.
Equal care is shown in the feeding and
housing of the cattle. The ANIMALS are
fed from the floor and no feed is kept in
the apartments where they are. The
floors are of cement with planks where
the cows stand, and after the feeding is
finished the floor is thoroughly cleaned
and all foul odors and disease germs so
often found in feed troughs are avoided.
The stalls in the main barn are four
feet nine inches long and four feet wide,
with trench behind the cows sixteen
inches wide and five inches deep. Upon
the cows being turned out to the field in
the morning the manure is thrown out
of these cutters into carts which pass
through the barns. Then the cutters
are flushed, the cement floor scrubbed
and the walls washed with soap and
water inch by inch.
Does all this care pay? Mr.. Law says it
does, and points to the fact that he is
able to command for all the butter he
makes the uniform price of sixty cents
per pound. He claims that good butter
is the result of science combined with
the most scrupulous care, and that other
wise it cannot be made. The Law but
ter, which is sold to special customers, is
not equal to the demand upon it even at
sixty cents pound, and long waiting
list is kept of would be purchasers, who
are supplied in order as old customers
NAV drOp off.-Iiye Stock Indicator