Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1903-04-14

There is more profit to be made from
ten good cows than from twenty poor
ones. A small farm well titled is more
profitable than large one neglected.
Butter sold carries away no appreciable
amount of fertility from the land. A
well managed dairy should grow richer
and richer from year to year and give a
continuously fair profit on the invest
meut. 1t is better TO raise your own
cows than to buy them, for home raised
cows are more contented and less likely
to become unruly at pasture. Animals
have strong home feeling if well treated
from infancy up. Cows and all other
farm animals should be so treated as To
make them feel that they are part of the
family. Never strike dairy COW nor
drive her fast to or from the pasture. A
mess of grain waiting in the manger is a
better means of bringing the cows home
at night than is the best dog ever saw.
A COW should be treated with the respect
due her as a mother, for she is the step
mother to most of us.
There is nothing better for COW than
the best of pasture feed, out who has
such Tor any length of time? We should
always be prepared for dry time and
short feed in summer by raising special
forage crops, such as green rye, oats and
peas, barley, millet, corn or clover,
which, if cut at the proper stage of
growth, will keep cows well fed. When
cows are allowed to shrink in their milk
during a season of drouth they seldom
get back TO their full flow during the
year. Try to raise all the roughage
needed, and if food must be purchased
let it be wheat bran, oatmeal, gluten or
other food rich in nitrogenous material.
Some of these are by-products, and can
be bought for less than it might cost to
raise the same amount of value at home.
There is great deal of land on which
corn is one of the most profitable crops
that the dairymau can grow, whether with
or without a silo for preserving it. Do
not, by overfeeding- attempt to make Il
twenty-quart cow of one that Nature
never intended should give over fifteen
or eighteen quarts. There is line be-
yond which il is not safe to go. But you
may force your land to produce the high
est possible yield with little danger of
injury. Very few farmers
have ever learned the possibilities of an
acre of land under the best system of
If you are making butter let it be the
best possible; then you can have voice
in naming the price. Whatever system
is adopted, have all dairy utensils as
clean us can be. Churn often, salt the
cream and stir well every time fresh
lot is added. Never mix in sweet cream
with that which is ripened just before
for il is waStetul process, as
sweet cream requires longer churnirg
than does that which is properly ripen-
ed. The result is that too much of the
sweet cream will be washed away in the
buttermilk. Always stop churning when
the butter is in small grains like wheat.
The buttermilk can then be washed out
easily, but when gathered in mass the
is shut in and much working
may be required for removing it. Under
and oyerworking are both bad,
but it requires some judgment to know
Just when to stop. The right temper
ature from start to finish must be main
tanned and controlled; or the best results
cannot be expected.
A thermometer is almost as important
as COW in handling dairy.
Tin milk pals are far better than
wooden ones, for the latter often check
10 drying and then absorb milk which
can never be got out again, but remains
TO taint every new lot received in it. But
for churns, butterworkers, moulds and
paddles wood is the best, as when prop
erly prepared for use by soaking in
water the butter does not stick to it rs it
will To any kind of metal. Wooden
utensils should be washed and scalded
after using, but | would
never put them out to dry in the sun.
A sun-dried churn, unless well soaked
again before using, is likely to become
rs badly tainted as wooden milk pail
under careless management. If butter
utensils are only clean it is no matter II
they are constantly little damp, just
enough to keep the wood from surface
IF fine checks into which the milk could
enter and be retained White specks in
butter are usually curdled milk that has
settled ut the bottom of the cream yes
sci. 1t is this cheesey matter that causes
butter to spoil quickly. Pure butter
would need little salt for keeping 1t.
The best creamery butter is better than
the average dairy butter, because the
creamery is managed by atrained butter ;
maker; but dairyman equally skilled :
can make better butter than the cream
ery man can because the owner of the
private dairy has everything within his
own control, from the cow and her feed
and surroundings to the finished prod
uct, while the creamery man must do ,
the best he can with such milk or cream
As he has brought to him. There VIII
ever be a call for the cream and butter
Of the private dairy, and at good prices,
# the dairyman will only learn his busi-
ness thoroughly and then do as well as
he knows how. Fine butter is always
he result of high degree of skill, and
not every one is willing to give the ousi'
ness that degree of attention that is re, .
luired for success. This makes 1t all
he better for those who are willing to
make the proper effort.-A. w. Cheever,
Dedham, Mass, in Tribune Farmer.