Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1903-02-05
How to Keep Twenty Cows on Fifteen Acres.

The Salem County Farmers Institute
J was held at Woodstown on Wednesday Of
last week, and among the interesting topics
discussed was that of "How to Keep
TWEEN Cows on Fifteen Acres'' by Rev.
J. D. DIETRICH of Flourtown, Pa We
quote below, a report of the address from
the Monitor Register =:
He told how he won fair Pennsylvania
girl, and with her a fifteen acre farm. But
he knew nothing about farming. For
time he took counsel of the neighbors on
either side Of the fence, but the longer he
| farmed according to the advice received,
the poorer the effort he made. He then got
hold of book on chemistry and began to
study that, and then to study the bulletins
issued by the different State experiment
stations, and from these he got his inspira-
| tion for improved methods Of farming. He
soon found out that the old way of farming
had forever passed away. That new
methods had been introduced in every
other lines of business, and the same must
be adopted in farming, if it is to be made
| profitable as business.
| He then gave most interesting descrip-
ton OF the methods used to Keep from
/ twenty to thirty head Of dairy cows on
| their fifteen acres He said he soon learned
| that COW had one mouth and four feet, !
and that in dry weather she would pull
| the grass up by the roots, and in wet
weather tramp it in the mud with her feet. |
This lead him to adopt the soiling method
of keeping cattle, and from over twenty |
| years experience he found it in every way |
the best. The cattle are curried and groom |
ed every day, and every care taken to give
them comfortable quarters and to have |
them perfectly quiet.
They are fed on ensilage with balanced |
ration, all the food being cut in quarter |
| inch lengths, and they are bedded with |
straw cut the same way, and the manure is |
carted out and spread on the fields every |
day, thus saving all the amonia, the valu- |
able manurial quality. This greatly en-
riches the land, SO that successive crops can
be raised without difficulty. In fact such
thing as a failure of crop is not known,
wheather it rains or not. The humus Ill
the soil holds the water from the rains, SO
that dry spell does not affect it.
He then gave his method of cropping red
clover, wheat, rye, corn, COW peas and
alsike, which are raised for feeding, one
crop following another, the method being
to cultivate intensely by feeding the land
intensely, and the crop is always sure, SO
that there is not only enough forage raised
several loads of hay are sold each year from
the fifteen acres.
He advocated keeping Thoroughbred
COWS, giving them every care, with the ut
most regularity in feeding and milking.
Prefers to measure the water given to each
cow A COW that drinks twenty eight
quarts of water day does we'll, but OF e
that drinks fifty-six quarts is better The
COW, he said, makes the quality of the milk
and feed gives the flow of milk. Cornstalks
and ice water, he declared, will never make
a COW give seventeen quarts of milk day.
A cow that chews her cud will get all the
exercise she needs, without being turned
out, the work thus performed being equal
to horse that pulls ton weight. He
said when they made butter they sold it the
year round for twenty-five cents pound.
They now sell milk and one customer takes
it all, at five cents per quart.
He told how to turn a COW dry-feed her
on timothy hay and water and skip the
teats in milking.
The value of the COW was shown by the
following comparison A sheep has car
cass and wool; pig has carcass; hen a
carcass and eggs; but COW has carcass,
milk, cream butter and cheese, and is the
most profitable animal for the farmer.
1t was a revelation to our farmers but
shows what the farmers of Salem county
should do-that is reduce their acreage and |
then give the land they have the intense
method of farming. This would no doubt
be found more productive especially in
dairy farming, and as we'll largely solve the
troublesome help problem.
rising vote of thanks was given Mr..
DIETRICH for his instructive and interesting
address.
Ground Hog Has Them All GUESSING. Did
He See His Shadow or Did He Mott"
Gloucester county farmers are in great
quandry Did the grounding see his
shadow Monday or did he not? That is
the question which is disturbing the tran
guilty of their minds.
All ground hog traditions are at fault in
two particulars. They fail to specify a
particular hour at which Mr.. Grounding
will appear and to provide for the con-
tingency of day that is all sunshine or all
shadow.
Mondays sunshine was remarkably
freaky. Now you saw it and now you
didn't. Did his woodchuckship come out
while the orb of day was visible or while
the lowering clouds obscured his face
In this particular is where the weather
prognostication slipped cog Monday
whereat the aforesaid farmers are sad, for
they are not quite certain whether to pre-
pare for the spring ploughing or go and
buy new cutter in preparation for one
more sleigh ride.
1t is probable that the farmers, disguised
with the traditions as handed down by
their ancestors, will call convention and
proceed to petition the powers that be for
an amendment to make the grounding
story fit all sorts of weather
IMPORTANCE OF DAY.
Considering the importance attached to
candlemas day for SO many ages, it is not
surprising that there is universal super
stition throughout Christendom that good
weather on this day indicates long con-
tinuance of winter and bad crop, and that
its being foul, is, on the contrary, good
omen.
The old Scotch rhyme says =:
''If candlemas day be dry and fair
The half of winter is gone and mair;
If caldemas day be wet and foul,
The half o. winters game at yule."
In Germany there are two proverbial
expressions on this subject /. The shep-
herd would rather see the wolf enter his
stable on this day than the sun. 2 The
badger keeps out of his hole on candlemas
day. If he sees snow he walks abroad
but if he sees the sun shining, he draws
back into his hole.
In the eastern section Of this country it /
has long been said that on February 2,
grounding day, the grounding or wood
chuck awakens from his alternating slum-
Der, stretches himself and comes out of his
hole to look for his shadow. If he finds it,
that is to say, if the sun be shining out of
clear sky so that the woodchuck casts a |
shadow, he hurries back to his hole and to
sleep again, thus presaging six weeks more
of winter But if the sky be overcast and
the sun obscured, if the day be cold and
cherries and the grounding casts no
shadow, then he exults and deports him
self and remains out, for then he knows
winter is at an end.
Madara-K incaid.
very pretty wedding was soleminized |
at the home of Robert Kincaid, near Pit |
man Grove, n J. on Wednesday afternoon,