Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1904-08-09
Cows and Dairy Products.

Probably no branch of farm husband
ry has undergone greater changes in
the past forty years than the manner of
keeping cows and manufacturing dairy
products. Those old methods look
crude and careless to us now, but per-
haps there is danger of going to the op-
posite extreme, especially in the matter
of ventilation.
In those days nearly all the cows calv-
ed in spring and went dry through the
winter months. But very few farmers
ever fed any grain TO cows unless they
were feeding them for beef. Now near
ly every COW that gives milk has a grain
ration every day, especially while at the
barn, and hundreds of them are spoiled
every year by feeding too much of ii
and at improper times. 1t is unnatural
and Improbable. The cow was made
with a large stomach that she might
hold an abundance of bulky food. Fill
this with concentrated food and her syS-
TEN is unable To dispose of it aud if this
is long continued her system becomes
weakened, her digestive powers fail,
and she breaks down under the terrible
burden. The average Jersey COW is a
delicate piece of machinery and must
be handled with care and judgment.
In some herds the salts, the saltpetre,
the ginger, and the aconite are almost as
constant companions as the provender
box. But these remedies do not cure
the weakness that is caused by such
overfeeding. They simply relieve 1t for
a short time. Warm stables and pent-
up air produce weakness and do not
operate we'll with heavy grain feeding.
Such food demands large amount of
oxygen in order 10 make healthy blood.
During these years the methods OF
buttermaking have changed as much as
the care of stock. Some of these changes
are for the better while Others are very
doubtful. Probably as good butter can
be made by the open pan system, the
pans being set in cold running spring
water. as can be made by the creamery
system with submerged cans.
We have had absolute cleanliness
preached to us until our ears are tired,
but the most careful dairyman or woman
on the face of the earth cannot make
good butter from poor milk, from poor
cows nor cows fed on poor fodder.
Poor, swaly hay and polypod brakes
make milk of poor flavor and no degree
of ueatness can ever cure it. In those
old DAYS nobody thought of such thing
as washing butter, now 1t is almost
universally practiced. 1t facilitates the
removing of buttermilk, but does it
improve the quality of the butter? |
think not. 1t is impossible to remove
all the water and water is not all pure,
nor good favored, but even pure water
would have tendency to change the
flavor of butter in short time unless
kept very cold. But You might say
milk contains water, how can water hurt
the butter? But its own moisture is
different from water mixed in mechani-
cally. Grass contains water and so
does hay and if it is not all dried out it
does no harm, put let shower of rain
water fall on it and note the difference.
Cream that has been kept long will
not make good favored butter, neither
will frozen cream unless churned soon
after freezing; it is apt to become bitter.
Ii is a bad practice to feed Indian meal to
cows Just before calving. IL grain is fed
let it be ground oats or shorts, but a
feed of raw potatoes every day for two
weeks before calving is best. 1t is the
best substitute for grass aud is pre-
yentive of milk fever and garget.-W.
w. Maxim in Maine Farmer.