Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1914-06-30
Increase of Dalrying In Maine.

There Is an increased interest 10
dairying in Maine. A report of the
Skowhegan Jersey creamery shows ir
the last five years big gain in the num-
Der of pounds of butter fat and also
gain in the number of patrons. This
creamery is now doing 500, 900 worth Oi
business each year. Up to October ol
last year there had been gain of $4,000
pounds over the production OF 1912 In
the amount of butter fat.
Going back to 1906 the creamery's
output for the year was $4,000 pounds
butter fat. The next year it fell to 19l,-
600; the next year 184, 200, and in 1905
$4,000 In 1910 there was little gain,
and in 1911 1t went up to $4,000, and
1912 1t was 213,000. In September, 1912,
the number of pounds butter fat at the
creamery for that month was Ii, 600, and
the corr esponding month Of 1918 was
Is, 900. 1t is estimated that the gain OF
1918 over 1912 would be nearly 10000
pounds.
This creamery is taken to illustrate
what is being done in dairying all over
the state. In the past year about 20
new patrons have been added and the
creamery now has about 100 cows fur
nishiDg cream.
MORE SILOs HELP GREATLY
One of the factors conducive to dairy
ing has been the increase in number of
siios. Up until very few years ag
Maine farmers thought that in order &c
run a dairy farm the place must be
adapted to raising hay. 1t is conside,
ed 80 at present, but the sllo has to
great extent overcome this condition
Now, on a farm having sandy loan
where hay will not grow at its best, ST
lage corn is planted. This has made a
good substitute for hay and in many re-
spects better. 1t Is interesting to note
that within radius of ten miles from
any large town in Maine during the past
season IL to 20 silos have been built and
now it is an unusual thing to find q
large farm that has not at least one silo.
That the increase in dairying has tax
en- quite an impetus is shown in the fact
that new creameIies are being built, and
new dairying associations are being
formed. A company was organized in
Madison during September for new
creamery there, and the company sold
900 shares and secured 500 cows. The
Somerset COW testing association was
also organized.
1t used to be considered that If
farmer was going to keep herd of
cows for the cream that the Jersey
breed was the only one to consider.
Now there are plenty of Holsteins,
Shorthorns and Ayrshires. That educa-
ton has worked along with this change
is shown in the fact that nearly 40 per-
cent of the farmers are keeping pure
bred cows instead of the grades. The
largest producer of butter fat in the
Skowhegan Jersey creamery has 100
head of Holstein cattle. Another large
patron, George Fl. Weston, has a herd
of pure-bred Guernseys, and he recently
sold three of his cows for 5000 apiece.
Sanitary conditions play big part in
the creamery methods of Maine at pres
eut. The patrons are required to see
that their barns are we'll lighted, clean.
we'll, drained, free from communicating
surroundings, good ventilation, conven.
lent milk rooms we'll lighted and venti-
lated, screened. Hot water Is used
Cows must be kept clean
and proper cooling equipments are pro-
vided in the care of milk.-John E. Tay-
lor in n. E. Homestead.