Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1958-08-07
I'm a Farmer

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around for a repairman to come
out to your place.
We have two John Deere trac-
tors and one Ferguson, a hay
baler, corn planter, drills,
many hay tools and a variety of
harrows. And there's a lot of
machinery that goes into milking
COW. l have an automatic barn
cleaner that replaces shovel
work, COMPRISING equipment
t h a operates the milking ma
chimes and a giant milk storage
tank where the milk is kept cool
for pickup by tank trucks.
/ used to run all of this opera
ton myself but when you con-
slider the fact that we put out
between 230 and 240 gallons of
milk every day, you can see that
I need help with the herd and
the farm.
I'm no college graduate who
specialized in dairying or farm
ing. I learned everything from
my father. Some of these pro-
fessional farm managers earn as
high as $4,000 year. But get
by with my help.
pay my dairyman, John Blan-
kenship, $3.50 a month. He gets
his house, a gallon of milk a day.
part Of his electric power and
garden vegetables. / pay my
tenant farmer, Pearl Bailey, and
his son $500 a month and the
same extras. I just sort of move
around and see that everything
keeps moving.
I've got to keep enough work
going to busy the men or we'd
never make out. You can't count
on day labor any more. Right
now, in this rainy spell, we're
catching up on repairs and other
small jobs.
The rain last month was al
most as bad as last years
drought. We lost a lot of wheat
because of the rain. but we have
good pasture for the cows and
plenty of corn. I had % acres
in wheat this year and as acres
in corn. We do pretty good,
though. I'd say we live a little
better than some folks.
At the same time, we're still
getting over last years fire: my
big barn burned and we lost the
hay and some machinery. I had
about half as much hay as /
needed so had to buy the rest.
But we have bigger and better
barn as a result.
I'm very fortunate in one re-
spect: this farm is surrounded
on three sides like a horseshoe,
with good, clear streams. The
Seneca Creek starts on my land
and there are four other creeks
that cut through it. Even my
well is only Is feet deep and we
never go dry.
My dairyman gets up at 3 AM,
starts milking the herd four at
time, so he'll be ready when the
milk truck comes. We sell to the
Maryland-Virginia Milk Pro.
ducers Association which pays
about $4.91 for a hundred pounds
of milk.
The price varies with the
bacteria count in the milk. II
YOU have more than $4,000
bacteria to every one part of
milk, you don't sell your milk
easily. That is. for drinking
milk. They used to send it back
to you If the count ran that high
but now you get less for the milk
and it goes into other dairy prod.
ucts. Our milk usually runs
around five to 10000 bacteria
count.
We milk twice a day and after
each milking, we have TO scrub
the place down clean and
sprinkle I've. All the automatic
milking equipment also has to be
secured and sprayed with dis.
infectant. Every batch is in.
spected by the buyer.
Unkindest Cuts
A single edge pruning saw and
a hand primer are among the
first line Of defense for do.it.
yourself gardeners. Avoid double
edge saws for in the hands of
s.s. a ~ l..