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*' A Bood cow Is a good cow all the world over, be she what breed she may." 
 
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 DAIRYIfSG 
 
 FOR *# ^^ 
 
 PROFIT 
 
 
 or tb^ 
 
 ^ipi^ 
 
 POOR 
 COW 
 
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 - BY - 
 
 "^.rs. E. l\, JoQCs ^ 
 
 iROCKVIL-LE, ONT., CAN. 
 
Dairying for Profit 
 
 OR, 
 
 The Poor Man's Cow. 
 
 BY 
 
 MRS. E. M. JONE^,. 
 
 JUDGE OF DAIRY PRODUCTS 
 
 WORLD'S COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION, CHICAGO, 1893 
 
 1 
 
 T 
 
 p 
 
 ^79^^ 
 
 BALDWIN, ROSS & CO. 
 
 PUBLISHERS 
 
 MASONIC TEMPLE 
 
 CHICAGO 
 
 V 
 
 V"N. ^x 
 
Entered according to Act of Parliament of Canada, in the year one thousand 
 eight hundred and ninety three, by Mrs. E. M. Jones, ia the otfice of 
 the Minister of Aiiriculture. 
 
 Copyright, 1893, by Librarian of Congress, Washington, D.C. 
 
 ->- -^x 
 
INDEX. 
 
 PAOB 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 On Choosing a Cow ^ 9 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 On Feeding and Caring for the Cow i2 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 One Year's Yield of a Grade Jersey 15 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 What is the Best Butter Breed ?.... 19 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 Choose t'iie Breed which you are sure suits 3'oa b23t ...,..,, 25 
 
 CHAPTER Vf. 
 Milking and Skimming— Setting the Milk 27 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 Churning— Salting 31 
 
 CHAPTER VUI. 
 Printing— Preparing for Market 34 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 Method of Marketing Print Butter in Gilt E.Ige Dairies... 33 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 On Churns 41 
 
4 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 On Batte^wo^ke^s— The old Bowl and Ladle 44 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Ease and Comfort in Churning — "Big little things" in the Dairy— 
 The Man who follows his Grandmother 47 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 An answer to Mr. Doherty. — Practical Experience 60 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 On the Care of Dairy Utensils , 55 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 HowIKeepmy Cattle .. . 68 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 Farm Accounts-'-UdJs and Ends— Some Mistakes, <,..». 63 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 To the farmers' wives of America this little book is dedicated — to 
 my sisters in toil, the tired and over-tasked women, who arc wearing their 
 lives away in work which has little hope and less profit, and to whom 
 the cares of the dairy form the "last straw" which breaks their 
 already aching backs. 
 
 For many years I have been receiving letters from these weary sis- 
 ters, in every State in the Union, in every Province of Canada, and 
 their burden is always the same. 
 
 *' We are so tired, cannot you help us ? You are a woman like us, 
 but your cattle have won a great reputation, your dairy has been a 
 success, and your butter sells at a fine price. How did you do it?" 
 
 Replying to all these letters has grown into a task beyond any one 
 person's time and strength ; and to give all the information asked for 
 I would have to write a little book to each one. 
 
 Therefore, 1 have resolved that I «;i7^ write the little book, and have 
 it printed, and sold at so low a price as to be within the reach of every 
 one who keeps one cow or a hundred. 
 
 If I could go into every farmer's house in America, and say, ^' I can 
 show you : 
 " 1st. How to make J more and far better butter than you do now ; 
 *' 2nd. At a less cost for keeping cattle ; 
 " 3rd, With less labor on cattle and dairy utensils ; 
 " 4th. And how to sell your butter for ^ more money than you are 
 getting for it now," I would, indeed, be a welcome guest. 
 
 All this I can do, not in person, but by this little book, and so I 
 send it out to my fellow-women, with earnest wishes for their approval. 
 
 If I can lighten the labors of even a few tired women and cheer their 
 
 lives and put some money in their pockets, then I shall not have written 
 
 in vain. 
 
 Eliza M. Jones. 
 Brockville, Ont., Can., 1S93. 
 
»■■ ^ 
 
DAIRYING FOR PROFIT; 
 
 OR, 
 
 The Poor Man's Cow. 
 
 A 
 
 LECTURE 
 
 ON GO-OPEiUITIlIE flUlilTINi; W ON UIINTEil 0JIIi|7ING. 
 
 Copyright 1893, by ISIks. E. M. Jones. 
 [All rights reserved] 
 
 By Mrs. E. M. Jones, of Brockville, Ontario, Canada. 
 
 As read before the first Congress of Farmers, in the City of Quebec, 
 by the Secretary of the Convention. 
 
 Mb. Chairman and Gentlemen : 
 
 I have been asked to prepare a paper on Dairy matters, to be read 
 before this, the first Congress of Farmers in the Province of Quebec. 
 
 I can hardly tell which feeling predominates in my mind, — intense 
 pleasure tit the honor done mo, or a deep sense of the importance of 
 this occasion. I need not enlarge upon my own diffidence — such re- 
 marks aro an old story, but I will tell you why I respond so cheerfully 
 to the call. 
 
 When I was a child I often went, with my companions, to gather 
 wild strawberries, but the berries were scarce, and the search was tire- 
 some. 
 
 If a passing farmer said, " Children, I hear there are good berries 
 in such a field over yonder," we gave him doubtful belief, and did 
 not alwnys go . 
 
 But if one of our number who was actually picking berries called 
 out, " Come on, girls, here is a splendid spot," we just tumbled over 
 one another in our anxiety to get there, and all shared in the good 
 luck. 
 
Now, I have found " a good spot " in Dairying, a great spot, and 
 I want you all to como on, just as fast as you can, and share in my 
 luck. My whole life has been spent in Dairying, and after struggling 
 through untold difficulties, and proving each step as I went, by dearly- 
 bought experience T have at last attained a brilliant success, and I want 
 others to share it. 
 
 I Jock at it in this way : 
 
 The average co.v of the country makes 150 lbs, butter a year, which 
 sells ab an average price of 20 cts. Indeed, 1 doubt if they do as well 
 as this; 
 
 My cows produce from 250 lbs. all the way to 500 lbs. butter a year, 
 and sometimes far more. All my butter sells at 35 cts. per lb. all the 
 year round, right at my own place. I have no express or freight 
 charges to pay, and I do not even have to print it. 
 
 My Dairy has become famous all through the States and Canada, 
 and I have now lyiog on my desk letters from Dairy Associations in 
 Michigan, in Indiana, in Connecticut, Vermont, New York Slate, and 
 t!.e grand old Province of Quebec, all urging me to come to their Dairy 
 Conventions and lecture on Dairy cows and butter-making. All these 
 Societies offer to pay my expenses, and most of them offer a handsome 
 sum in addition. 
 
 While deeply sensible of the honor these gentlemen do me, and proud 
 to tell you of it, I yet ask you to believe that I mention it in no spirit 
 of boasting — far from it, indeed. I mention it only to cheer on others, 
 so that they too may succeed and make money. 
 
 Do you realize what it means ? Let us consider it. 
 
 If we could actually double the Dairy product of our country, and 
 also get a higher price than we now do, and if to do this wc need not 
 keep more, but fewer, cattle, at less cost for feed, for attendance and 
 barn room, would it not alter the whole aspect of Dairy matters in 
 America ? 
 
 Just thii:k of it — of all that it means to us I 
 
 Why, England pays annually thousands and thousands of dollars 
 to Irish and Danish farmers, every cent of which ought to go into the 
 pockets of the farmers of this country. 
 
 Let us change all this, and bring this trade to our own farmers. 
 
 We must increase our product and increase our profits too. 
 
And one great way of making more profit is, to fellow the teacliings 
 of all our great Dairy Schools and Colleges. Tlicy continually tell ua 
 to " Lessen the cost of production." 
 
 How is this to be done ? By starving our cows ? Far from it. 
 
 But by keeping a better class of cows, feeding and caring for them 
 better, and using more skill and care in making our butter. We thus 
 increase our output, and, at the same time, we lessen the cost of 
 production. 
 
 Do not think I advocate too high feeding, for that is almost as great 
 an error as starving your cattle. Feed generously, and of suitable 
 material, but find out each cow's capacity, and feed her up to the highest 
 point at which she pays for the feed, and not one bit beyond. 
 
 In my own herd, the usual grain ration for each animal in f u 1 milk 
 varies from 7 to 10 lbs. per cow, each day. This is composed of ground 
 oats, ground peas, wheat, bran, and, occasionally, a very little oil meal, 
 The ration is divided into two feeds, and given night and morning, 
 upon the ensilage. Should the silo be empty, the grain is always fed 
 upon hay that has been cut and moistened. 
 
 The quantity of ensilage fed is 30 to 40 lbs. a day. 
 
 At noon, my cattle get a very small feed of cut carrots or mangels, 
 and any further supply of food required consists of bright, early cured 
 long hay, put in their mangers. They get all the salt they need, all 
 the water they want twice a day, and each cow is well carded and 
 brushed over every day. Whenever weather permits, they are turned 
 out for a short time, about noon, but are never left out till cold and 
 tired. And the barns are thoroughly cleaned out, twice a day. 
 
 With this feed and care, I have two-year-old heifers making from 
 12 to 14 lbs. butter a week, and mature cows making from 16 to 19 
 lbs. a week. 
 
 To a very uncommon cow I feed a larger ration. My famous old 
 '• Massena " ate more than the quantity I have just mentioned, but 
 what was her yield ? 
 
 Being in her sixteenth year, when I tested her, she gave in 11 
 months and 9 days 8,290^ lbs. milk, which churned 654 lbs. three- 
 fourths oz. of magnificent butter, and then dropped a fine heifer calf. 
 With her previous owner when she was younger she is credited with 900 
 lbs. butter in a year, and her record is accepted by everyone. 
 
Some people say that this large butter yield wears a cow out. Well, 
 it lias not worn " Massena " out, for slio is hale and hearty and as 
 bright as a dollar, and due to calf again nest April, when 17 years old. 
 
 Some cows will respond far more readily than others. In my little 
 book, " Dairying for Profit," I have given a year's feeding of a cow I 
 once owned. The ration was very large, but then she was an excep' 
 tional cow, and her yield was very large, so that she gave me an actual 
 cash profit for butter alcne of |49.70 in tlie year, over and above her 
 keep. As you will see by reference to my book, I made no charge 
 against her for actual attendance or barn room. But, on the other 
 hand, I gave her no credit for the quantity of skim milk and butter- 
 milk, for the large pile of manure, and for the fin j heifer calf she gave 
 me. So you will see that the profit I mention is, if anything, uuder- 
 estimated. 
 
 It has been said to nie this was an exceptional animal, and that few 
 cows would respond to feeding as she did. 
 
 Precisely ; that just hits the nail on the head. 
 
 Now, what we want to do is, to GET RID OF those poor cows that 
 will not respond to feeding. 
 
 Beef them, bury them, but do GET RID OF THEM, for they are 
 mortgaging your farm, and making slaves of your wives and families 
 and sinking you deeper into debt every year they exist. 
 
 And fill the country with cows that WILL RESPON"D to good 
 feeding, that will pull you out of debt, and leave you a good balance 
 in the bank. 
 
 Let me here say tliat anyone who tries can do far better than I have 
 done, because few have such ditllculties to contend against. 
 
 The man of great wealth has the " sinews of war " with which to 
 cany on his enterprise, and we all know what plenty of capital means 
 in business. If united with brains and perseverance, it means assured 
 success. 
 
 The plain farmer, on the other hand, may not have the capital, btit 
 he generally has a good farm out in the country, where land value is 
 less and taxes are less, and he has comparatively liftle outlay for labor, 
 because he himself, and all his famil}^ work as few hirelings will do. 
 
 But I live just on the edge of town, whcro the rent of land is enor- 
 mous, and 3'et the land itself is rocky and poor, and I have to hire all 
 my labor. On the one hand, I have not the advantage of getting the 
 
work done like the farmer within ourselves, and, on the other hand, 
 starting with very limited means, I had cot the advantage of the capi- 
 tal possessed by my wealthier friends. 
 
 In fact, to use a homely saying, I have been all the time '• between 
 the devil and the deep sea." 
 
 Yet I have proved that a Canadian Dairy may be made a great 
 business and a paying business, even under adverse ciicumstaiices and 
 with the very plainest surroundings. 
 
 You can all do as well, and most of you can do better. 
 
 It makes me heartsick to hear those of my own sex wishing they 
 could earn some money, to see them peddling books and corsets, work- 
 ing in factories, or writing trashy novels, for only enough to keep soul 
 and body together, and all the time they have ri2;lit at hand an indus- 
 try more noble, more profitable and far more independent. 
 
 One that will elevate themselves and the whole community, and 
 enable them to confer a lasting benefit upon the country in wliicli they 
 live and die. 
 
 If there is one thing more than another in wnich the farmer is blind 
 to his own interest as well as to his own comfort and convenience, it is 
 in the matter of winter Dairjnng. 
 
 His cows are made to calve in spring, because then nature furnishes 
 enough food to keep up an uncertain supply of milk without the iiarmer 
 "bothering with them," as he expresses it. 
 
 But someone must bother with it I 
 
 The milking of 5, 10 or 20 fresh cows, in summer, takes a long 
 time, just when time is mo>t valuable and men are working the hardest ; 
 and then the milk has to be hauled to the factory, either by taking 
 time and horses that can ill be spared, or else by paying a neighbor to 
 do it, and so lessening the profit. 
 
 Still worse is it if the work is done at home, and falls upon the females 
 of the family. 
 
 Seldom, indeed, has the farmer's wife all the appliances for dairying 
 in hot weather. There is no ice, Ihe milk sours before the cream rises ; 
 the cnam itself, for want of a suitable place to keep it in, absorbs bad 
 odors, and is seldom at a unifonii temnerature. Churning this cream, 
 which is often in an actually fermenting state, is a burden to a hot and 
 tired woman, and when the butter conies, it is, as she herself expresses 
 it, " just like oil," 
 
Not only that, it " comes " in a lump, and so the great thing in mak- 
 ing good butter, — that is, washing it when in little grains like wheat, — 
 is impossible. 
 
 Instead of that it is mashed, and worked, and re-worlccd in water 
 that is not cold enough, then salted, and then the poor woman 
 "guesses she will leave it over niglit, to harden." Next morning, 
 when she goes to finish working, and put it ia rolls, or tubs, it is either 
 so unevenly worked, that it is all streaked, when cut for use, or else, 
 what is still more common, what little grain it did liave is broken and 
 spoiled, and the butter is liko lard or salve — it won't taste snrightly 
 and fresh, and it won't keep. 
 
 And then we wonder that our butter docs not bring higher prices ! 
 Kow, I hold that it is 
 
 ABSOLUTE CRUELTY 
 
 to burden a farmer's wife with the care of a large dairy in summer. She 
 has more, far more than she can do properly without that. Heat, flies, 
 dust and mosquitoes to fight against, meals to cook and bread to bake, 
 washing, ironing and mending, aud often hired men to board. 
 
 Besides the regular work, there are always extra duties, such as 
 pickling, canning, preserving and soap-making. Then, what fruit and 
 vegetables are used are generally left to the " womau folks " not only 
 to prepare, but to gather. 
 
 What sight more common than to see a woman out digtjing a fork- 
 full of potatoes because the men didn't bring any in, coming from the 
 orchard with an apron full of apples, or cutting kindling in the wood- 
 shed ? 
 
 Add to this that there is generally a baby in the house, to occupy 
 every spare minute, and that tliis baby often keeps the mother awake 
 half the night, while the farmer has enjoyed a long, sound sleep, and 
 then say whether it is not the bounden duty of every man worthy the 
 name to lighten, when he can, and to U/t when bo can, the burdens 
 that must, in the course of nature, rest upon the we^ik shoulders of 
 women ? Almost every farmer in the land can now do this. Ho can 
 save almost all the time and worry the cows now cost him in summer ; 
 he can ease his wife f^o she will be bright and cheerful and fully able for 
 the work left, when relieved of that which is unnecessary j he can have 
 
tlie pride and pleasure of linving his butter bring (be top price, instead 
 of taking " stoie pay " for it, nod iniglity poor pay at that; Jind he 
 can look at his cows the year round, not as " necessary evils," but as 
 the source of good solid cash profit, which they really arc, if they are 
 good ones of their kind and got a fair chance. You all know the 
 c;iuscs of this happy change. 
 
 I allude to the large number of well equipped butter and cheese 
 factories, to the presence of the travelling Dairy among you, and to 
 the excellent schemes now on foot for establishing winter Dairying as 
 the rule and not the exception. 
 
 One caa hardly over -estimate the immense advantages of the co- 
 operative system in making both cheese and butter. 
 
 Fifty years ago we i.ll made butter and cheese a"; home, for the 
 same reason that we travelled by stage coach, simply because we had 
 to — there was no other way. 
 
 But the march of Progress has biought us many good things, many 
 labor-saving things, and I do assure you that one of the greatest of 
 these is Co-operative Dairying. 
 
 Why is not every man a blacksmith to shoe nis own horses, or a 
 manufacturer to make his own binding and reaping machines ? 
 
 Jut becau e those things can be done better, quicker and con- 
 sequently cheaper by those who make it their life-long business, and 
 whom constant practice makes perfect, while the farmer, on the other 
 hand, can use the time to better advantage. 
 
 The factories can give you the benefit of such skill, such uniformity, 
 and such market facilities as can only be found occasionally in private 
 Dairies. 
 
 Also let me mention another point that often escapes observation. 
 After a long life of study I have come to the conclusion that the 
 oftener one churns the better. Take a cow's cream for a week before 
 churning it, and in spite of all your care, some will bs too ripe, some 
 not ripe enough, and so on, till I am convinced ycii get a better result 
 if you churn that cow's cream three times a week, still better if you 
 churn it every day, and, best of all, if you could every milking by 
 itself. 
 
 We all know this to be practically impossible in private houses, but 
 here is where the factory steps in and carries out this idea to perfec- 
 tion. 
 
There is, however, one lion in the path of these factories, one uiill- 
 stone round their necks, which cripples their usefulness, and which 
 even, in an indirect way, is ruinous to the best stock interests of the 
 country. 
 
 We are now fi<z;hting this difficulty, and will soon win the battle. 
 
 I allude to the WANT OF DISCRIMINATION in receiving the 
 products from the patrons. 
 
 Hundreds of times I have heard farmers Fay : " There ain't no use 
 keeping good butter cows, for their milk brings no more in the fac- 
 tory." So far, tliis has been generally true, but we are now awaking 
 to the fact, that it has been the crying evil of the system, that it has 
 depreciated the market value of rich itilk — in fact, that it has been 
 vir'unlly offering a prcmiuni for quantity at the expense of quality. 
 
 But we are gradually working to our point, and soon every man will 
 be paid according to the yield of his milk in butter and cheese, 
 and, still batter, all milk not- up to a certain standard will be rejected 
 entirely. 
 
 Of the Travelling Dairy it is impossible to speak too highly. 
 
 We all know the value of illustrating what we say. It is a great 
 point to see exactly how a thing is really done ; it is just the whole 
 difference between only hearing about it and actually seeing it with your 
 own eyes. 
 
 Lastly, the idea of winter Dairying is one of the greatest scope and 
 the highest importance, and is destined to work a revolution in farm 
 life. Make the bulk of your butter in winter if you wish to average a 
 larger quantity, a better price, and a higher profit, also better cows and 
 more und better manure. 
 
 You will also secure a more even distribution of your labor, so it 
 won't be all a feast or a famine. Sometimes, for half the winter, the 
 teams are comparatively idle, and the men have time to sit around the 
 village store. 
 
 Now, I like their having a little leisure and sitting around the store, 
 and exchanging ideasi but do not carry it too far. 
 
 You can milk the cows and take the milk to the factory in winter, 
 and still have time for reading, recreation and social intercourse. 
 
 The cow that calves in September will yield well all winter ; then 
 when grass comes, it will send her along again for a while, and wiien 
 she does fail, it will be in July and August, just when you are heated 
 
an3 tired with haying and harvest, and don't want to he hntliered 
 with her — ^just when the cow is tired and hot, and worried with flies, 
 and only wants to "stand in the shade and switch her tail," and just 
 when butter brings the lowest price in the whole year. 
 
 I hold that the same cow is worth tea dollars more a year if she 
 calves in September than if she c:dves in April. 
 
 Now, when butter has to be made at home in winter, see that there 
 is every reasonable coovenianco for doing it properly, and then winter 
 cows will no longer be what tlicy have been for years, — a perfect bug- 
 bear. 
 
 Indoors, have no kitchen cupboard, no shelf with a curtain before it, 
 where milk deteriorates every hour it stands. 
 
 If you can't have a little dairy, take a cellar, orpar^ of a cellar, par- 
 titioned off and whitewashed. Have it with double windows, well 
 protected from cold, and as light as day, and as sweet as June, and let 
 nothing else bo kept there but milk and butter. 
 
 Have a good deep-setting creamer and ice to run it (if you don't use 
 a separator) ; have a butter worker, which you can't do without, a 
 thermometer and a good churn, and, my word for it, you will be well 
 repaid. Your land will grow fat and your purse will grow fat, too. 
 Now, one reason I have written my book, Dairying for Profit; or, The 
 Poor Man's Cow, \a this: when lectures are over and the Travelling 
 Dairy has moved on, my book goes right into the farmer's houses and 
 stays there, to be a continual reminder of what they have been taught. 
 
 Taught through the noble efforts of men whose one aim in life has been 
 to raise the standing and better the position of the agricultural com- 
 munity. 
 
 Men who are indeed philanthropists in the truest and broadest sense 
 of the word — men whose names should be handed down to posterity in 
 letters of gold. 
 
 If I can supplement their efforts by my little book, I shall be a proud 
 and happy woman. 
 
 It has, at least, one merit — it is my actual life experience, so that 
 many a poor soul, on reading it, takes heart of grace, and says : " She 
 has actually done all this with her own hands ; and if she has done it, 
 we can do it loo." 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 ON CHOOSING A COW. 
 
 In no branch of farming is there such deplorable waste and short- 
 sightedness as in dairying — such a large amount of labor for so small 
 a result, and that result, too, of a very indifferent quality. 
 
 Farmers of to day are barely existing who oughttobe in comfortable 
 circumstances; while those are barely comfortable who ought to be 
 rich, and this with only the same facilities as they now enjoy. 
 
 The cause of this trouble is, mainly, misapplied labor, going the 
 wrong way to work, toiling over things that don't pay. 
 
 The object in writing this book is to offer to hard-working, practical 
 farmers some suggestions by which they may increase their incomes, 
 multiply their comfort*, and better their position ; to present to them 
 facts and figures that will bear the closest scrutiny, and to give them a 
 brief sketch of a life spent in dairying ; a life marked by many mistakes 
 and occasional failures, but also crowned with success beyond my ex- 
 pectations, and cheered by such kindly appreciation and such compli- 
 mentary notices as are far beyond my deserts. 
 Some may ask why I wish to record my failures. 
 In reply, I would quote to them an old Scotch story: — 
 An auld wife remarked that she " didna think the Scriptures were 
 aye a safe guide, for David was held up as an exawmple to us a', when 
 he was a sinfu* mon." 
 
 "Hoots, woman," said her neighbor, "David wasna pit there as an 
 exawmple at a' ; he was just meant for a light-house, to warn us aff the 
 rocks." 
 
 And so, if the record of my failures and mistakes will only servo 
 the same purpose, I shall not have written in vain, and I may be of 
 as much practical use as those who quote only their successes and bury 
 their failures out of sight, making no sign to others to " warn them aff 
 the rocks." 
 
 Now, I don't mean to divide my lecture into as many "heads and 
 particulars ' ' as one old Scotch minister used to do in Glasgow, for I 
 
10 
 
 invariably went to sleep under them, and I am afraid my readers miglit 
 do the same. 
 
 But some divisions of the subject are necessary, and they are chiefly 
 three : — 
 
 1. The choice of a good cow 
 
 2. The keeping and feeding of her, to the best advantage ; 
 
 3. The most profitable way of caring for and marketing her product. 
 On the choice of your dairy cow, whether you breed her or buy her, 
 
 depends the whole success of your dairy. You wouldn't wish to use 
 the old-fashioned wooden plough of our forefathers, nor to go back to 
 the flail, for " it's ill working with poor tools." 
 
 And the poorest tool on the face of the earth is a poor cow. 
 
 It is not only that she is no profit, it is worse than that — she runs 
 you in debt. 
 
 Still worse is the case if the poor cow be one of a herd, and for this 
 reason : If a person keeps but one cow he very soon knows if she bo 
 good or bad, but if he keeps a good many, the worthless cow is not so 
 readily detected. She may be a smooth-looking animal, and m:iy even 
 give a fair flow of milk, and yet she may not only fall short of paying 
 for her keep, but be eating up all the profit made by her neighbor, and 
 so the farmer has not a cent of gain on the pair. 
 
 And the useless cow is not only deteriorating as years go by, but is 
 perpetuating her worthless kind, to the loss of her owner and to the detri- 
 ment of all the country around. 
 
 The form and features of a good dairy cow have been so often de- 
 scribed tliat only a brief mention is needed here, but some points are so 
 essential that tliey can hardly be too strongly impressed. 
 
 A good cow must be long, level, and loose-jointed, with a capacious 
 body, short, fine legs, long, light neck, clean cut and intelligent head, 
 thin withers, deep flank, thin, flat thighs, and rich, soft, mellow skin, 
 showing a deep orange color under any white markings, and inside 
 of ear. 
 
 As viewed from the side, she must present a perfect wedge shape, 
 exceedingly deep behind and very light in front, and, as viewed Irom 
 behind, she must show ample room to carry a large, full udder with ease 
 and without chafing. No cow can do this that is of a beefy conforma- 
 tion and that has not a good "arch." 
 
 The udder itself must be soft and silky, free from warts and from 
 
11 
 
 long, coarse hair. It must extend t«e?Z forward and reach well up behind, 
 having nothing of a globular shape. It must be square, level beneath, 
 and not too deeply quartered, with teats of good size, evenly placed, 
 very fur apart both ways, and of uniform size. Tlie udder must be 
 very large and handsome when full, and when empty must be loose and 
 soft, the rear part lyin? in folds — in fact, as the saying goes, it should 
 almost "milk out to nothing." Such an udder is capable of great 
 distension without discomfort to the animal, and adds wonderfully, not 
 only to the appearance, but to the intrinsic value of the dairy cow. 
 
 The milk veins should be exceedingly large and crooked, and the 
 .milk yielded easily and evenly all round. 
 
 Avoid a cow very hard and tough to milk. She is a continual nuisance. 
 
 Still worse is the one that leaks her milk. 
 
 Avoid a very thick-skinned cow, whose hide is inclined to stick to 
 her ribs, or, on the other hand, one whose hide is too thin and paper- 
 like, indicating delicacy of constitution. 
 
 In an animal that "handles well " there is a peculiar soft, loose, vel- 
 vety touch, that is quickly learnt by experience, aud without which no 
 animal can be really thrifty. 
 
 If, with all these good qualities, you get a cow that is young, 
 healthy, with a soft, silky coat of hair, and one with a gentle, placid tem- 
 per, you may be assured that you have made the first step on the road 
 to success, even if she has cost you a little more than your neighbor 
 has paid for an indiflferent cow. 
 
 Taking the common cattle of the country as a basis, if you pay $30 
 for a cow that runs you $10 in debt by the end of the year, and that 
 gives you a calf no better than she is herself, it is a poor speculation. 
 
 But if, on the other hand, you pay $50 for a cow that shows you $30 
 profit at the year's end, as such a cow should do, that is a pleasure to 
 look at and a satisfaction to own, and that gives you a calf still better 
 than herself, you have made the best and safest investment in a farmer's 
 power. 
 
 In putting money at interest, you would think yourself very lucky to 
 get $5 a year on $50. From one cow you should get $30 a year on 
 050, and not only have the cow herself in good order, but a valuable 
 calf besides. And as you spend no more time in milking and feeding 
 the good cow than the poor one, it is easy to see on which side your 
 bread is buttered^ 
 
12 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 ON FEEDINQ AND CARING FOR THE 00 W. 
 
 Having bought your cow, the next thing is, wnat to do with her. 
 
 On no account make any sudden change from her previous food, but 
 let such things be done gradually. If it be summer, turn the new cow 
 into a fair pasture where there is water ; treat gently and milk regularly, 
 and she will soon be contented and happy in her new home. If it be 
 winter, put her in a warm, comfortable stnble, with plenty of clean 
 dry straw for bedding, water her and feed her a warm bran mash and 
 plenty of good hay. 
 
 Then make up your mind what to feed your cow, and gradually work 
 up to that quantity. 
 
 For a fresh calved cow, giving IG to 20 quarts of milk a day, I have 
 found nothing better than the following treatment : — 
 
 At half-past 5 a.m. the stall is cleaned out, and cow cleaned off, 
 rubbing the udder with a hirgc, coarse but soft cloth. If necessary to 
 Wash the udder, do it with tepid water, and be careful to dry it thoroughly 
 or it will soon get rough and sore. Give the cow a large armful of hay, 
 and then milk her as quickly and as quietly as you can, taking every 
 drop you can possibly get from her. Of the manner of milking and 
 the care of the milk we will speak hereafter. 
 
 The next thing is to feed your cow. 
 
 I will here give the ration we use as a basis, but it is varied accord- 
 ing to circumstances and prices of feed. I also give prices in our local- 
 ity, and these will bo found to average much the same everywhere, 
 and to maintain the same value, in proportion to the prices of dairy 
 products : — 
 
 Ct9. 
 
 5 lbs. ground oats at $20 per ton 5 
 
 4 lbs. bran at $12.50 per ton 2^ 
 
 2 lbs. cornmeal at $25 per ton 2^ 
 
 2 lbs. pea meal at $25 per ton '^ 
 
 16 lbs. bay at $10 per ton 8 
 
 Cost of feed per day 20^ 
 
13 
 
 Some of the hay is run through a cutter, and mixed with the grain 
 which has all been tTioioughly mixed together. This is then divided 
 into three feeds, and given at morning, noon and night. The mixture 
 is put in a large stable bucket, wiih a very little salt, and enough boil- 
 ing water is poured on to wet it all through. It is then covered with 
 an old bag, or rug, and left to steep for an hour. Then add enough 
 water (either cold or tepid, as required) to make a nice, large, warm, 
 comfortable mash, rather thin, and se'e how greedily the cow will eat it, 
 and how contented she will look afterwards. 
 
 Now, the cow should be thoroughly cleaned with a card and a good 
 brush, and not one speck of diit or any stain left on her. 
 
 Some people boast thut they keep the cow's udder clean, and perhaps 
 they do, but all the rest of the animil is left in a filthy condition. 
 
 This dirt dries into the hair, and then the act of milking shakes it 
 down, like dust, into the pail, rendering the milk unfitfor human food. 
 
 You may now, with a clear conscience, leave your cow to rest and 
 digest her food, and if you have shaken up her bed and removed every- 
 thing that is wet or soiled, you cannot help feeling pretty well satisfied, 
 as you take a parting look at her ; especially is this the case if it be 
 mid -winter. 
 
 You think of other unfortunate cattle, out in the barn-yard, or even 
 in the field, knee deep in snow or mud, with a bitter wind whistling 
 around their gaunt frames. 
 
 You see them devouring part of the manure pile, or trying to drink 
 from a frozen puddle, and a filthy one at that. 
 
 You see the rough, shaggy coat, the arched back, the withered up 
 udder and the general look of wretchedness, and you cannot help wish- 
 ing that death would end the sufi'erings of the poor brute. 
 
 Then, with such a satisfied pleasure, you think of your own cow. 
 
 After a comfortable night's rest in a warm and dry but airy stable, 
 she has had her good hot breakfast and her feed of hay. Her large, 
 beautiful udder has made it a pleasure to milk her, and the fine pall of 
 rich milk has testified to a good cow and a generous owner. 
 
 As day advances, and the sun shines into your barn through large 
 windows, you see your cow lying down, chewing her cud, her bedding 
 abundant, dry and clean, her coat spotless, smooth and soft, her nose 
 moist, her large, gentle eyes full and bright, and her whole looks lull of 
 placid content. 
 
14 
 
 And you have tlie comfort of feeling that it is not a costly plensure 
 to see her so, for that your cow not only pajs you back every cent you 
 lay out on her, but is putting a good profit into your pocket in hard 
 cash every week of her life. I have often thought that over 3verj 
 cow's stall should be written three lines : 
 
 " A good man is merciful to his beast." 
 " Cleanliness is next to Godliness." 
 " IT PAYS, IT PAYS, IT PAYS." 
 
 And write the last line in capital letters, for on it hang all the law 
 and the doctrines in tlie farmer's mind.^ 
 
 At noon your cow gets as much water as she likes to drink, and in 
 very cold weather, if the chill be taken off it, and a handful of bran 
 stirred in, it will be so much more money in your pocket. Then she 
 gets her mash and a small feed of hay. In the evening she gets watered 
 and fed, and is milked ; any dirt on her skin is removed, the 'stall 
 cleaned out, fresh bedding added, and, with a good feed of sweet hay 
 before her, she is left for the night, and her owner may go to bed 
 and sleep the sleep of the just. 
 
15 
 
 CHAPTEE III. 
 
 ONE year's yield OF A GRADE JERSEY. 
 
 In my last chapter I gave a generous feed ration for a cow in flusli of 
 milk, said ration costing 202- cents per .day. 
 
 ** Over 20 cents a day to feed a cow," I hear some hard fisted 
 farmer erclaini ; " that ends the business. Only r'ch people can go in 
 for tom-foolery like that, we poor farmers can't aflPbrd it," 
 
 Neighbor farmers and friends, you can afford it, as I will prove 
 to you. 
 
 The money is not spent, sunk out of sight; it is only invested, put 
 out at interest, and it speedily comes back to you, doubled. 
 
 This book is not written for rich people, who can afford to overfeed, 
 or to underfeed, a cow, and never ask or care whether their fancy 
 farm pays. 
 
 It is written for people who, like you and me, have got to make it 
 pay, or else give it up. 
 
 It is the poor man who can't afford to keep a poor cow. 
 
 And it is the poor man, above all others, who can't afford to be slip- 
 shod in this matter, but who has got to know exactly just what every 
 cow on his place consumes, and what it costs. 
 
 Also, just what every cow produces and what it sells for. Then the 
 profit or loss is at once apparent. 
 
 The profits can be steadily increased to their utmost limit, and the 
 losses promptly and eff'ectually stopped, showing a satisfactory balance 
 sheet at the end of tlie year. 
 
 But in order to do this an account must be kept. TTou don't want 
 a gilt-edged note-book, ncr an intricate system of bookkeeping, nor much 
 extra labor, after a long hard day's work. 
 
 But you do want to know what you are doing, and how you stand. 
 
 What on earth is the good of slaving and toiling, from daylight to 
 dark, if you don't make anything by it ? 
 
 And how can you stop a leak if you don't know where it is ? 
 
16 
 
 Of course every farmer will tell you that he has a " sort of" idea, he 
 *' kinder keeps the run of it ;" but that won't do. It remiuds me of a 
 story I read not long ago : 
 
 A newly married couple started housekeeping, and the husband 
 urged the wife to keep an account. She gladly consented, and he 
 gave her a little book, telling her to put down on one side what cash 
 she received, and on the opposite page to enter what she spent. 
 
 Long afterwards he asked her how the book balanced, and she 
 promptly replied that " it balanced exactly." 
 
 Somewhat surprised, as the little wife was neither experienced nor 
 accurate in money matters, he asked to see the book. 
 
 On one side, under the correct date, appeared this entry : " Kec'd. 
 from Larry— $500." 
 
 On the opposite side was simply one entry, in good big letters, 
 "Spent it all I" 
 
 Now, we can't afford to balance our books in that way. 
 
 On one side we must enter every cent receive^ from our cows, in 
 any way, and must also put down, as closely as we can estimate it, all 
 milk, cream and butter consumed in the family, and put it at market 
 prices. 
 
 On the other side appears every bit of feed consumed, whether pur- 
 chased or raised on the place. 
 
 And, just here, let me caution you against one error. You will 
 often hear a farmer say, when accused of keeping a poor cow that 
 doesn't pay for her keep, " Oh well, she don't cost me much to keep ; 
 we grow all the stuff ourselves." 
 
 My friends, that is one of the biggest mistakes we make. 
 
 It is not the question, " What did it cost us to grow this load of 
 hay ? " but *' What cash price can 1 get for this hay in the market f " 
 And whatever is its market value (less the cost of drawing it there), 
 that is the value of the hay you are feeding to your cow, that is what 
 it costs to keep her. 
 
 Now, figure on that basis, and see if she pays. Sometimes she doeS; 
 and sometimes she does not, but it is mostly not. 
 
 What are the reasons ? 
 
 Poor cows, poor keep, poor butter. 
 
 I have endeavored to meet the first difficulty, by showing the impor 
 tance of choobiug a really good cow. 
 
17 
 
 And in this book I shall try to prove to you the economy and wisdom 
 of feeding her well, and shnll try to prove that it pays. 
 
 I cannot do better than to give the actual figures, taken from my 
 own books. A splendid cow was put in my stable, just fresh in milk, 
 the 1st of October. Sbe was in grand condition, and had always been 
 well fed and cared for. Consequently she was able to go on to a splendid 
 piece of after-grass, and to take a goodly ration of graia as well 
 
 Now, in making out my estimate, I am leaving out fractions as being 
 easier for me to write and for others to follow me, and yet sufficiently 
 accurate for all practical purposes. 
 
 During October I fed my cow besides grass : 
 
 5 lbs. ground oats per day 5 cts. 
 
 4 lbs. " corn " 5 cts. 
 
 4 lbs. " peas *' Sets. 
 
 Total 15 cts. per day. 
 
 She needed no hay, as the grass was so good. During November, 
 December and January I fed her daily : 
 
 7 lbs. ground oats 7 cts. 
 
 8 lbs. bran 6 cts. 
 
 4 1 bs. ground corn 5 cts, 
 
 4 lbs. ground peas 5 cts. 
 
 leibs.hay 8 cts. 
 
 Total 30 cts. a day. 
 
 During February, March and April, I fed her : 
 
 4 lbs. ground oats 4 cts. 
 
 21bs. " corn 2J cts. 
 
 2 lbs. " ppas 2| cts. 
 
 4 lbs. bran 2^ cts. 
 
 ISlbs.hay , 8 cts. 
 
 Total 19J cts. per day. 
 
 During May and June she was on grass, requiring no hay, but sLo 
 had daily: 
 
 2 lbs. ground corn 2J cts. 
 
 2 lbs. « peas 2| cts. 
 
 Total 5 cts. per day. 
 
 As she was now only three months from calving, all grain was taken 
 from her, but as grass was good, and the cow in splendid order, she 
 gave a good yield of milk and butter (as will be seen in next table) 
 through July and half of August, when she was just dry, and had 
 six weeks' rest, and then calved again. 
 
18 
 
 It need hardly be said that the butter from this cow was exception- 
 ally fine. During seveu months, from 1st October to end of April, I 
 sold it for 30 cents a pound, and the rest of the time for 25 cents. 
 (This was before I kept registered Jerseys.) 
 
 Now, we can soon see how my cow and I stood at the end of the 
 year, by referring to the annexed table, giving her monthly yield and 
 cost of her keep : 
 
 Cost of keep in addition to Pasture. 
 
 October $4.50 
 
 November 9.00 
 
 December 9.00 
 
 January 9.00 
 
 February 6.00 
 
 March 6.00 
 
 April 6.00 
 
 May 1.50 
 
 June 1.50 
 
 July 
 
 August 
 
 September 
 
 Yield of 
 Butter, I bs. 
 
 Price. 
 
 60 at 30 cts. 
 
 $18.00 
 
 50 
 
 15.00 
 
 40 " 
 
 12.00 
 
 40 
 
 12.00 
 
 32 " 
 
 9.60 
 
 32 
 
 9.60 
 
 30 " 
 
 9.00 
 
 30 fit 25 cts 
 
 7.50 
 
 30 
 
 7.50 
 
 20 
 
 5.00 
 
 8 
 
 2.00 
 
 Pasture. 
 
 ^52.50 
 5.00 
 
 372 lbs. 
 
 $107.20 
 57.50 
 
 $57.50 Profit $49.70 
 
 I considered this a good showing, but I assure you it was not my 
 first attempt at dairying, I had worked up to it by degrees, acquiring 
 experience as I went. And I could have made no such record with a 
 poor cow, but I will speak of this point in my next chapter. 
 
19 
 
 CHAPTER lY. 
 
 WHAT IS THE BEST BUTTER BREED ? 
 
 I think I hear many of my readers ask this question, and I will 
 answer it as honestly as I can. I experimented for years with many 
 different breeds, having no prejudice in any way, either for or against 
 any of them, except in one case. 
 
 Hailing, as I do, " frae the land o' caikes," or, as I like better to put 
 it, from " the Land o' the Leal," I must confess to a life-long fond- 
 ness for a good Ayrshire cow. 
 
 Their beauty and docility, their great yield of milk, and their hardy 
 constitutions place them almost the first on the list of dairy cattle, in 
 my opinion. 
 
 With all my heart, I wish I could write them first, but it would be 
 false to my convictions. 
 
 They are a truly magnificent breed, but there is one cow in the world 
 that I think is still better in the dairy, and that is the little Channel 
 Island cow, be she Jersey, Guernsey, or Alderney. They are all, vir- 
 tually, the same breed, raised under the same rules and restrictions, 
 and by reason not only of their marveflous yield of butter, but from 
 the wonderful quality of that butter, the Jersey cow stands to-day in 
 the proud position of queen of the dairy. 
 
 If I didn't keep Jerseys I would keep Ayrshires, but I have got to 
 confess that the Jerseys are ahead, for one situated as I am. 
 
 I don't mean to detract one bit from the merits of my favorites, the 
 Ayrshires,— no, indeed, "It's not that I love Jemima less, but L love 
 doughnuts more," and now I will give my reasons for it : I faithfully 
 tried Ayrshires, Shorthorns (of good milking strains), native cows, and 
 different grades, and, while attaining good results, I found there was 
 still much to be desired, a good deal in quantity, but more, very much 
 more, in quality. 
 
 And so, after many years' labor and testing, I at last got a grade 
 Jersey, which is the cow referred to in my last chapter, and every one, 
 
20 
 
 I think, will admit that the butter yield is grand, especially in view of 
 the food consumed. But she had a large share of Ayrshire blood in 
 her, besides being half Jersey. 
 
 I plainly state, that for every one who makes butter, I think the 
 Channel Island cattle the most paying, not only on account of quantity, 
 but much more on account of quality, which is, certainly, superlative. 
 
 But everyone must be their own judge in this matter. 
 
 Now, as to my preference for Jerseys, I will give a lew reasons, so 
 that the public may know why I like them. 
 
 Some people object, that the Jersey gives so little milk as compared 
 with other cows. 
 
 This is entirely different from my experience. Not only does a good 
 Jersey give a fine mess of milk, when fresh, but she holds to it through- 
 out the year in a way totally unknown to other breeds, and some Jerseys 
 never go dry for years. 
 
 It is this persistent milking of such rich milk, and this large and 
 continuous yield of butter of most exquisite quality, that renders 
 the Jersey, ^ar excellence, the family cow. Perhaps I can better con- 
 vince my readers by giving a few figures. 
 
 The grade cow referred to in the previous chapter was not only 
 tested for butter, but every milking was weighed, all through the year, 
 and she gave exactly 7,756 lbs. of mi.lk in eleven months. This sold 
 at the usual average price would bring in $200 a year, less the cost of 
 keeping the cow. 
 
 Being so pleased w^ith grades, I resolved to purchase some pure 
 Jerseys, which I did, seventeen years ago, and every succeeding year 
 since then has only confirmed and strengthened my opinion, that the 
 Jersey, for boih milk and butter, is the most profitable cow in all the 
 world. 
 
 A two-year old heifer, well cared for with me, will make more butter 
 than those of same age of any breed I ever knew. For instance, here 
 are some tests ia my herd : 
 
 Orange Delia, 2 years, 9^ lbs. per week ; Miss Daisy Delle, 2 years, 
 10| lbs. per week ; Charlotte Hertedy, 2 years, 8^ lbs, per week ; 
 Topsey of Malone, 2 years, 14J lbs. per week ; Bessie of Malone, 21 
 months, lOJ lbs. per week; Jetsam's May, first prize 3-year old 
 at Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal, also sweepstakes, as best of any age, 
 
21 
 
 at Montreal, and in my first prize herd :it the Montreal Exhibition 
 last September, made me, the year before, ut otily 2 years old, 14 lbs. 
 5 oz. a week, thus pretty well endorsing the judge's opinion ; Belle 
 Temple 2nd, 2 years, 14 lbs. a week ; Charming of St. Lambert, 2 
 years, 15|- lbs. a week; Liiium Excelsium 2nd, 2 years, 10| lbs. a 
 week. 
 
 These are only a very few of the two-year-old tests I have made, 
 and most of these heifers, after milkiag for nine months, were still 
 making 1 lb. per day of splendid butter. la older cows a few of 
 the tests are : 
 
 Eugenie 2nd, 14 lbs. a week ; Imported Mulberry, 14^ lbs. a week ; 
 Brown Mulberry, 14 lbs. a week; Silver Dalle, 17^ lbs. a week; Belle 
 Stenben, 17 lbs. a week; Liiium Excelsium, 17^ lbs. a week; Princess 
 Clothilde, 17|' lbs. a week; Sibyl's Lass, 14 lbs. a week; Rioter's 
 Queen, 17| lbs. a week; Lisgar's Ella, 17Mbs. a week ; Diana of St. 
 Lambert, 16 lbs. a week; Bortha Black (at rate of), 23 lbs. 10 oz. a 
 week ; Maggie Rex (at rate of), 21 lbs. 7 oz. a week; Miss Sataaella, 
 20 lbs. 6 oz. a week on second calf only. 
 
 Now, these are all sworn tests, made either under my direct super- 
 vision, or made entirely by myself, in person, and they are only a very 
 few of those I could report. Is it any wonder, then, that I should 
 prefer the Jersey cow ? 
 
 I don't say that no other breed will make the same quantity of 
 butter on same quantity of feed. 
 
 But I do s.iy, that I never could get them to do it, or nearly to 
 do it, and I think I understand the matter pretty well. 
 
 In conclusion, it has been urged that Jerseys are delicate and soon 
 wear out. I can oflPer no better refutation than to submit the test 
 of my grand old cow, Masseua, after she had entered her sixteenth 
 year, and then leave farmers to draw their own conclusions. 
 
 In her sixteenth year Massena has yielded, in six months only, 
 5413^ pounds milk, from which has been actually churned 416 lbs, 
 10 oz. spleudid butter. 
 
22 
 
 Milk. Butter. Milk. Butter. 
 
 lbs. lbs. oz. lbs. lbs. oz. 
 
 March 6.. 28 , „ April 25.. 22 , „, 
 
 March 7.. 30 "^ " April 26.. 20 ^ ^J 
 
 March 8.. 30^ o q April 27.. 22 , „ 
 
 March 9.. 31 ^ ^ April 28.. 26 * ^ 
 
 March 10. .31^ „ ,, April 29..26i , ,, 
 
 March II. .30^ "^ ^^ April 30..26J * ^* 
 
 March 12.. 30 
 
 March 13.. 32^ * * May 2..26i 
 
 March 14.. 32 
 
 4 4 May 1..26 ^ 
 
 4 9 May 3.. 26^ , » 
 
 March 15.. 33 * ^ May 4..25i ^ " 
 
 March 16. .33 . ,, Mav 5..28i , „, 
 
 March 17.. 33^ * ^^ Ma> 6..29| * ^^ 
 
 March 18.. 34 . „ May 7.. 29* , „, 
 
 March 19..33J "^ ^ . May 8...30| ^ ^^ 
 
 March 20.. 33^ , „, May 9..3U . o, 
 
 March 21..32J "* ^* May 10.. 30 ^ ^^ 
 
 March 22.. 33 , . May 11..30A 
 
 March 23.. 32 J ^ * May 12..3oi '^ ^ 
 
 March 24.. 3l| . .,, May 13.. 30^ , 
 
 March 25.. 33^ ^ ^? May 14..30J ^ ' 
 
 March 26.. 34 . „ May 15.. 30* , „, 
 
 March 27. .33 ^ " May 16. .30" ^ ^* 
 
 March 28. .33 , „, May 17. .30* , „ 
 
 March 29. .33 ^ "^^ May 18..30| "^ ^ 
 
 March 30. .32J . ,, May 19. .30* , », 
 
 March 31.. 26* *" ^^ May 20.. 30* * "? 
 
 April 1..33 r , May 21.. 29* , „, 
 
 April 2.. 31 ^ ^ May 22.. 29.} * ^? 
 
 April 3.. .301 , ,, May ^23. .30* . ,, 
 
 April 4.. 32 ^ ^^ May 24..,30" ^ ^^ 
 
 April. 5.. 32^ , „ May 25.. 30 , q, 
 
 April 6.. 32^ ^ " May 26.. 30 * ^* 
 
 April 7. .31 f. „ May 27. .30 , ^ 
 
 April 8.. 31 '^ ^ May 28.. 31 ^ ^ 
 
 April 9.. 31 . ,, May 29.. .30* , ,„ 
 
 April 10.. 29^ * ^^ May .30.. 30} * ^^ 
 
 April 11.. 29 . ,r May 31.. 30} . „, 
 
 iitril 12.. 27} * 1^ June 1...30 ^ ^J 
 
 April 13. .28 . ,, June 2. .29 , „, 
 
 April 14.. 29 * ^* June 3.. 30 * ^* 
 
 April 15.. 29} . ,;, June 4.. 30 . „, 
 
 April 16. .30 * ^^ June 5.. 30 * ^^ 
 
 April 17.. 29 . ,, June 6.. 30 . oi 
 
 April 18.. 29 * ^-^ June 7.. 30* ^ ^^ 
 
 April 19. .29} . ,. June 8. .29* . k. 
 
 April 20.. 29} * ^^ June 9.. 30 * '» 
 
 April 21.. 30 . ,„ June 10.. 30 - „, 
 
 April 22. .29 * ^^ June 11.. 30 ^ ^T 
 
 April 23.. 28 . . June 12.. 29* . „ 
 
 April 24.. 23 J ^ ^ June 13.. 30 ^ ^ 
 
23 
 
 Milk. Butter. 
 
 lbs. lbs. oz. 
 
 June 14.. 30 . HI 
 
 June 15..29J * '^ 
 
 June 16.. 30 , qi 
 
 June 17. .30 * ^^ 
 
 June 18.. 30 . ni 
 
 June 19.. .30 * ^* 
 
 June 20.. 30 , ^, 
 
 June 21.. 28^ ^ ^^ 
 
 June 22.. 30 , f,, 
 
 June 23.. 29 J * '^ 
 
 June 24.. 29 . ., 
 
 June 25.. 29 * ^* 
 
 June 26..28i . - 
 
 June 27.. 29 * ' 
 
 June 28..29i . „ 
 
 June 29..28J * ' 
 
 June 30..29I . . 
 
 July 1..28| * ^ 
 
 July 2.. 29^ g, 
 
 July 3.. 28^ * ''^ 
 
 July 4.. 29 . K, 
 
 July 5.. 28 J * ^^ 
 
 July 6.. 29 . Q 
 
 July 7..29J * ^ 
 
 July 8.. .30 , 3 
 
 July 9..30J * " 
 
 Julv 10..29J . K, 
 
 July II.. 29 * '2 
 
 July 12.. 30 . ^ 
 
 July 13..29§ * ' 
 
 July 14.. 29^ ^ g, 
 
 July 15.. 29^ * ^* 
 
 July 16. .29 , ,, 
 
 July 17.. 32 ^ ^^ 
 
 July 18..28J . K, 
 
 July 19. .29 * ^^ 
 
 July 20.. 29 , Q 
 
 July 21.. 29 * ** 
 
 July 22.. 30 . - 
 
 July 23.. 29 * ' 
 
 July 24., 28 - ^, 
 
 July 25.. 27 J * ''* 
 
 For 6 consecutive months Massena thus averaged over 29 lbs. 
 of milk a day, and for 6 consecutive months she has averaged 16 lbs. 
 of butter every week. If any cow but a Jersey will do this, I have 
 never seen it. But this is why I keep Jarseys. 
 
 
 Milk 
 
 , Butter. 
 
 
 lbs. 
 
 lbs. oz. 
 
 July 
 
 26.. 28 
 
 4 5J 
 
 July 
 
 27.. 27 
 
 July 
 July 
 
 28. .28 
 29. .28 
 
 4 6J 
 
 July 
 July 
 
 30. .28 
 31.. 28 J 
 
 4 7 
 
 Aug. 
 
 1..30 
 
 4 7 
 
 Aug. 
 
 2. .29 
 
 Aug. 
 Aug. 
 
 3. .30 
 
 4..28J 
 
 4 6J 
 
 Aug. 
 
 5, ,29 
 
 4 7 
 
 Aug. 
 
 6..28;^ 
 
 Aug. 
 Aug. 
 
 7.. 29" 
 
 8. .29 
 
 4 6 
 
 Aug. 
 
 9. .28^ 
 
 4 5J 
 
 Aug. 
 
 10. .28^ 
 
 Aug. 
 
 11. .28^ 
 
 4 7i 
 
 Aug. 
 
 12. .27^ 
 
 Aug. 
 Aug. 
 
 13.. 28^ 
 14. .27 
 
 4 6J 
 
 Aug. 
 Aug. 
 
 15..27i 
 16.. 28' 
 
 4 6J 
 
 Aug. 
 
 17. .28 
 
 4 7 
 
 Aug. 
 
 18. .28^ 
 
 Aug. 
 Aug. 
 
 19. .28 
 20. .29 
 
 4 6 
 
 Aug. 
 
 21,. 27^ 
 
 4 5J 
 
 Aug. 
 
 22.. 28^ 
 
 Aug. 
 
 23.. 27* 
 
 A. r. 
 
 Aug. 
 
 24.. 28' 
 
 '± u 
 
 Aug. 
 Aug. 
 
 25.. 28 
 26. .28 
 
 4 GJ 
 
 Aug. 
 
 27. .28 
 
 4 5J 
 
 Aug. 
 
 28,. 27 J 
 
 Aug. 
 
 29. .28 
 
 * f^ 
 
 Aug, 
 
 30.. 28 
 
 Tt tl 
 
 Aug. 
 
 31. .27^ 
 
 4 7 
 
 Sept, 
 
 1.-27^ 
 
 *t 1 
 
 Sept. 
 Sept. 
 
 2. .29 
 3.. 28 
 
 4 4J 
 
 Sept. 
 
 4.,27i 
 
 4 4 
 
 Sept. 
 
 5. .27^ 
 
 
 Total lbs, 
 
 Milk. 
 
 ■ 1 5413^ 
 
 416 10 
 
24 
 
 The next month her yield was estimated only, as she was away at 
 the Fairs. 
 
 We took the average yield of August, the month before she went 
 away, and of October, the month after she returned, to arrive at her 
 yield when away. 
 
 On this basis her whole year's record was as follows : 
 
 Milk. Butter 
 lbs. lbs. oz. 
 March Yth to Sept. 6th, inclusive, just 6 mos., the cow 
 
 actually yielded .5,413J 416 10 
 
 Sept. 7th to Oct. 6th, estimated 751^' 61 4| 
 
 Oct. 7th to Nov. 6th, actual 629 54 8 
 
 Nov. 7th to Dec 6th, actual .590^ 51 15 
 
 Dec. 7th to Jan. 6th, actual 505^ 43 IJ 
 
 Jan. 7th to Feb. 6th, actual 333 21 4J 
 
 Feb. 7th to 15th, 9 days, actual 67J 5 6 
 
 Total for 11 mos. and 9 days 8,290^ 654 f 
 
 From February 15th her milk was thrown out, till the morning of 
 the 28th, when she dropped a fine heifer calf sired by her own son, 
 Massena's son, that bad such a glorious success at our exhibitions last 
 fall. 
 
 To return to Massena's test. It was made during her sixteenth year ; 
 she had dropped two mature calves inside of a year. 
 
 She had traveled over 1,100 miles by rail, within the year, and stood 
 three weeks on Fair grounds. She had been in no way forced, as being 
 far, too valuable; for nearly two months before caiving she had no grain 
 whatever. During the nineteen weeks previous to calving she averaged 
 over 9^ Ibf . butter a week, and for the whole period, until the last seven 
 weeks (when she was only eating thin bran) it took but 11^ lbs. of her 
 milk to make 1 lb. of butter. What cow of her age can beat the 
 record ? 
 
25 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 OHOOSE THE BREED WHICH TOU ARE SURE SUITS TOUft 'iVANTS BEST. 
 IMPROVING OUR DAIRY STANDING. 
 
 Do uot, however, think that I am blind to the merits of any co^ but 
 a Jersey. 
 Far from it. 
 
 "A GOOD COW IS A GOOD COW, ALL THE 
 WORLDOVERBESHEWHATBREEDSHEMAY" 
 
 It is not the object of this book to advertise my Jerseys, I have no 
 need and no wish to do so in this way ; it is better done in the proper 
 channel. 
 
 My sole aim in writing this is to induce people to select and to keep 
 only the very best cattle of their kinds ; to show them (as far as I 
 know myself) how to make more butter and far better butter than 
 ever before, and also how to market it to better advantage, go as to net 
 them more money; to awaken American farmers to the fact that tliey 
 are not keeping up with the procession, and to show them that every 
 year thousands of dollars which ought to go into their own pockets 
 are paid out by England to Irish and Danish dairymen. 
 
 Wo don't make half enough butter, in view of the number of cows 
 in this country, and what -we do make is not nearly as good as it ought 
 to be. 
 
 And there is no excuse for this state of affairs. There is more 
 thoroughbred stock in the couniry than ever before, and at lower 
 prices. 
 
 The economy and advantages of the silo are now so well understood, 
 that farms can carry at least one-third more stock, and at less 
 expense. 
 
 Experimental Farms and Travelling Dairies prevail, diffusing sound, 
 practical teaching, and illustrating every step. 
 
 If, with all these advantages, Americans, cannot put the dairy 
 product of their country on the footing that really belongs to it, they 
 have no one but themselves to blame. 
 
26 
 
 However, I want no one to pin their faith to mine. 
 
 Look about you, make testa and experiments, and then bring com- 
 mon sense to bear on the matter. 
 
 Only, let me warn you about one thing, carry your experiments far 
 enough to be perfectly sure of your ground, otherwise you may be 
 greatly misled. 
 
 " One swallow doesn't make a summer," neither does one experiment 
 prove a thing. In fact, the second experiment often contradicts the 
 first. 
 
 Why is this, you ask ? 
 
 Because experiments are so largely affected by circumstances, some 
 of which we know nothing about, and others that we know all about 
 but cannot control. 
 
 A great viany experiments, however, will soon determine a point 
 beyond a shadow of doubt. 
 
 I will now give you this advice : 
 
 Having carefully determined which is the best breed of cattle for 
 you, and which will best suit your surroundings and best pay for their 
 keep, then get the very best specimens of that breed that you can pos- 
 sibly procure. 
 
 Don't waste your money, but don't haggle about the price of a really 
 first-class animal. 
 
 One dollar saved by purchasing an inferior animal is generally one 
 hundred dollars lost before the year is out. 
 
 If you can start with a small but clioice herd of thoroughbreds you 
 are fortunate, and are on the high road to success. 
 
 If you can only buy two, buy a pair, the very best you can get, and 
 your thoroughbreds will gradually increase, while the rest of your herd 
 will be graded up by degrees till your pleasure and your profit will 
 surprise you. 
 
 If you can only buy one animal, let it be a thoroughbred male, and 
 then you will soon be able to afford a choice female of the same sorty 
 and will have made a good beginning. 
 
27 
 
 CHAPTEE YL 
 
 MILKING AND SKIMMING. — SETTING MILK. — SHALLOW PANS.— 
 CREAMERS. — SEPARATORS. 
 
 Having got the very best cow possible, and fed her in the best man- 
 ner, the next step is to make the finest quality of butter, and then to 
 market it in the most advantageous manner. 
 
 I hare often been asked how I made such good butter, and my 
 answer is, I don't go too much by any given rule. 
 
 It is not possible to have full control over atmosphere and other sur- 
 roundings, therefore we must bring judgment and common sense to bear 
 upon the matter. 
 
 On a bench in the barn phould be placed large tin cans, with covers, 
 one c f them having a largo round tin shaped like a steamer fitted to the 
 top, and then the cover placed on that. Of course the bottom of this 
 is a wire strainer. Milking is done as quickly and quietly as possible, 
 care being taken to do it thoroughly and in a most cleanly manner. 
 Such a thing as watting the hands or tlie teats of the cows is never 
 permitted ; it is a filthy habit, <ind is most unnecessary. 
 
 Each cow's milk is .^trained into the can immediately, and covered at 
 once, and as quickly as one can is filled it is taken to the dairy, and 
 there strained again. In gome places shallow setting is still practised, 
 in which case the pans should be set in a cool dairy, or in a cellar that 
 is used for nothing but milk. Keep this place as pure and sweet as 
 possible ; in hot weather, keep the windows open at night and closed 
 during the day, and have wire screens over them constantly. 
 
 Now, some people will tell you to skim at the end of 24 or 36 hours, 
 or to skim regularly, night and morning. 
 
 Do nothing of the kind if you want to work to the best advan- 
 tage, but skim exactly when the milk is Jit. 
 
 I know it is a little hard to go to your dairy, prepared to skim the 
 milk and get the pans washed up and out of the way, and find the milk 
 not ready for skimming, but it can't be helped. Leave it alone, and go 
 back at noon, when it will probably be ready. 
 
28 
 
 The best time to skim shallow pans is when the milk is just begin- 
 ning to lopper or thicken in the bottom of the pun — has just com- 
 menced to sour. A little experience will soon teach when this is the 
 case. Then, with a spoon, loosen it all round tlie edge (never, never do 
 this with your finger, as is the disgusting habit of some people), set the 
 pan on the edge of your deep cream can, tip it a little, and the whole 
 thick sheet of cream, guided a little with your spoon, will slip off, quick 
 and clean, tnking hardly any milk with it. Tliis is by far the best and 
 quickest way of skimming shallow pans, and time is money in a large 
 dairy. 
 
 Never skim two milkings at the same time. If one is ready to skim 
 the other is not, or else one is too ripe. 
 
 In deep setting, things are different. With plenty of ice, the cream 
 is supposed to be all up in 12 hours in any of the good creamers now in 
 tiS3, and no doubt it generally is. As tlie milk, by this method, is 
 almost entirely protected from atmospheric influences, and is held at a 
 steady temperature, the process is much more uniform, and it is possible 
 to have regular hours for drawing off the cream, without any fear of mis- 
 take or loss. This is worth knowing. 
 
 I cannot imagine any one who has a bit of feeling for the females 
 of his household doing without a creamer, for the labor it saves is truly 
 surprising, and, to pat it on no higher grounds, it is generally cheaper 
 to take care of one s loife than it is to hury her. 
 
 And, besides, it is money in the farmer's own pocket, for more butter 
 and very much better butter can be made from a creamer than f'-om 
 shallow setting. 
 
 I confess to a love of the old way — the rows of shining pans in the 
 cool, quiet dairy, the rich hue of the golden cream, and most decidedly 
 to the thick cream that will hardly pour out on my porridge or my 
 strawberries, cream that can begot in no other way than by shallow 
 setting, and I have made just as much and just as good butter from 
 shallow setting, when temperature and everything else was exactly 
 right. But that " when" tells the whole story. It is simply impossi- 
 ble to control these surroundings, and they are not just right moro than 
 one-fourth of the time, and, therefore, we wisely take to the creamer, 
 which does all this for us and gives us a uniform product. Still better 
 is the centrifugal machine, or separator, as it is called, which separates 
 
29 
 
 the cream and milk as soon as milking is done, and more thoroughly, 
 all the year round, than can be done in any other way. 
 
 This mode saves the washing of many tins, and saves all the ice used 
 for deep setting. The only disadvantage seems to be in the hand labor 
 of turning the machine, where no steam power is used, but even this 
 cannot outweigh the many advantages of the separator. 
 
 When the cream is drawn oflF you are again at the mercy of tne 
 atujosphere, and now you must keep your wits about you, for here is 
 where much trouble creeps in. 
 
 Stir your can tlioroughly down to the bottom, twice a day, or every 
 time fresh cream is added, and keep it as cool as you possibly can (but 
 on no account freeze it) till you have sufficient for a churning. 
 
 Now, you must raise it in summer to 60 degrees, in winter to 62 to 
 65, according to the temperature of the room you churn in. 
 
 Some people do this by putting the can near the kitchen stove, and 
 then the butter is ruined before it goes into the churn. The side next 
 the stove will be ever so much too hot, oily and greasy, while the other 
 side is too cool, and the cream will absorb every odor of cooking and 
 kitchen, to re-appcar in the butter and tell the tale of ignorance or care- 
 lessness. 
 
 There is but one way to temper creaui properly, and that is in a hot 
 water bath. 
 
 Have a larger can than the cream can, and have ready along wooden 
 paddle, a common thermometer and a clean towel. Fill the larger can 
 about half full of hot water (but not boiling), then set in the cream can, 
 and instantly begin stirring constantly with the paddle, so none of the 
 cream next the tin will get over-heated. The water must raise as high 
 as the cream does, so all will be equally heated. 
 
 Have a light wire attached to your thermometer, and lower it to the 
 middle of the cream can occasionally. Hold it there a few moments^ 
 then take out and wipe quickly, so as to clear the glass. 
 
 The moment t!)e cream is of right temperature, lift out the can, stir 
 for a few moments longer, cover with a clean towel, and put where it 
 will remain at exactly the same temperature till fit to churn. 
 
 Of this fitness or ripeness much has been said or written, while the 
 truth is that only experience can decide. Twenty- four hours has been 
 fixed as the right time, but it is often more and often less. Stir two 
 
30 
 
 or three times a day, and watcli closely, and you will hardly fail in hit- 
 ting the right degree of sourness or ripeness. But before you put it 
 into the churn, try it again with the thermometer to insure its being 
 just right, for nothing is a greater source of vexation and trouble than 
 churning at a wrong temperature. If the cream is too hot, the butter 
 is spoiled; if too cold, you may cburn in vain for hours, and lose your 
 temper and your time. 
 
31 
 
 CHAPTER YII. 
 
 CHURNING. — SALTING, 
 
 Having got your cream into the best possible condition for cburning, 
 proceed to scald jour churn with water that is actually boiling. Then 
 coolit with fresh water, put in your cream, and churn with a steady, 
 regular movement, and not too fast. 
 
 In spite of all our care, it will be found that this business is easier 
 in summer than in winter weather, partly because grass butter cornea 
 easier, and partly because of the higher and more uniform tempera- 
 ture, fifteen to thirty minutes in summer, and thirty to forty-five 
 minutes in winter, will generally bring the butter in fine order. 
 
 An experienced ear can tell when the butter has come, by the peculiar 
 washing sound in the churn, quite different from the dull, heavy thud 
 of the thick cream when it is first put in. Our grandmothers could 
 tell fast enough by the look of the dasher ns it worked up and down, 
 but the dash churn is now a thing of the past, and we are well rid of it, 
 because it brought the butter in huge lumps — in fact, one of the old- 
 time rules was to " gather the butter " in the churn before it was lifted 
 out. 
 
 It was then put into a wooden bowl, washed and re-washed, spread 
 out, and rolled up again, and beaten and jnashed with a ladle till nine- 
 tenths of the butter was spoiled before it ever went on the table. 
 
 This is all wrong. I don't mean to say that good butter was never 
 made in the old times, for we all know better, but it was made only by 
 a few, and made under difficulties. Ifc was made by those who fed 
 their cattle so well, those who were so intelligent in their ideas and so 
 cleanly in their habits, and they succeeded in spite of many draw- 
 backs. 
 
 They used the greatest judgment in creaming and ripening and the 
 greatest care in working the butter. They never slid the ladle over it, 
 leaving a shiny, greasy surface behind and breaking the gram, but they 
 pressed it carefully, and worked it no more than was absolutely neces- 
 sary. 
 
32 
 
 But they were the exception and not the rule, and good butter was 
 the exception also and not the rule ; while if the system of to-day be 
 followed, as set forth in our leading papers, and taught in our dairy 
 schools, good butter will be the rule, and poor butter the exception. 
 
 Having irreverently demolished the system of our grandmothers, 
 what are we to do ? I answer, churn till the butter is in a granular 
 form, till it is only as big as grains of wheat, iiud then stop ; it is 
 done. 
 
 Now, you have two objects in view : First, to keep it in that form, 
 to keep all those little grsLins entirely/ apart, till the butter is thoroughly 
 washed, and next, to bring it together after it is properly washed. 
 
 Now, there is only one thing that will keep the grains from adhering, 
 and that is cold. Have the coldest water you can get, ice water in 
 summer, and a handful or two of salt in it. Having drawn off your 
 buttermilk, pour on enough of this cold brine to well cover the butter 
 and then work the churn very slowly and gently for a minute, draw 
 off the water, and put on some more, and, if necessary, repeat again, 
 till the water runs off the butter as clear as when it was put on. 
 
 If properly managed, the butter will have been washed as if it were 
 so much gravel or so much shot, and will not have adhered at all, but 
 will lie in the churn, looking exactly like yellow wheat,— a bonny sight, 
 and a profitable one as well. 
 
 In warm weather you may lift it out in that state, but in very cold 
 weather it is better to pour on some more water at G2° to 65°, and let 
 stand a few moments, then drain and takeout on the worker. It will 
 still be in grains, but not too hard to gather into a mass whenever you 
 begin to work it. 
 
 Use only the very best salt, too much stress can hardly be laid upon 
 that, and also don't over-salt. It won't keep the butter a bit better, 
 but especially if the salt be the common poor stuff generally used, the 
 butter will be actually bitter to the taste, and rough and gritty to the 
 tongue. This is the poorest economy, and I think as much butter has 
 been spoiled by this practice as by all other causes put together. 
 
 Use Ashton talt, or Iliggins, or the nearest to those that you can get, 
 and don't grudge the small extra cost, for it will pay you over and over 
 again. If not as fine as it possibly can be made, sift it, and then stir 
 it lightly and evenly into your granular butter, at the rate of half aa 
 
33 
 
 ounce, three-quarters, or even a whole ounce to the pound, according 
 to taste. But let me assure you that too much salt overpowers all the 
 sweet and delicate flavor of your butter, and it is no longer the popular 
 taste. 
 
 For packed butter (which, however, I never have to make) I 
 would use an ounce to the pound ; but for fresh or print butter, only 
 half an ounce to the pound is my rule. I know this will surprise 
 many, but try it and see liow it works. The reputation my butter 
 has got is a sufficient guarantee of its goodness, and lest anyone should 
 think tliat I supply only a few people of peculiar taste, I may here 
 state that, last year, the output of my dairy was seven thousand 
 pounds. 
 
 Having thoroughly incorporated the salt, proceed to use the butter 
 worker, but no more than is absolutely necessary to get the butter into 
 a solid lump of even texture and color throughout. If it is not 
 worked enough it will be streaky, but this is a thing that very seldom 
 happens. One rarely sees butter hurt by too little working, while it 
 is almost invariably spoiled by too much working. 
 
 Now, if the temperature of your dairy is just right, and can be kept 
 that way, so tlie butter will neither get soft and oily, nor get hard and 
 crumbly, you may, with advantage, leave it a couple of hours, to let the 
 salt dissolve, and then make it up. But if you are not quite sure of 
 this, finish it while you are about it, for you would lose more than you 
 would gain by letting it stand. 
 
 Above all things, avoid the practice of some people of letting it stand 
 all night. It is impossible to re-work it then without breaking the 
 grain and greasing the butter. 
 
 If you print it, use a handsome print, with a good impression on top; 
 not an elaborate device, which is seldom stamped perfectly, but one as 
 simple as possible — a star, au acorn, or a sheaf of wheat. The best 
 print I ever had I got in New York for forty cents, and it had a Scotch 
 thistle on it; bo deeply and clearly was the thistle cut in the wood, 
 that the impression was just grand, as though carved in gold, and a 
 hundred of those prints in rows, in an immense flat tin, filled with cold 
 clear water before being packed, was a *' sight for sair ecu " I can tell 
 you. 
 
34 
 
 CHAPTEE VIII. 
 
 PRINTING. — PREPARING FOR MARKET. 
 
 I have said that I got my print in New York, and so I did, and it 
 only cost me 40 cents, and lasted me for many years. 
 
 Its advantages were these : the clear, deep impression it made, the 
 beautiful finish and smoothness of the wood, and above all the straight 
 sides. If you want to succeed, look well to these small things. 
 
 I found the prints I got here were made of poor wood, and soon split; 
 that the impression on top was cut in such a shallow way, and so 
 roughly, that one could hardly tell what it was meant for ; and also that 
 the sides of print sloped out, towards the bottom, which looks very 
 badly. On my New York print, the Scotch thistle on top stood up 
 half an inch and more, and was the handsomest I ever saw ; everyone 
 exclaimed that they had never seen butter so beautifully printed. 
 Besides which, straight sided prints pack better and closer, and don't 
 bruise so much. 
 
 Better prints can now be had here, but there is still much to be 
 desired in them. Square prints were once much in vogue, and I have 
 used them a great deal, but I confess that I don't like their appearance 
 so well. 
 
 The only advantages I can see are these, and they certainly count 
 for a good deal : 1st. — You can pack these bricks of butter in a solid 
 mass, and in much smaller space than any other form of print ; 2nd. — • 
 A good square print is so constructed that you can turn out exactly 
 the weight required, 1 lb. or J lb. to each print, while with the round 
 mould this is hardly possible. 
 
 Notwithstanding, I prefer the round one. You have got to please the 
 people's eye, and if you are as expert at printing as you should be, you 
 can soon come so close to the weight required as to surprise yourself. 
 
 And now let me caution you about one thing, be sure and give fall 
 weight. Whatever your prints are represented to weigh, see that they 
 do so. 
 
35 
 
 But, on the other hand, you must not rob yourself — this is more 
 easily done than you would suppose, and these small leaks make a 
 ■woeful diflFerence in your balance sheet. 
 
 Perhaps I can best explain by relating my own actual experience : 
 
 I was working in my dairy, and I put on the scales a print which 
 weighed half an ounce too much. A friend, who was watching mc, said, 
 ** Oh, let it go at that, you won't lose much by it." I told her that the 
 year before I had sent out 10, 000 prints of butter. Had each one been 
 half an ounce over weight tbat would mean at the end of the year 
 5000 ounces, or, in plain figures, a loss of 3122- lbs. butter. 
 
 There is nothing like facts and figures in cases like this, and eternal 
 vigilance is the price of success. Ask any milkman who sells milk out 
 of cans, what proportion of loss there is in re-measuring, and I think 
 you will be surprised. 
 
 Now, there must be some loss, but it is our own fault if that loss be 
 excessive. We have no right to defraud ourselves to the extent that my 
 friend suggested to me, for then liberality becomes wastefulness and 
 justice degenerates into folly 
 
 Yet, on the other hand, we must give good measure — we must give 
 doiOTKceight, so that the scale will sink promptli/, and no mistake 
 about it. Some loss there will certainly be, but if we are careful it 
 will not be very great, and it will be amply covered by the entire satis- 
 faction of our customers and the good price they are willing to pay, in 
 consequence. 
 
 Kow, as to wrapping up each print separately, it is most desirable,— 
 in fact, it is really necessary, if you want to market your product in 
 first-class shape. Unless in exceedingly cold weather, when it may be 
 omitted, but I would not advise this even then. 
 
 I have not used any of the preparations of paper, though some are 
 excellent and very cheap ; still, I prefer the cheese cloth, not the un- 
 tlcached, woolly stufi", that would not do at all, but the pure white cotton 
 cheese bandage ; it is a yard wide, is free from dressing, and only costs 
 about 6 cents a yard by the piece. Use this for all purposes about 
 butter. Cut a number of squares, in evenings or odd times, and 
 keep in a clean, dry place, and wrap each print in one, first wetting 
 the cloth in cold water, lay the square on top of your print, and fold 
 the four corners under the bottom. Then the tops of your prints wi.U 
 
36 
 
 present a uniform and pleasing appearance, the yellow butter shining 
 tlirough the thin white cloth — and, besides, there is no danger of break- 
 ing the impression on top in detaching the corners of the cloth, whea 
 they are underneatli. 
 
 Don't have your squares too big — they cost more, and look untidy.. 
 
 In whatever case you lay your prints, be it basket, or wooden case, 
 or drawer, let it be spotlessly clean and sweet and as new as possible. 
 Have a square yard of the white cheesecloth wrung out of ice water. 
 Lay half of i t smoothly in the bottom of basket or box. Arrange your 
 prints neatly on it, each in its own white wrapping. Then fold the 
 other half of your cloth over them, and over all lay a clean towel, 
 fresh out of the folds. 
 
 And now, do not be angry if I give you one piece of advice : 
 
 Avoid, as you would poison, the bedroom towel, so often used for 
 this purpose. You may say the towel is clean, and no doubt it is, but 
 the ideas it suggests are not cleanly, and its use is enough to condemn 
 the best basket of butti'r that ever went into market. 
 
 Still worse is the oZcZ piece of white cotton that has evidently seen 
 years of service, and has then been torn off from something, one doesn't 
 know what, and it is better not to enquire ! 
 
 It will pay you over and again to have half a dozen or more large 
 coarse, white linen towels, each marked " dairy " in large letters, and 
 use them for nothing else. So much for preparing butter in prints. 
 
 If you can sell the whole lot to one person you suffer less loss than 
 by selling in small lots. If you put it in rolls, there is less trouble and 
 less loss, but, as a rule, it brings loss money. If you prefer, however, 
 to have it in rolls, whether of 5 lbs., 2 lbs., or 1 lb., see that they are all 
 down-weight, and all so exactly alike that you can hardly tell one 
 from the other. Let each one be neatly wrapped in a piece of wet 
 white cheese-cloth, and laid evenly side by side. 
 
 Have your name plainly marked on all boxes, baskets and towels, 
 and if you have strictly followed all my directions you will hardly be 
 able to meet the demand for your butter. Your name will be a suflBi- 
 cient guarantee. 
 
 But don't expect this result all at once ; that is an impossibility. Be 
 patient and persevering, and you will succeed. 
 
 People who arc regularly served with sweet, delicious yellow butter, 
 
37 
 
 all year round, in dainty and spotless packages, will not willingly do 
 without it. They soon get to know that the full weight is always there, 
 that the quality is always superlative, that the appearance is pleasing, 
 and that the exquisite cleanliness is self-evident, and they will gladly 
 pay more than tlje market price for it. But you must educate them 
 up to this by degrees. 
 
 I have often heard visitors say : " Is this the famous Jersey butter ? 
 It is very fine, but not so very woaderlui after all." But, soon after, 
 meeting these same people, they invariably exclaim : " You have spoiled 
 us for any other butter ! We simply can't cat it now with any relish." 
 
 This is emphatically true. 
 
 Jersey butter steals into one's good graces before one knows it, and 
 when it gets there it stays there. The same is true, to a certain extent, 
 of all really good butter; but once market an inferior lot, and your 
 whole labor is undone, you have got to begin at the very beginning 
 again, aud handicapped with a damaged name at that. 
 
38 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 METHOD OF MARKETING PRINT BUTTER IN GILT EDGE DAIRIES. — 
 BEST BUTTER BOXES FOR SMALL LOTS, NOT PRINTED. 
 
 Print buttei certainly brings a higher price than any other, and, if 
 money alone be the object, it is well worth while to put it up in that 
 form. But it often happens that there is not time for this, and the 
 question arises, if I have to put up my butter in bulk, how shall I 
 do it? 
 
 I have tried little crocks, and they are very nice, but they cost too 
 much, and, besides, they are heavy to handle and liable to break. 
 
 I have tried neat white tubs lined with tin. These are a pretty 
 package, but the tin soon rusts and corrodes from the salt. And, be- 
 sides, no one who wants a fancy price for fancy butter wants to put it up 
 in as large packages as these. It will, if of best quality, rank as A 1 
 tub butter, but it will bo " tub butter," and this is not what we want. 
 
 We are now speaking of strictly fresh choice table butter — that which 
 is most appropriately called, in the States, 10 days butter — meaning, 
 that to be eaten in its prime it should all be consumed within 10 days 
 of the time it is churned. And I will tell you how they manage this 
 in the States. 
 
 The most delicious print butter is sent into the cities once a week 
 packed in Philadelphia ice tubs. In these the ice docs not touch the 
 butter, but is in a compartment by itself This butter sells at from 
 fifty cents to a dollar a pound, all through the week. 
 
 But (and here is the secret) at the end of the week, every print 
 remaining unsold is returned to the dairy from whence it came; 
 the dealer is credited with the amount returned, while a fresh made 
 supply goes forward for the ensuing week. 
 
 The returned butter is sold in the neigliborhood of the dairy for a 
 fair price, but for nothing like city prices. 
 
 The wisdom of this policy must be apparent to every one. These 
 dairymen hold their reputation above everything else, and jealously 
 guard it. Nothing would induce them to allow one print of their butter 
 
39 
 
 to go oa th:: market that was not cliuraed within the week, and that 
 was not strictly up to their usual standard. They would not sell a 
 print of butter that had begun to "go off" even if they were offered 
 ten dollars a pound for it, because the ten dollars in their pocket to-day 
 would be many hundreds of dollars out of it in the future, and they are 
 keenly alive to this fact. 
 
 As a result, a customer once got is never lost, and even a fall in 
 prices does not affect them. People know that the name of such a firm 
 is like the Hall mark on silver, or the stamp on a guinea, that it is a 
 warranty of absolute perfection in that line, and then the public have 
 got to have these goods, and won't be satisfied with any other. 
 
 If people could only be brought to realize this, and to act upon it, 
 what a revolution it would make in business! "Honesty is the best 
 policy," is quoted glibly enough, and often by those who don't even 
 know what honesty means; but let me tell you that under that trite old 
 saying there is a meaning as deep as the sea and as wide as the world, 
 if people would only see it. 
 
 You will say, " what of the loss involved by butter returned to the 
 dairy and sold at a reduced price ? " 
 
 There is no loss. 
 
 In the first place, there is but little returned, so great is the demand. 
 Often, for weeks together, there is none at all returned, as supply has 
 been short. 
 
 In the second place, even this returned butter is sold at a price that 
 would seem wonderful to many a farmer, and at a price that pays well 
 for its making. Neighbors all round know exactly what it is, and are 
 only too glad to get it. They use it immediately, as they are supposed 
 to do, and are well pleased. The dairies make a good profit on this 
 returned butter, and what they make on the higher -priced city butter is 
 just so much more clear profit over and above that again. 
 
 This is a most satisfactory state of things, but it can only be attained 
 by adhering rigidly to the fixed rules laid down. Once yield to temp- 
 tation for the sake of present gain, and your reputation is gone, and 
 can never be regained. 
 
 A great trouble with us is that we are short-sighted, narrow, greedy 
 and grasping. 
 
 We are not content to build up a reputation by slow degrees, knowing 
 
40 
 
 that people will soon awake to tlie fact that they can't do without us, and 
 must pay our price. We want to charge the price right away, and then 
 convince the people afterwards how superior our goods are. 
 
 Now, this is all wrong — it is the cart before the horse. 
 
 If you want to succeed, convince people first and then charge them 
 afterwards. 
 
 I will tell you how T put up a great deal of my butter. I get small 
 round boxes, hooped with tin, and parafl&ned inside. These come in 
 "nests,*' if desired, are exceedingly neat and attractive, clean, strong 
 enough for all practical purposes, and wonderfully li<i;ht to handle. The 
 most desirable sizes hold 3 lbs., 5 lbs., 7 lbs., and 10 lbs. each. 
 
 They are also in general use in the States. 
 
 Fill a few of these boxes with sweet, yellow, fragrant butter, and pack 
 with dainty care, not smearing the edges. Lay a round of white " cheese- 
 cloth" wrung out of cold water on top, sprinkle on a little fine salt, 
 cover tightly, and stencil your name on it, and then see if your work 
 does not do you credit. 
 
 These little boxes are to be packed in outer cases of any size desired, 
 hviteven these I prefer to have of dressed stuflE", neat and tidy. Of course, 
 these boxes are not returned, but you do not expect it, as the cost is 
 trifling. A 10 lb. box costs 10 cents, and an outer case holding six of 
 these boxes (60 lbs.) costs 10 cents more. 
 
 And I don t know of any other way in which 60 lbs. of fresh table 
 butter can be put up, in faultless and most attractive style, at a cost of 
 10 cents. 
 
41 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 ON CHURNS. 
 
 I have often been asked what kind of churn, hutterworker, etc., T 
 use. I use a box churn, made in the States. 
 
 I do not say that it is the best churn in the world, because I don't 
 think so, but I do say that there is no better. 
 
 I got it in this way : My liusband was visiting one of the greatest 
 Jersey breeders in the States, many years ago, and was so delighted with 
 the butter there that he took note of all the dairy fixtures and got me 
 duplicates, whenever he could. 
 
 This churn is simply an oblong box (straight sides and ends) 
 with a cover on the top, about a foot square. This cover, when fitted 
 on, is secured by two buttons. From a stout, oblong frame, on the 
 floor, rise two uprights, or legs, about 2 by 10 and 3 ft. high. These 
 stand cross-ways of the frame, about three feet apairt, and on them rests 
 a stout board, 3 feet long and 10 inches wide. Tliese legs, or uprights, 
 are pinned to this platform, as well as to the frame below, so that they 
 can be pushed to and fro. 
 
 On the bottom of the churn are four cleats, along the four edges, so 
 when the churn is lifted on the platform it just fits down upon it and 
 docs not slide off. By a round wooden roller, reaching across one end of 
 the churn box, it is firmly held by a man, and pushed from him and 
 drawn towards him at any speed desired. 
 
 There are wheels with the churn, so that it may be attached to steam 
 or any other power, but, of late years, we work it by hand. 
 
 Formerly, I tried a power, but either we were not a success or the 
 power was not. Objecting to have any animal on a tread power, I got 
 a small sweep, but it was made by one of those geniuses found inmost 
 country neighborhoods, who arc cheap to begin with but ruinous in the 
 end. 
 
 And what a time we did have with it, to be sure ! 
 
 There was no horse on the place that was always at our disposal but 
 the children's pony, and how she did hate and despise that churning 
 
 3 
 
42 
 
 power I If left to herself, she would walk slower and slower, till at last 
 she would actually stop, and I do believe she was asleep half the time. 
 Then, when she was vigorously awakened, she would start with a jump, 
 till the churn nearly flew through the dairy roof. 
 
 As a result, it took two people, — one to mind the pony, and one to 
 mind the churn. 
 
 We then tried a large gray mare, that went rather better ; but one day 
 a little boy who was visiting at our house threw a stone at gray Lucy 
 as she was going around, and nearly frightened her to death. She 
 bolted and jumped over a fence, taking part of the power with her, and 
 as it was pretty well worn out we never got it repaired. 
 
 We churn 30 lbs. at a time. The foreman can do it alone, and some- 
 times does, but it is a heavy business, and so, as a rule, when all is 
 ready to begin, his assistant comes in and helps at the other end of the 
 churn, till the butter comes, and hardly misses the time. 
 
 In my churn are no dashers of any kind whatever — simply the 
 box, and nothing more. There is a ventilator at the top, and a 
 place at one end for drawing off the buttermilk. It is simple, durable, 
 and easily cleaned. I don't see how it could be improved upon. 
 
 But there are great numbers of capital churns in our American 
 markets, — in fact, the difficulty is to find a poor one. 
 
 I have also used, with much satisfaction, the common Swing churn. 
 I think it works easier than any I know. Especially is this true of 
 a tin churn that has a round body while the ends are conical. This 
 is, in a minute, hooked on to two chains, which hang from the ceiling, 
 and a delicate woman, by having the chains long enough, can sit down 
 in her chair, and work the churn with the greatest ease and comfort, 
 pushing it from her and then pulling on the string attached to the 
 end. 
 
 I know this may sound absurd to some who find it difficult to get 
 out of the old rut, but just let them try it and they will be surprised 
 and delighted. At any rate, anything is worth trying that will lighten 
 the labor of the over-tasked wife and mother. 
 
 I say plainly, and without hesitation, that a heavy churning in an 
 old-fashioned dash churn is not fit work for any woman, be she ever 
 so strong. 
 
 Of course, I don't allude to the 3 or 4 lbs. of butter sometimes 
 churned for table use by the thrifty housewife, with pride and pleasure, 
 
43 
 
 but to extensive dairy work, whicli is not only far too heavy, but, from 
 the peculiar motion involved, is most injurious to all females. 
 
 These tin churns are easier kept clean and sweet than wooden ones, and 
 are far lighter to lift and carry. For those whose churnings are not too 
 large, I cordially recommend them. 
 
 Tlie new dash chuin is also a good one. All those I have seen 
 have revolving dashers, but they make capital butter. However, 
 turning the crank is, to me, more laborious than any other way of 
 churning, while some people think it easier. But if an able-bodied 
 man does that part of the work (as he should do) I don't think he 
 will be found particular as to the motion. If all be ready when he 
 comes in, and cream properly tempered, so he is not kept churning for 
 hours, he will generally be pretty good-natured over it, and soon bring 
 the butter. 
 
 Barrel churns I don't like quite so well, because if they do leak, 
 they make a slop on the floor. And nothing makes such a mess as 
 milk, unless it is quickly and thoroughly cleaned up. In factories or 
 large dairies where the floor is often of cement, and there is every 
 convenience for flushing it with lots of water, it is all very well, and 
 the barrel churn has the advantage of holding more than any other. 
 But in a dairy like mine, being only one of my house cellars, I prefer 
 my own churn, or one similar to it, because I find it the most con- 
 venient. 
 
 A good churn is a good thing, and it is highly important to hav- one 
 that is easily cleaned. But it doesn't do to pin your faith entirely to 
 the churn, for good and bad butter can be made in the same one. 
 
 But not by the same person. 
 
 I may now state that I never have made better butter than I did 16 
 years ago, when I first got my Jersey cows. I had been in the habit of 
 churning, or having churned, enough butter for table use, many years 
 before that, and had learned all I could about the best methods. And 
 when I first got Jerseys I kept an accurate account of everything, 
 and have done so ever since. I found that, at the end of 12 months, 
 I made 2500 lbs. of as fine butter as I ever saw or tasted, audit was 
 all churned in an old-fashioned dash churn, and worked with a wooden 
 bowl and ladle. 
 
 I do not recommend this, as it is too laborious, but I only mention 
 it to show what can be done, even under adverse circumstances. 
 
44 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 ON BUTTER-WORKERS. THE OLD BOWL AND LADLE. 
 
 As for butter-workers, I am sorry I can't recommend those of Cana- 
 dian make as I do the churns. I have never seen but one that, to 
 my mind, is thoroughly satisfactory, and that is one made in the 
 States (sometimes called the Philadelphia). 
 
 It is an oblong wooden tray, over which a corrugated roller passes to 
 and fro, being worked by a crank. Mine cost eight dollars, besides 
 duty and freight, aud I would not t:ike $100 for it if I could not get 
 another. The tray is made of the best well seasoned white wood, and 
 the cogs and travellers are of galvanized iron. I never saw anything 
 that, in my opinion, worked butter so thoroughly and easily, and yet 
 preserved the grain so well, and they are so splendidly made as to last 
 for many years. I have only had two in 16 years, aud, as I work now 
 about 7000 lbs. of butter a year, the durability of these articles is 
 apparent. 
 
 Lest I may be accused of injustice to my own country (although I 
 sincerely hope not), I may state that I was greatly delighted, some 
 years ago, to find that a company in a town near us were making 
 this butter-worker. As I was then in want of a new one, I was 
 only too glad to give them the order, and when the article came home, 
 it looked precisely like the one I had got from Philadelphia years be* 
 fore. 
 
 But when I came to use it, I soon saw the difference. 
 
 In spite of everyday use. the seams opened and the wood warped. 
 The castings also were poor, and in a short time the whole thing went 
 to pieces, and was broken up for kindling. 
 
 It does seem a pity that same firms cannot be found enterprising 
 enough to make a first-class article of this pattern ; they would sell by 
 thousands. 
 
 If I had not a Reid, I should use the common three-cornered one 
 standing on three legs, and worked by a roller, one end of which fits 
 into a socket in the angle, while the other is held in the hand, and 
 pressed down upon the butter. But this is more tiresome to me. 
 
45 
 
 Somo people have asked me if I use sugar or saltpetre in my but- 
 ter. I answer no, nothing whatever but a very small allowance of the 
 very best salt that money can buy. 
 
 Next to dirt poor salt spoils more butter than anything else. I 
 have eaten butter, and so have we all, in which hard crystals of undis- 
 solved salt gritted between the teeth, and the taste was nearly as bitter 
 as though Epsom salts hnd been used. 
 
 As to sugar, etc., the very largest quatitity you could dare to use is 
 too small, by far, to be any help towards keeping the butter, while if 
 your churning is good, these things won't improve it, and if it is poor, 
 they won't redeem it. 
 
 Many people believe in putting as much foreign stuff as they can 
 into butter, and also in leaving as much water as they dare in it, be- 
 cause it then weighs heavier, and salt, sugar and water all cost less 
 by the pound than good butter. But rest assured that this is the wrong 
 way to work. 
 
 I am not speaking in the interest of the purchaser, but in your own 
 interest. If you want an extra price you have got to make an extra 
 article, and to stick to it. 
 
 If a man says "there is a roll of butter, and I want 15 cents a lb. 
 for it," a purchaser can take it or leave it, just as be chooses, and if he 
 finds it oozing with water and bitter with bad salt, he cannot reason- 
 ably complain. The farmer did not profess to make extra butter, nor 
 did he ask the price of a prime article. 
 
 But let a man offer good looking butter, and claim that it is as nearly 
 perfect as butter ever gets to be, and let him ask and get 35 cents per 
 lb. for it, and then see how quickly he will hear from his customers if 
 it is not up to the mark, and how they will steer clear of him another 
 time. 
 
 If, through any misfortune or accident, you have a poor churning, 
 don't put it upon your customers or upon the market at all as good but- 
 ter. Sell it, representing it exactly as what it is — an off-churning — to 
 some confectioner, who habitually uses that class of butter. 
 
 If you can't do that and can't eat it at home (and of course you 
 can't if you have been in the habit of eating good butter), then use it 
 for axle grease, as unfit for food. This will be no loss, but money in 
 your pocket in the end. 
 
 The loss was in making the bad butter, and not in throwing it 
 
46 
 
 away. If you have had the ill luck, or rather the carelessness, to make 
 poor butter, don't throw good money after bad by trying to sell it, and 
 spoiling your name ; that is only making a bad business worse. 
 
 To return to working butter. There are thousands of women to-day 
 in Canada, who, to the shame of their husbands be it spoken, have no 
 sort of butter-worker at all, but use the bowl and ladle. 
 
 I fancy I can see them, especially when the weather is getting cold 
 and butter hardens almost immediately. 
 
 Tlie butter breaks into small crumbs the minute the cold water 
 touches it, till the whole thing looks like barley broth more than any- 
 thing else, and the poor woman chases these particles around the bowl, 
 pressing and patting and coaxing them together, and just as she gets 
 one portion of it solid, or thinks she does, another part breaks away, 
 and she is in as bad a mess as ever, and strength and patience both 
 give out. 
 
 Oh yes, I know all about it, for I've been there myself many a time 
 and know how it feels. 
 
 But there is no need for this, if we only go the right way to work. 
 And in my next chapter I will teli what I found to be the best way 
 out of the scrape. 
 
47 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 EASE AND COMPORT IN CHURNING. — " BIO LITTLE THINGS " IN THE 
 DAIRY. — THE MAN WHO FOLLOWS HIS GRANDMOTHER. 
 
 The best way out of the scrape referred to in my last chapter is to 
 \iy a thermometer, and to see that it is used. 
 
 Then there will be no more weary churning for hours and hours, no 
 more frothing cream or hard, white crumbly butter, no aching back 
 or arms over a wretched, greasy little lump that is not fit to be called 
 butter. 
 
 If your cream has been properly kept all along, and properly ripened, 
 and if it has been brought to a proper temperature, 24 hours before 
 churning, and held at that^ you should bave no more trouble than you 
 would with June butter. 
 
 Next, as to washing. Don't dash icy water on to your butter in 
 winter, and then wonder that, at the last, it won't adhere. 
 
 I may have said this before, but I can't say it too often ; wash with 
 water just cold enough to keep the par tides from adhering, till every 
 trace of milk is removed, and water runs off as clear as crystal, and 
 then submerge in water a little bit warmer, according to the season, 
 and gently churn for a few seconds — not enough to unite the butter, 
 you don't want that just yet, but enough for it to take, from the tem- 
 pered water, the waxy, yet yielding consistency of summer butter. Lift 
 it out, still in granules or grains, or, if preferred, stir the salt into it, in 
 the churn, but thoroughly and evenly mix it through the wheatlike 
 mass, and do it quickly for fear the butter gets too hard again, and 
 then pass your roller over it, or work with ladle (if you have to do 
 that), and you will find it unite quickly and easily into a compact, 
 yellow mass, that it is a pleasure to handle. 
 
 And this is why I advocate working butter only once. So few have 
 the facilities for keeping it at just the right temperature during the 
 interviil, and so few have judgment enough to avoid over-working it 
 the second time. 
 
 But, to return to our churning. 
 
 If, from any cause, the lump of butter has to be left in the bowl till 
 it is as hard as a stone, don't set it near the stove, as is commonly 
 done, or you will Qertainly spoil it, The side next the fire will become 
 
48 
 
 so soft und oily as to spoil the whole churning, while the inside of the 
 lump will remain as hard as a rock. 
 
 Cut your butter into pieces, not bigger than your fist, and drop into 
 a pail of water tempered to from G2° to 65°, and keep the water at that 
 heat, putting a plate or some such thing over the butter to keep it down. 
 After a while you will find it more evenly softened throughout than in 
 any other way, and you can work it with comparative ease. 
 
 If you have a large quantity to print, and have to do it in a very 
 cold cellar, it is a good plan to immerse the bulk of the butter in this 
 way, and only take off a pound or two at a time. 
 
 Lots of people will tell you that they can do just as well without a 
 thermometer, and that they can tell the exact temperature of water 
 with their hand. 
 
 They canH do it at all times, or with any degree of certainty at all. 
 If you have been out doors, and come in with hands half frozen, even 
 a very cold pail of water will seem warm to them, and vice versa^ And 
 even if, by dint of skill and guess-work, they do manage the churning 
 fairly well five or six times, they will be certain to miss it before long, 
 and then, as I said before, hours of weary work in tho dairy follow, 
 heaps of other work left undone in the meantime, weary limbs, angry 
 temper, poor butter at last, and discomfort and misery all through. 
 
 And all this can be avoided by the use of a thermometer, which 
 costs 30 cents, and the use of a little common sense, which costs noth- 
 ing at all. 
 
 It is worth remembering, however, that thick, rich cream from well- 
 fed cows is more quickly and easily churned than the thin, white stuff 
 half milk, from half-starved cattle. 
 
 A word about your thermometer. Don't tie a string to it to sink 
 it in the cream, for it soon becomes foul and ill-smelling. Fasten a 
 slender flexible wire to it. This is better than a string, and is easily 
 kept clean and sweet. 
 
 When I had to work butter in a bowl, and, indeed, very often since 
 then, I will tell you what I found a great help and comfort. A large, 
 clean, common sponge, tied up like a dumpling, in a square of whit^e 
 cheese cloth. Wring this dumpling tightly out of clean, cool water 
 and with it dab over the surface of your butter and take up the water 
 that accumulates in bottom of bowl. This convenience costs but a few 
 cents, and you have no idea what a help and comfort it is till you try 
 it! Of course, you dip the sponge in the water, or squeeze dry agaiq 
 
49 
 
 every few minutes, but you do your work in half the time, and twice 
 as well. It is one of the "big little things " of tlie dairy. 
 
 Do not think it tedious to attend to all these things. One bad day 
 in the dairy is far more tedious than attending to all the rules that 
 ever were written. It is true that, under some circumstances, and at 
 certain seasons of the year, butter will almost make itself, but these 
 are the exceptions. 
 
 At such times the ignorant and obstinate crow loudly and long. 
 They need no thermometer, and no book learning ; they don't work by 
 rule of thumb, but jast guess at it, like their mothers and grandmothers 
 did before them. 
 
 Forgetting that, in those old times (which seem at a distance so 
 much better than they really were), winter dairying was a thing almost 
 unknown. 
 
 Forgetting, too, that our worthy ancestors were, like ourselves, more 
 prone to proclaim from the housetops their successes than their failures, 
 and so, when they came to grief, we were not very apt to hear about it, 
 or to remember it if we did hear. 
 
 Just wait till the weather gets frosty and changeable, till the cows 
 shrink iu their milk, and get too much frozen grass, and too little grain 
 and warm mashes, and then call on these good " guessers," and see how 
 things are going with them. 
 
 If it is a woman who is struggling in the dairy, where everything is 
 going wrong from beginning to end, you will feel so sorry for her you 
 won't know what to say, and can only wonder at her patience, and feel 
 that it is worthy of a better cause. 
 
 But if it is a man that is working there, better not go in, for you can 
 gee enough of the circus without. 
 
 From the dairy door issues the steam of the boiling tea-kettle and 
 sounds of profanity, together with calls upon every female on the place 
 to wait upon him, and to bring him lots more hot water, and not to stand 
 there giping like foola, and be tells them that " churning is woman's 
 work, anyhow." 
 
 But not one word about his grandmother 1 
 
 Oh no, not to-day. 
 
 And when, at last, the bitter and unprofitable end is reached, he 
 slams the churn, and kicks a pail over, and leaving the dairy in a 
 hopeless mess goes out and kicks the cow, and then goes round that 
 place like a comet for the rest of the day. 
 
60 
 
 CHAPTER Xm. 
 
 AN ANSWER TO MR. DOHERTY. — PRACTICAL EXPERIENCE. 
 
 I had got thus far in my labors when I was very ably criticized by 
 a gentleman who wiites : — " In my previous investigations I was led to 
 believe that an animal of 1000 lbs. weight required 21 lbs. of digestible 
 dry matter per day, consisting of 2.50 albuminoids, 12.50 carbo-hy- 
 drates and 40 fiit. Now, Mrs. Jones, during the months of November, 
 December and January, fed her cow 31.35 lbs. of digestible dry matter 
 made up of 3.13 albuminoids, 19.06 car' o-hydratesand .94 fat, which, 
 according to my previous teaching, should be sufficient for a cow 
 weighing 1635 lbs., or about enough for two medium-sized cows of 800 
 lbs. each. Without giving us seekers after truth any reason for the 
 Bame, Mrs. Jones, during the months of February, March and April, 
 drops the ration one half to the same cow, and feeds 17.62 lbs. digesti- 
 ble dry matter, composed of 1.61 albuminoids, 9.76 carbo-hydrates and 
 .51 fat, which, with the exception of .19 fat in excess and a deficiency 
 of .39 in albuminoids, appears to be a pretty well balanced ration for a 
 cow of 800 lbs. The fact of her cow giving four-fifths as much butter 
 during these last months (although progressing toward time of calving) 
 as during the previous ones, leads me to suspect that about one-half Oi 
 the food eaten during the earlier months was not assimilated, but thrown 
 off with the other excretions, or else the cow was an excessively large 
 Holstein, weighing at least 1635 lbs. Slill, the fact remains unexplained 
 why the change of feed was made in February. I, like Mrs 
 Jones, believe in generous feeding ; at the same time I should like to be 
 rational in my method. I would not consider it reasonable to feed a cow 
 more than she would digest and assimilate, nor would I think of 
 cutting down her ration one-half without a sufficient cause." 
 
 (Signed), J. H. DOHERTY. 
 
 Now, my whole aim and object is to elicit just such remarks, to 
 invite criticism^to compare notes with my neighbors, and by our united 
 efforts to find out what we are all striving to learn, viz., what is the 
 truth. 
 
51 
 
 And we will never arrive at the truth, till we aiscard all ignorance 
 and prejudi(5e, all conceit and self-sufficiency, and all narrow-minded- 
 ness ; till we are ready and willing to learn, open to conviction, and 
 quick to acknowledge our mistakes. 
 
 And we will never achieve a national success in dairying, or in any- 
 thing else, till we unite in making a long pull, a strong pull, and a pull 
 all together. • 
 
 To return to our cow. She was not a Holstwin, but a cross between 
 Jersey and Ayrshire, a remarkably large animul of her kind, with a 
 wonderful appetite and a great constitution, but she did not weigh 
 1000 lbs. 
 
 Mr. Doherty thinks that at one time I over-fed this cow, thereby 
 incurring loss and waste, while later on she was getting less than he 
 thinks needful of digestible, dry matter, I will try to explain why I 
 disagree with him. 1st. Mr. Doherty was misled by a misprint which 
 a^ neared in the paper that published the test of thp cow referred to in 
 Chap. 3. It gave quantity of hay as only 8 lbs. a da^ , just half of 
 the cow's previous ration, whereu,s, had Mr. D. iookod at the price 
 as carried out, he would have at once detected the misprint, and 
 would have seen that the cow was getting 16 lbs. hay a day, the same 
 as before. It was only her grain ration that was cut down nearly half, 
 and as to that, I would say it is absolutely impossible to lay down any 
 exact ration that will apply equally well to all milk cows, just as it 
 is impossible to portion out an exact quantity of food, and have it 
 exactly the right thing for all human beings. What would be insuffi- 
 cient for one person would satiate another, and vice versa, and it is 
 ^ust the same with animals. Consequently, when we give a ration, 
 we simply give it as a basis, upon which the intelligent farmer works 
 with considerable variation, according to circumstances. 
 
 Take the accounts of many of the first milk and butter dairies, ooth 
 in Europe and America and read the quantity of food given, in equal 
 measure, to all cows. 
 
 But what follows? 
 
 These authorities say : " If any cow then looks for m'ore, give her 
 more, and if any cow has left a portion of her feed, take it at once 
 away from her." 
 
 No words could show more plainly the wide variation in the appetite 
 and requirements of different animals of the same species. 
 
52 
 
 These large establishments, it is safe to assume, are, for the most 
 part, run in the most economical manner and so as to obtain the very 
 best results, and they feed most liberally. 
 
 I have one fixed belief which nothing can alter, and that is that so 
 long ns the food is not too rich or concentrated, a milking cow should 
 have «Z^ she will cai, except for the 3 months previous to calving. 
 (And, even then, it is quite possible that I err in reducing the feed too 
 much, but I am so afraid of milk fever that I prefer to err, if at all, on 
 the safe side.) 
 
 Take a lot of cows In pasture. Some are soon satisfiad and lie 
 down, while others continue eating, as though they could never get 
 enough. 
 
 We don't go out to the pasture with a scientific book in one hand, 
 and stop those cows from eating, and tell them they have had enough 
 — so much digestible matter, so much starch, and so much fat, etc., and 
 that, if they are not satisfied, they ought to be, and have got to quit. 
 
 Not at all. We recognize that the cow is the best judge in the pas- 
 ture, and, to a great extent, I think she should be the best judge in the 
 stable, too, if we are reasonably careful as to what her ration is com- 
 posed of. 
 
 2. Immediate results are not obtained from any one mode of feeding. 
 Mr. Doherty wonders that my cow continued to make so large a quan- 
 tity of butter upon so much less food than she had previously been 
 getting. 
 
 In answer, I would say, the cow could not have done so had she not 
 been so well fed for months before. She was drawing on the reserve 
 she had in store, and which every cow should have. 
 
 The best authorities, and those who have made the largest yearly 
 tests, claim that we should feed a cow to her highest working capacity 
 for a whole year before expecting a great test, and they prove that the 
 effects of good food are far more lasting than most people are at all 
 aware of. 
 
 3. When I give the alterations in my rations, I don't wish to be 
 understood as* making those changes suddenly — that would be a crazy 
 thing to do. If I say that during 3 months I feed a cow 15 lbs. of 
 grain a day, Idon't mean that she eats exactly that quantity every day 
 of the 3 months ; not at all. I mean that she averages that quantity, 
 eating more than that at first and less thaa that at the last, and so, 
 
53 
 
 reducing her feed gradually, avoiding sudden changes as in the case of 
 this cow. 
 
 No one is infallible, and few, indeed, can hit the happy medium 
 exactly. But I honestly think that I fed the cow to good advantage, 
 and that her yield proved it. If we over feed a cow we are seldom 
 left long in the dark about it, for in most cases the animal soon shows 
 it, either by a fit of indigestion or by getting too fat. Then the care- 
 ful owner will be warned at once and change his ways. 
 
 My cattle have been extensively exhibited through the province, and I 
 have never yet heard thcra called too fat or over-fed. 
 
 4. Although, as I say, I used my best juflgmcntin feeding my cow— 
 although she was as sleek and fine as silk, the very pink of heulth, not 
 the least too fat, and yielded immensely and no waste in her droppings 
 that I could detect, yet in spite of all this I may be wrong ; there may 
 have been waste, although I did not and still do not think so. 
 
 Far be it from me to set up as infallible. If I am mistaken I am 
 heartily glad to have it pointed out, and, as I said previously, it is quite 
 possible that the public may learn far moro from my many failures 
 than they will ever learn from my modest successes. 
 
 I don't ask people to follow mo, I ask them to come with me. I am 
 eager to ask all that they know, and eager, also, to tell them all that I 
 know, so we may help each other. 
 
 With every regard for science, I may yet say that there is danger of 
 carrying it to extremes, and that many able articles on dairying are 
 away above the people's heads. Anyway, they are above my head, 
 that much I am sure of. 
 
 If I want to try a cow, I don't send her milk to be analyzed ; though, 
 no doubt, that is good. But I set her milk and churn it, and then I 
 work the butter properly till it is as firm nearly as wax and as sweet 
 as a rose, so that I may claim quality as well as quantity. 
 
 Give me the scales and weights and good common sense every 
 time. 
 
 And if it is not too egotistical, let me here say that I have never been 
 able to devote myself exclusively to dairying ; far from it. 
 
 The care and nursing and teaching of my children, the sewing, 
 housekeeping and social calls, and all the many duties of a house 
 mother have claimed my time as well, so I have not been able to make 
 
exhaustive scientific experiments, but I have kept my eyes open and 
 have done my best. 
 
 All my methods have been essentially those of the farmers around 
 me — no costly devices, but all for utility and economy. 
 
 I am not talking down from a height (which farmers hate), I am 
 standing on the same level with them, right side by side. 
 
 While I do not habitually work in my dairy now, yet I have done 
 BO to a great extent, and there is not one single process from milking 
 and feeding my cow to churning the butter and making it up and 
 washing the pails that I have not often done myself. 
 
 Why, in one year I churned, worked, printed and shipped to New 
 York ten thousand prints of butter all with my own hands j no one 
 else touched it. 
 
 I may not be able to analyze a pail of milk or a bucket of feed, but I 
 can make a pound of good butter. I may not be able to feed a cow in the 
 most correct scientific way, but there is one thing that I most certainly 
 can do, I can feed her so she will pay. 
 
55 
 
 CHAPTER XIY. 
 
 ON THE CARE OP DAIRY UTENSILS, 
 
 So much has been said and written on the subject of cleanliness in 
 the Dairy, that anything from me may be thought superfluous — yet, a 
 very few words may not be out of place in reference to some of my 
 own mistakes. 
 
 When I first had the care of milk pans and pails, I prided myself 
 upon the thorough scaldings I gave them, and thought no one could be 
 cleaner than I was. 
 
 Imagine my mortification when my tins soon lost tlieir brightness, 
 and did not even look clean ! Worse still, a thick yellow coating came over 
 them that I thought I would never get off, especially if there was a 
 dinue or bruise in the pail, making an uneven surface. 
 
 I was in despair. I knew I spent more time and trouble upon my 
 tins than most people, and yet I was ashamed to have them seen. 
 
 At last I unburdened my mind to a dear old lady, and how she did 
 laugh at me, to be sure ! 
 
 " Why, child," she said, " you have cooked the milk on to the sides 
 of your tins by pouring in boiling water, and you will find it harder 
 to get off than the bark off a tree." 
 
 And it cei taiuly was. 
 
 But I did get it off at last, and then was most careful to do as my 
 friend told me — only to use lukewarm suds, at first, till all milk 
 and butter were thoroughly removed from pans, pails, churn and but- 
 ter-worker, etc. ; then to rinse in clean warm water, and then to bring 
 on my cherished tea-kettle, and scald all I wanted to, and the more the 
 better. 
 
 Since then I have had no trouble when doing it myself, but the 
 difficulty is to get hired girls into the right way and to keep them 
 there. 
 
 I remember one that I had who wanted two dozen more kitchen 
 towels. I thought I had a large enough supply, till I found that she 
 was faithfully washing and drying every pan and pail used in our large 
 dairy, as though they were so many cups and saucers. 
 
56 
 
 She was quite surprised wlien I told her that tins would dry them- 
 selvts if sculded with water that was actually boiling. 
 
 I showed her my method when I had 30 or 40 shallow pans to scald. 
 After they were well cleaned, I turned one upside down on the platform 
 of sink, and scalded the bottom, and then turned it up again, and put 
 about two quarts boiling water in it, and then put anotber pan inside 
 that, nnd two quarts water in it, and so on, till I had a pile as high as 
 convenient. As each pan settled down witb weight of theotbcrs above 
 it, the water rose and flowed over the edges of the un^ler ones, so everi/ 
 part of everi/ pan got well scalded, and the whole pile was smoking 
 and steaming. The top one I filled to overflowing, and then, after a 
 few minutes, I took them all down, and laid them in rows on the benches. 
 Some people just put them in piles, but I never do this, as they don't 
 dry, but just sweat, and get cold and clammy. 
 
 I turn the first pan upside down on the bench, taking care to let it 
 project over the end a little, so tie air can get inside. Then lean the 
 next pan on it, resting partly on the first pan and partly on the bench, 
 so it is on a slant, and then another and another, till all are done. 
 
 In this way they dry at once^ and are thoroughly aired, and as sweet 
 and clean as new tins. 
 
 Nor do I ever turn a pail or can upside down, so the air cannot 
 enter, or cover a churn or any similar vessel. 
 
 Abundimcc of scalding hot water and then lots of air and sunsljine, 
 will tell the tale in the butter beyond mistake. 
 
 Of course, wooden things must not be left out in the sun too much 
 till they warp and crack ; a little care will prevent this. 
 
 Butter will stick like tar to woodcnware that is not properly taken 
 care of, and I know of few things more annoying. 
 
 There is no remedy but to begin again. Thoroughly wash your print 
 or butter-worker, or whatever it is, being careful to get every particle 
 of grease away. Then thoroughly scald, using plenty of water, and 
 rub well witb salt. Next, plunge into cold water and leave to soak for 
 a while, and you will find all go well. 
 
 If you have a print not in frequent use, it is a good plan to wash and 
 Bcald it every few days, just as though you were going to use it. This 
 will keep the wood from cracking and leave the print in nice order. 
 
 The churn and everything in and about the Dairy should be 
 cleansed at once after they are used. 
 
57 
 
 It is nearly impossible to get tilings sweet and clean if they are left 
 for hours, or perhaps all night, with sour cream or buttermilk or 
 melting butter on them, to be absorbed by the -wood, so it will never 
 Bcem the same again. 
 
 The floor should be often an well washed, for milk, so sweet and 
 wholesome when fresh, soon becomes one of the foulest things in crea- 
 tion, so quickly does it decompose. 
 
 I once went to a picnic when I was young, and took a stone jar of 
 milk just drawn fiom the cow, corking the jar tightly. 
 
 We were delayed in reaching the island, and did not jiave tea till 
 eight o'clock, but, on uncorking my jar of milk the odor was so strong 
 that I threw it nil away. 
 
 Fortunately, some one else had brought milk, so mine was not 
 missed, but it taught me a lesson. 
 
 To many of my readers this is only the old, Oid story, but there arc 
 always beginners who are glad of such hints. 
 
 I know that in my young days I would have been pleased indeed to 
 bare had instruction from some one who really knew how — who had 
 actualli/ done the work themselves. 
 
 But nearly everything I know has been ^earnt by hard experience, 
 and often by repeated and discouraging failures. 
 
 There are no truer words than those written by Marion Harland, In 
 her Cookery Book. She says the most important thing is ** to learn 
 how not to do it." 
 
 And in no place is that more true than in the Dairy. 
 
58 
 
 CHAPTER XT. 
 
 HOW I KEEP MY CATTLE, 
 
 I keep tliem under such difficulties as I hope few peop.e have to 
 contend with. 
 
 We own our house, with a few acres of land, just barely outside 
 the limits of a very large and thriving town. 
 
 Our own land is poor enough, but that around us is still worse, 
 being sometimes underlaid with rock for whole acres together, and all 
 of it badly run down. 
 
 Not wishing to part with our home, we had just to do the best we 
 could, and have rented two small farms, in rear of us, of 45 and 65 
 acres respectively. 
 
 Not only have we to go nearly half a mile to get to these farms, but 
 we have also to cross the railway track to do so, and what with poor 
 land and poor fences, or rather no fences at all, it is uphill work. 
 
 The walk is too far for both the cows and the men who drive them, 
 nor is it possible for me to be out there as much as I ought. 
 
 Were the land under my own eye, things would do better, but with 
 conflicting duties and heavy household cares, I have just got to get 
 along as best I can. The cattle barns, however, are on our own 
 place, just adjoining the horse stable, so that everything about them is 
 under my own supervision. 
 
 We have a very large barn or stable, capable of holding 30 milking 
 cows, and having two roomy loose boxes. 
 
 The cows stand facing each other, and have a 6-foot alley between 
 their heads, this alley being of cement. 
 
 Each cow has a stall to herself, so there is no crowding or fighting. 
 In rear of each row of cows is the gutter, and behind that again a 
 board walk about 3 feet wide. 
 
 Just in the middle of the stable a broad cement passage runs across, 
 intersecting the rows of cows, so there are, really, four rows of stalls. 
 
 There are large doors at the end of this cross alley, where the cowa 
 
59 
 
 come in and turn to right or left, as tlic case may be, eact cow know- 
 ing her own place. 
 
 After trying many fastenings, and finding most of them good, but 
 needing a deal of bedding, and then not keeping the cows clean with- 
 out more labor than I could afford, I adopted one of the new stan- 
 chions which are not stationary, but give great liberty. 
 
 These I put in last fall, and the longer I have them the more I like 
 them. I have never seen anything that gives as much freedom and 
 comfort to the animals consistent with cleanliness, and have pleasure 
 in cordially recommending them. 
 
 In the cross alley is the bench for setting the milk pails on. To 
 me it has always seemed a disgusting practice to set the milk pails on 
 the floor behind the cows, and I have never allowed it. 
 
 Beside the bench is a high but small desk, the lid of which lifts up, 
 and here the foreman can write and keep his papers. Under the 
 desk is a small cupboard where many useful things are kept, a jar 
 of linseed oil, a bottle of castor oil, one of laudanum, one of aromatic 
 ammonia, one of turpentine, and one of carbolic oil. Some ginger and 
 some epsom salts complete the list of simplo remedies kept ou hand, 
 and with them and that blessed " ounce of prevention " that means so 
 much, the herd is kept in splendid health. In one end of this barn 
 are the root house and the silo. Above the root house is tlie feed 
 room, reached by a short flight of steps, and furnished with great bins; 
 and back of this is tlie engine room, with a good steam engine. At 
 one time we kept the engine running all winter to cut and steam feed, 
 pulp roots, grind oats, etc., but for many reasons I discontinued this, 
 and we now use the engine only in fall to cut the corn for the silo. 
 
 Another barn is used for the bulls, of which we keep three, each in 
 a large, loose lox. 
 
 There is also a place for two yearling bulls (when we have them), 
 and all the south side of the building is divided into little calf pens. 
 
 I find this a much better arrangement for the little creatures than 
 being in tlie cow barn, as it is more easily kept at an even tempera- 
 ture. 
 
 In the large barn when the doors are opened and thirty cows let out 
 to drink or ezercise, the temperature falls so much as to chill young 
 calves, besides which the cows are quieter and more content when the 
 little ones are entirely away from them. 
 
60 
 
 In a third and smaller barn there is room for 6 or 7 cows or lieifers 
 besides two more loose boxes. 
 
 Everything is of the vcri/ plainest description. I have nothing that 
 the poorest farmer cannot have, unless it be the steam engine, and 
 many of them have got that. 
 
 Also, the gas that lights the large barn and engine room. We make 
 this ourselves to light the house, and as a matter of safety and con- 
 venience had it put in the barn. 
 
 These buildings form three sides of a yard, that has a good well ia 
 the centre and a long water trough. 
 
 Adjoining the yard are two or three paddocks, where calves can be 
 kept, also cows that arc near calving. 
 
 In winter the stalls are cleaned out at 5 a.m., and cows brushed oflF, 
 and each one receives a feed of ensilage with the proper quantity of 
 meal and bran mixed with it, according to the milk they are giv- 
 ing. They are then milked, each gets an armful of hay, and the 
 hands go to breakfast. Next, all animals are well carded and cleaned^ 
 all manure wheeled out of the stable, and c:df pens and loose boxes 
 thoroughly cleaned out. 
 
 Towards noon cattle are let out to water. If it be mild and fine 
 they remain out fiom one to three hours, according to the weather, but 
 never till they get chilled. On returning to the stable each animal 
 finds a feed of sliced roots in the box with a handful of meal or bran 
 sprinkled on. 
 
 At four o'clock they arc all offered water in p:iils, then they receive 
 their second feed of ensilage and meal. 
 
 At five p.m. milking begins, after which each cow receives a liberaJ 
 feed of hay and fresh bedding, and is then left for the night. 
 
 In summer, cows are milked at same time in morning, and cleaned. 
 Each milking animal receives a quart of bran and of ground oats, aa 
 the pasture happens to be good or poor. 
 
 If the graf-S is very poor, all receive a good allowance of green foddei, 
 either lucerne, green oats, peas, or corn fodder. They are then driven 
 to pasture, returning before five o'clock, when they get the same feed 
 (if any be necessary), and, after milking, are taken back to the pasture 
 for the night. 
 
 Salt is given them as they wish, and blows, kicks, or rough words 
 arc unknown to them. 
 
61 
 
 A couple of grade Ayrshires are generally kept to feed the calves, 
 their milk is not so rich, and calves seem to do better on it. 
 
 Much of our land being in pasture, we do not grow' all the feed we 
 need, but buy largely. 
 
 We generally have 15 to 18 acres of corn, which gives us green feed 
 for summer, fills the silo, and leaves us quite an amount of dry corn 
 fodder, stocked, which lasts till near Ciiristmas. 
 
 We also grow two to three thousand bushels of roots (mange and 
 carrots), 800 to 1000 bushels of oats, and potatoes cnougii for family 
 use, besides 20 to 40 tons of hay. 
 
 We have always a patch of lucerne and one of peas and oats to feed 
 green. 
 
 Fortunately, there is an 8 acre field adjoining our property which we 
 rent, and here abide the lucerne patch and potato patch ; here also 
 grow the roots, the sweet corn for the house, and all the green fodder 
 used for summer, as well as some to dry. 
 
 The men kept are : the foreman; who is a thorough proficient at his 
 buswess, as the healthy condition of the herd, the honors won in show 
 rings, and the excellent quality of the butter can testify. 
 
 He assists with the milking, feeds the calves, strains and skims all 
 the milk, makes and ships all the butter (thousands of pounds yearly), 
 makes out the invoices, and keeps a set of books the duplicates of 
 which are kept by me. 
 
 He has, to assist him, an intelligent and industrious young man, who 
 is a capital milker. 
 
 On one of the small farms lives the farmer, who is busy on farm all 
 BUnimer, and has extra help in h;iying and harvest. 
 
 In winter the farmer helps to milk, night and morning. In the 
 forenoon he helps grooming the cattle, and cleans out the barns ; and in 
 the afternoon draws out manure, or goes for sawdust, of which we use 
 a good deal for bedding. 
 
 The number of cattle kept averages 54, and a pair of strong farm 
 horses and a few pigs complete the list of farm animals. 
 
 A great deal of cream is sold to confectioners who send to the Dairy 
 for it, paying 35 cents a quart in summer and 40 cents in winter. 
 People who take but a single quart pay 50 cents for it, and sometimes 
 we cannot meet the demand. 
 
62 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 FARM ACCOTJNTS. — ODDS AND ENDS. — SOME MISTAKES. 
 
 Of course it goes without saying that a strict account is kept of all 
 money paid out, or taken in, on the farm. 
 
 Everything is entered in the General Cash Book, and then all items 
 are posted out into the Ledger, each under its appropriate heading. 
 
 The two principal headings are, "Farm account" and "Stock 
 account." 
 
 In i'arm account, on one side appears all money spent for rent, 
 wages, feed, extra help, seed, etc. ; on the other side, all cash received 
 for sales of milk, cream, butter, or pork, also a fair market value for 
 whatever amount of these things has been consumed in the family. 
 
 In the stock account, on one side, is entered every animal bought, 
 under its own name and number ; the name and address of the person 
 from whom it was bought, date, and price paid. On the other side is 
 entered, in a similar manner, every animal sold, name and address of 
 purchaser, and price paid. 
 
 A farm book is also kept, giving date when each calf is dropped, also 
 name of sire and of dam. 
 
 A Dairy book is also kept, in which are the daily entries of milk, 
 cream, or butter sold, to whom, and what price received. 
 
 These are all that are really necessary to show how one stands at the 
 end of each year, and they are all I have time for. 
 
 One thing is very laborious, and that is the large correspondence 
 about cuttle. I tried keeping a catalogue of my herd, but 1000 went 
 off in a short time, and, besides, so many chamzes take place in a herd, 
 as animals grow up, are sold, or replaced by others, that it is difficult 
 to keep a catalogue in shape. 
 
 I have, however, extended pedigrees, printed, of my chief animals, 
 so it is always easy to send pedigree of sire and dam of a calf. 
 
 And if you keep thoroughbred stock, you must make up your mind 
 to answer all business letters promptly, fully, and cheerfully. 
 
 It is a courtesy which your customers have a right to expect, and 
 which you would expect were you buying valuable cattle from them. 
 
 And, in describing an animal, be sure to represent it exactly as it is. 
 I know of few greater pleasures than to get a letter saying a customer 
 
63 
 
 is perfectly and entirely satisfied, and finds the animal he has received 
 to be even better than represented. 
 
 If you have a worthless animal, send it to the butcher, without 
 hesitation, it will be a saving in the end. 
 
 Keep only the very best. With all your care and skill in breeding 
 you will still find a difference in your herd. 
 
 If you are fortunate enough to have no bad ones, you will still have 
 good, better, and best ; therefore, in selling, state exactly what each 
 animal is, and if purchase is made by a party who does not see the 
 cattle, but who leaves it to you to choose for him, make it a point of 
 honor to give him even better value for his money than if he were 
 present. 
 
 In looking back over the past few years, I am sometimes ashamed 
 and sometimes amused at the mistakes I have made, especially in the 
 beginning of my dairy experience. 
 
 Working without a thermometsr was one, and a very bad one it 
 was. Overworking my butter was another. Still another was buying 
 stock without seeing it, from an unreliable party. This only happened 
 to me twice, but it will never happen again. One animal had been 
 good, but her udder was completely destroyed by garget, and I sold 
 her for less than a fourth of what I paid for her. 
 
 Another had a long pedigree and a still longer price, but I sold her 
 to a butcher for $22.50, and was well rid of her ! 
 
 So I bought my experience dearly. 
 
 In fact, there is hardly anything against which I have cautioned you 
 that has not been a rock ahead of me at one time or another. 
 
 Sometimes I saw the danger in time, and steered clear of it. 
 
 But sometimes I didn't, and then the result was disastrous. 
 
 In conclusion, 1 wish I could have written this little book without 
 talking so much about myself, but it is in answer to hundreds of 
 questions as to " how I do it," and so I can't help the egotism. 
 
 Nor is that the only fault of my work— of this, I am painfully con- 
 scious, but I can only ask my readers to lose sight of me (if I have 
 left them any chance to do so), to look at the actual facts in my book 
 and not at the imperfect manner of telling them, and to work on 
 steadily to that high standard towards which I am still struggling 
 myself. 
 
 Id£ END. 
 
To THE HOUSEWIFE: 
 
 The Frencli are noted for the tasty and ajjpetiz- 
 ing way of preparing their meals, and with half the 
 cost and waste of the average American household. 
 
 We have an original idea iii cooking for you. It 
 is a book entitled la cuisine francaise; or/: french 
 COOKING FOR EVERY HOME. Ovcr ; 600 recipes pre- 
 pared especially for this work by Eran^cois Tanty, 
 late chef of Napoleon III., and chef of the late Czar 
 of Kiissia. Not a single recipe is- copied, as is usual 
 with the stereotyped cook-books now in use. Every- 
 thing, from Soup to Dessert, is given.. ; Bound in 
 highly illuminated cover, 160 pages, 50 cents, postage 
 prepaid. Bound in full cloth and gilt, heavy paper, 
 $1.00, postage prepaid. 
 
 Baldwin, Ross cfe Co., Publishers, 
 
 Masonic Temple, Chicago. 
 

 
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