422 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 



these crests of coarse hair will lose their milk after being in calf, and 

 should not be bred from. r 



Quite a lengtliy debate in regard to the use of skimmed milk in cheese 

 resulted in the adoption of a resolution deprecating such use. 



Mr. Edward J. \Yickson, in an address on the future of dairying, said : 



I have authentic reports from ninety cheese-factories and creameries, located in 

 •widely difi'orent localitiea, giving the average net return per cow to patrons, the highest 

 average per cow to a single patron, and lowest average per cow to a single patron. 

 The figures are drawn from the actual records of the yields of more than 36,000 cows. 

 In these factories, during the season of 1874, the average yield per cow was $39.57. In 

 the individual factories the highest average per cow reported was $55.07, and the 

 lowest per cow in a factory running the same number of days was $31.22. Taking all 

 the cows into the account, it appears that the average return per cow for the season of 

 average length was $39.57. It will be remembered that these figures are factory aver- 

 ages, not average yields in single herds. 



It appears from comparing the reports of these ninety factories that the average 

 return net to patrons ijer 100 pounds of milk has been $1.22. The highest net yield is 

 $1.38, and the lowest 99 cents. I have been much interested in comparing the average 

 returns per cow with the average selling-price of the factory, and the pounds of milk 

 required to make a pound of cheese, in order to determine how much of the large yield 

 per cow was duo to the dairymen and how much to the cheese-maker and salesman. 

 In the factory reporting the highest average per cow, ($55.07,) the selling-price of the 

 season averaged 14.11 cents, and the milk taken was 9.76 pounds to a pound of cheese. 

 Comparing this with the lowest average per cow, ($31.22,) I find that the latter sold 

 cheese for one-quarter of a cent le£S per pound through the season, and used nearly 

 one-half a pound more uillk to a pound of cheese on an average. But this difference 

 in manufacture and i)rice can form only a small part of the difference between the low 

 mark at $31 and the high mark at $55. 



The main points in the profitableness of dairies are vested in the farm, not in the 

 factory, a» the following figures show. Of the dairies sending milk to the sixty fac- 

 tories, the best season's average per cow is $82.17, and the average of all the highest 

 dairies reported by the factories is $50.04. The lowest yield in a single dairy carrying 

 to the factory during a long season is $14.50 average money to a cow, and the average 

 of all the poor dairies reported is $29.34 per cow. • • • Now, the question arises, 

 and it is of the utmost importance to the man who is working for the profits of the 

 dairy, whence comes this great difference in the returns from the dairy-herds! Is it in 

 the soil, the pasture, the cow, the feed, and care in the factory, and how much influ- 

 ence does the final resort, the market, exert upon the dairyman's receipts T I believe 

 that aU of these things are factors of the result, and that every one of them should be 

 scrutinized to see whether there cannot be some clement of improvement introduced. 



The fourth annual convention of the Western Reserve Dairymen's 

 Association convened at Garrettsville, February 10, 1875. In a dis- 

 cussion on the comparative merits of sweet-cream butter and ripe-cream 

 butter, Mr. Green stated : 



He had formerly operated a creamery in the State of New York, and had made care- 

 ful experiments iu the uses of cream. Very much depended upon skill in handling. 

 Sweet-cream butter would melt down at a low temperature, but sour-cream butter 

 (i. e., cream taken from sweet milk, but held belore churning until chemical action had 

 begun) would stand. Some preferred the flavor of Bwoet-cream butter, others much 

 prefer the flavor and aroma of sour-cream butter. The yield from sour cream may 

 be put down at 5 per cent, more than from sweet cream, and the butter has a better 

 texture. The 5 per cent, additional yield may be overbalanced by the greater value 

 of the buttermilk from sweet cream. * » * Butter would lose its exquisite flavor 

 in two or three weeks, and after that creamery butter wa« no better than dairy butter, 

 while fresh creamery butter would command from 5 to 10 cents a pound more than 

 dairy butter. 



Mr. S. D. Harris, in a discussion on grasses, said : 



It has been too much the custom to depend upon timothy alone for hay. There is 

 no better crop than timothy when the circumstances are all favorable, but it is a 

 dangerous crop to depend upon. The roots are so much oxposexl that in a dry time, 

 upon land that is hard run, the crop receives a back-set from which it will scarcely re- 

 cover. What is needed is a mixture with the finer fibrous rooted grasses. If it is sown 

 witli eiovtr, and the clover has the ascendency, it will kill the grass. Clover is a grc-t 

 grass- kiUei-! Close shaving with theBcyt,he aad close pasturin^^ will not answer .7i.j 

 timothy, for timothj will not ■offaz mnok aboM. Tiiar* ikoald b« ■offiotent rmz.AiJ 



