California Agriculturist and Live Stock Journal. 



money they have obtained in this way, 

 nor will they be anxious to put up the 

 price of wheat, hut the time will come 

 when the farmers will be under the ne- 

 cessity of realizing something for their 

 crop to pay expenses and debts, and just 

 about that time wheat will be mysteri- 

 ously very dull and low, and then the 

 riugwiU profess to have plenty of wheat 

 and will be anxious to return all they 

 borrowed. As a compromise, however, 

 and to get out of the scrape they have 

 got into, they will give the farmers the 

 money at present rates, and just to ac- 

 commodate them, though they do this at 

 a sacrifice. — Record- Union. 



Site ^m\). 



Song. 



BT OHAS. KINGSLEY. 



" Mary, go and call the cattle home, 



And call the cattle home, 



And call the cattle home. 



Across the sands o' Dee!" 

 The western wind was wild and dark with foam, 



And all alone went she. 



The creeping tide came up along the sand, 



And o'er and o'er the sand, 



And round and round the sand. 



As far as eye could see; 

 The hlinding mist came down and hid the land; 



And never home came she. 



"Oh! is it weed, or fish, or floating hair — 



A tress of goldtn hair, 



Odrowned maiden's hair. 



Above the nets at sea? 

 Was nevt-r salmon yet that shone so fair, 



Among the stakes on Dee." 



They rowed her in across the rolling foam, 



The cruel, crawling foam. 



The cruel, hungry loam. 



To her grave beside the sea; 

 But still the boatmen he;ir her call the cattle 



Across the sands o' Dee. [home 



Plain Words About Milking. 







FRIEND of ours recently pur- 

 chased a tub of butter for family 

 use which turned out to be so 

 tainted vnth the filth of the cow 

 bam as to be entirely unfit for the 

 table and could not be used for culinary 

 purposes. This butter was of good color 

 and texture, and was so well made as to 

 have commanded the highest price in 

 market had the flavor been perfect. 



A merchant recently showed us a few 

 cheeses which he had purchased to sup- 

 ply customers who desired something 

 choice. The cheese was well made, very 

 rich it fat, but it had a well-marked taste 

 of the cow stable, and customers who 

 had taken one piece wanted no more, as 

 it was unfit for the table. These are by 

 no means exceptional cases. Our atten- 

 tion has been called to like cases over a 

 wide extent of country in the dairy dis- 

 tricts, and we are quite certain that large 

 amounts of both butter and cheese are 

 injured from this cause alone, and which 

 would otherwise take the place of a first- 

 class article. 



At the late meeting of the American 

 Dairymen's Association, Mr. Robert 

 McAdam, a well-known factorymuu and 

 cheese expert, gave an account of the 

 various kinds of filth which he had 

 found in the factory strainer after receiv- 

 ing milk from his patrons. And yet 

 some people wonder why progress is so 

 slow in imiiroving the flavor and charac- 

 ter of our dairy products. At this time, 

 when prices have depreciated and .are 

 unsatisfactory, it behooves dairy men to 

 make every ellurt possible for improving 

 the flavor and quality of their goods. 

 The responsibility must not be shifted 

 wholly upon the manufacturer. In most 

 cases it lies back of this, and rests with 



the dairyman in the management at the 

 farm. 



The defect to which we have alluded 

 comes from uncleanliness in milking; 

 and especially is this the case during 

 spring and fall, when the cows are more 

 or less confined to the stable. Some 

 dairymen, even if they do not themselves 

 milk upon their hands and wet the teats 

 of the cow before commencing to draw 

 the milk, they allow those in their em- 

 ploy to do BO, and the result is, more or 

 less filth drops in the pail to taint its 

 contents. It is a very nasty practice, 

 and should be guarded against in the 

 most rigid manner. 



If a cows bag is besmeared with dung 

 and dirt, it should be washed with water 

 and wiped with a cloth, and then the op- 

 ration of milking should be done with 

 dry bands. A jierson who has once 

 adopted the practice of milking with dry 

 hands finds the milk can be drawn quite 

 as easily and rapidly as by constantly 

 wetting the hands; while the latter prac- 

 tice must always result in more or less 

 filth falling into the milk to give it a taint 

 of the stable and thus injure the jiroduct 

 which is manufactured from it. 



This story of cleanliness has been very 

 often urged iu connection with other ad- 

 vice on the dairy; but it needs to be 

 urged much oftener before it will be 

 properly heeded. One great fault com- 

 plained of in American cheese is its de- 

 fective flavor, and there can be no doubt 

 that if taints could be traced directly to 

 the cause, they would often be found to 

 come from the source we have named. 

 If taints are so distinct and pronounced 

 as to leave no doubt as to their origin iu 

 stable filth, there cannot be much doubt 

 but that there must be various gradations 

 of this taint affecting the flavor of cheese 

 according as the milkers have been more 

 or less clean in their milking. 



This question was never more import- 

 ant than now. The low price of dairy 

 products requires more attention to the 

 details of handling milk at the farm, 

 higher skill in manufacturing and curing 

 our dairy products, so that we may put 

 a better article before consumers at home 

 and abroad and thus make up the loss so 

 far as possible caused by depreciation of 

 jtvices.— Mural 2\ew Yorker. 



SonE Milk Cheese. — An apparently 

 rich, meaty cheese was exhibited at the 

 last meeting of the American Dairymen's 

 Association, by J. M. Jocelyn, of Cattar- 

 augus county, made of sour milk and 

 buttermilk. Much inquiry has been 

 made as to the process by which this 

 cheese was made, and some blame has 

 been thrown on Mr. Jocel3'n, for making 

 a "full skim" cheese in such a manner 

 that consumers might be led to suppose 

 that they were eating full milk cheese. 

 In answer, Mr. Jocelyn writes to the 

 Utica JItriiltl as follows: 



I have formed a theory that the office 

 of the fat of the cheese is no benefit to 

 it as an article of food, except to keep it 

 soft and meaty, and really the easeine is 

 all that is valuable as food. Now, if a 

 cheese can be made with still less grease 

 and a corresponingly larger amount of 

 easeine, the producer and consumer will 

 be greatly benefited thereby, as nearly 

 all the cream can be used for butter, and 

 the cheese can be sold for a lower )n'ice, 

 and be more valuable to the consumer 

 than the cheese he now pays more money 

 for, that is, full cream cheese. After 

 various experiments I adopted this theo- 

 ry and carried it into successful opera- 

 tion. I set the milk long enough for the 

 cream to so\ir before skimming, thus 

 making more and better Ijutter; then 

 churn and mixed this si}ur buttermilk 

 with the sour skim milk, and the acid 

 has destroyed the fibre iu the milk so it 



will make a tender cheese. Now, if I 

 jiroceed in the old way I will have a mess 

 of Dutch cheese; but instead, I heat up 

 rapidly, and when at the proper temper- 

 ature, I add alkalies sufficient to neutral- 

 ize the acid and s.aponify the remaining 

 grease iu the milk, so that I have a 

 smooth curd, a clear, green whey, and 

 as my curd goes into the hoops it is no 

 more sour than one that is made from 

 sweet milk. The secret of this cheese 

 remaining so soft and being so durable, 

 is owing to the saponification of the fat, it 

 being thus evening distributed among the 

 minutest particles of the cheese, and 

 being saponified, it never can become 

 rancid; and as I have said repeatedly, 

 this is the most durable and wholesome, 

 and, to my taste, the most delicious 

 cheese that can be made. 



Pkofitable Cows. — It is far from eco- 

 nomical to keep poor stock of any kind, 

 poor cows especially. In a dairy herd, 

 some cows will far more than pay for 

 their cost of keeping, while others not 

 only fall far short of this, but entail an 

 actual loss from year to year, and this 

 will often go on indefinitely because no 

 accurate measure and weight of product 

 is kept, and their relative value is not 

 ascertained. In a cheese dairy, for in- 

 stance some of the best cows will yield 

 seven hundred jjounds of cheese a year, 

 while others in the same herd will not 

 yield over two hundred pounds. But in 

 how many cases will this deficiency be 

 found out aori remedied? In a butter 

 dairy the loss from poor stock will often 

 be even more marked. Some cows give 

 milk which is rich in butter while that of 

 others is very poor. Both milks are put 

 together and the poor quality of one is 

 not found out perhaps, for many mouths. 

 The same food is given to one cow that 

 is given to the other, and the cost is 

 sbout the same, but if the real facts were 

 known it would ajipear that all the profit 

 came from the one cow, while the other 

 was entailing a constant loss. We ought 

 to be more careful in this respect and se- 

 lect our stock with greater reference to 

 quality. A careful examination iu this 

 direction would discover some of the 

 worst kind of leaks. 



Again, cows are often kept beyond 

 their prime, when they are no longer 

 very serviceable, and should have been 

 culled out of the herd and sent to the 

 butcher or got rid of in some other way. 

 — 3Iass. Plowman. 



That's the Way. — " We knows the 

 public is down on us," remarked ihe old 

 milkman, as he dipped out the desired 

 quart from one of his big cai^s, "but the 

 pubhc is mistaken. In the first place we 

 put in a little water — only a bit, to make 

 up for shrinkage. It goes to the big 

 dealers, and they ain't a bit keerful when 

 they gits to pouring in water. They 

 sells it to the grocers, and they put in 

 chalk with one hand and water with the 

 other, and they are thinking of politics, 

 and get in too much. The servant girl 

 goes after milk for the family, drinks a 

 third of it, and she puts in water to make 

 up the measure; and, you see, when the 

 family gets it, the taste ain't there, the 

 look ain't there, and they goes for us 

 poor men who b.asn't a dishonest hair in 

 our heads. That's the way, mister. 

 Gee up there. Homer." 



In all my observation, the man who 

 gives full feed with care, gets the best 

 pay for what he does feed. I am fully 

 satisfied half feed does not pay, and ir- 

 regular feeding docs not jiay. If you 

 want your cow to give a good nn>ss, and 

 that steadily, give her sonu'thiiig to make 

 it of. If you economize and cut down 

 the cow's rations, she will as surely cut 

 down your supply of milk. — Ex. 



A Cheap Milk House. — I will give the 

 description of a cheap milk house — such 

 as any one can have if they will. Graud- 

 father's is of hewn logs; the foundation 

 of stone, one foot below the ground sur- 

 face and six inches above, laid i]i lime 

 and sand. The building is ten by twelve 

 feet, one story high, chinked, and after 

 standing one or two years to settle, was 

 plastered inside and out with lime and 

 sand. The roof, of shingles, extends 

 some four feet over the door; banked a 

 few inches all round to keep dry. Ground 

 floor of nice, clean gravel, got at the 

 creek. A floor is laid overhead of jjlank, 

 to assist in equalizing the temperature. 

 The receptacle for crocks is a trough 

 made of two-inch plank, water-tight 

 reaching full length of the building from 

 outside to outside. The water enters 

 from a lead trough four feet long, at left 

 of the door, and goes out at the other 

 end; after running some fifteen feet, it 

 enters a large trough, where the 

 work horses and cows always slake their 

 thirst in summer. The water at no time 

 is more than four inches deep. It is 

 needless to say that in the warmest 

 weather in summer they have cool milk 

 and good butter. — Cor. Cinn. Enijuirer. 



KcLEs FOE Milking. — The following 

 rules are issued from a New York cheese 

 factory for the use of its patrons, and are 

 worthy of a wider dissemination: 



1. Milch cows should have free access, 

 at all times, to good running water. 



2. They should never be heated, by 

 being run, stoned or dogged. 



3. The utmost cleanliness should be 

 observen in milking, and by no means 

 wet the hands in the milk while milking. 



4. No can of milk should stand where 

 it will absorb the barnyard or stable od- 

 or, or any other scent. 



5. The milk should be strained and 

 well aired immediately after having been 

 drawn from the cows. 



6. Some arrangement for efl'ectually 

 cooling is at all times very desirable, and 

 when the milk is kept at home over 

 night, is indispensable. 



7. Scalding all vessels used about milk 

 at least once a day with boiling water, 

 and rinsing with cold water at night, is 

 essential. 



Cheese Foisosing. — The Lewistou 

 (111.) Union reports the poisoning of ten 

 individuals, residents of Ipava.by cheese. 

 None of them died, but three or four 

 were saved with difliculty. The physi- 

 cians, so the Union says, pronounced the 

 misterious attacks "the milk disease," it 

 being supposed that the cows from whose 

 milk the cheese was made, were afflicted 

 with that malady. 



[One prime cause of milk disease is 

 the stagnant water that cows are often 

 compelled to drink. In no one thing 

 should dairymen be more particular than 

 in providing an abundance of pure, clean, 

 fresh water for their cows to drink. 

 Stagnant water contains the germs of 

 disease, and many malignant fevers and 

 deaths, particularly of children, have 

 been traced to the drinking of stagnant 

 water, or water containing poisonous 

 germs, bj- milch cows.] 



" Be Kind to Youe (^ow." — A farmer 

 living just out of Yicksburg was reading 

 iu an agricultural paper, the other day, 

 an article headed "Be Kind to Your 

 cow." He went out to milk with a heart 

 full of kindness, and as be sat down ho 

 whispered: "So, boss — stand around — 

 good creature — hist a little — there, you 

 intelligent and kind-hearti'd old bossy." 

 .Vbout two minutes after that his wife 

 heard him whooping and yelling, and as 

 she ran to the door he called out: "Bring 

 mo the ax, Maria, and the spade, and 



