AND GARDENER' S JOURNAL. 



PUBLISHED BY JOSEPH BKECK & CO., NO. 52, NORTH MARKKT STllEET, (Aobiculturil VVafkbocse.) 



VOL. XVI. 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, .)UNE 27, 1S38. 



NO. 51. 



(From the Commissiontir's Report on Essex County.) 



THE DAIRY. 



Under this lioad may he placed the milk estab- 

 lishments in the neighborliood of Salem for the 

 supply of the city. In some of ttiese 30 cows are 

 kept ; in some 40 or more. By an observing and 

 experienced milk man, the averajre produce of a 

 cow, well fed, was rated at five beer quarts per 

 day ; by others at one gallon. In the former case 

 the customary allowajice to each cow during the 

 winter was two quarts of Indian meal, and one 

 peck of vegetables per day, and as nmch good 

 hay as they required. This farmer judges from 

 his long experience that each cow would require 

 two tons of hay in a season. In summer their 

 Led was good pasturage; and when that failed, 

 Indian corn, which was planted to be fed to them 

 green. In one year from 23 cows he sold $2,100 

 worth of milk, at 5 to 6 cents per quart. 



He has found potatoes highly useful for in- 

 creasing the quantity, but not for improving the 

 quality of the milk. Other milk men speak of 

 trials with the common blood-beet for the feed of 

 milch cows with great advantage. The cows are 

 dry upon an iivcrrge about eight weeks, and the 

 calf is usually killed or given awaj' as soon as the 

 milk is fit for use. 



The use of shorts, wheat bran, mashed or gra- 

 ted potatoes, an<l cut feed mixed, have been foimd 

 valuable ; and increased economy in the con- 

 sumption has been deemed a full compensation 

 for the extra trouble of |)reparation. 'JMie eon- 

 eumption of food by a dry cow is much less than 

 by a cow in milk ; but the length of titne during 

 which cows are out of milk is a great deduction 

 from the profits of a milk establishment. In the 

 best managed New York milk establishments, 

 with wliicli I am well acquainted, they feed their 

 cows well, and as their milk declines they increase 

 this feed ; they keep them in milk as long as they 

 will pay well for their keeping, not suffering them 

 to take the bull ; and then they dry them off at 

 once. After three weeks extra feeding they are 

 fit for the butcher, and are sold as beef. This 

 management they consider much belter than to 

 keep many dry cows. 'J'his njelhod would not 

 be so practicable here. It is more easy there to 

 obtain milch cows when wanted than here. A 

 demand here, however, might create a supply. 



At the Theological Institution in Andover, and 

 the same practice is proposed to be pursued at 

 the farms connected with the English and Latin 

 schools in the same town, a considerable number 

 of cows, kept for the purpose of supplying the 

 students with milk, are soiled on grjen food. — 

 Grass is cut for them ; and particularly oats which 

 are cut green. The exj)eriment is thus far satis- 

 factory. Indian corn sowed either in drills or 

 broadcast, but much better in drills, furnishes an 

 excellent article for this purpose. The cultiva- 



tion of Muta Baga, Carrots, Beets, and Cabbages, 

 from their tops and leaves in the autumn as well 

 as from their roots in the winter, would furni.sh a 

 great amount of valuable feed. The cows are ev- 

 ery day turned out for some hours into a small 

 enclosure. The quantity of inaiune obtained in 

 this way, especially where proper jiain? are tak(Mi 

 is of a superior quality, and is an iu)|)orlaiit con- 

 sideration. 



Of Dailies for the manufactiiri' of butter and 

 cheese, there are none within my knowledge in 

 the county, of any great extent. Ten cows con 

 stitute the largest nuniber reported to me as kept 

 for this purpose ; and these are devoted mainly 

 to the making of butter, for which there is always 

 a ready sale in the towns. It requires a gallon of 

 new milk to make one pound of cheese. From 

 two and a half to three gallons are required for a 

 pound of butter. The cheese usually brings 8 or 

 9 cents. The butter 20 to 22 cents. Ten quarts 

 of good milk will ordinarily produce a pound of 

 I utter. When cheese is worth 9 cents, butter 

 should he worth 22 cents ; the value of the milk 

 then applied in either way is about the same. — 

 The skimmed milk and the butter milk, however, 

 are of much more value for various domestic |)ur- 

 poses, and for feeding swine, than the cheese 

 whey. The labor of the manufacture is not very 

 different. The care of the cheese, where it is 

 kept through the season, is considerable. The 

 butter finds usually an immediate sale. In the 

 warmest patt of the season cheese is principal'y 

 made. There are no spring houses in the county, 

 such as are universal in Pennsylvania, designed 

 exclusively for keeping the milk, and with run- 

 ning water patsing through them. From the 

 want of these accommodations the making of but- 

 ter in summer is often discontimied. 



The yield of a cow in milk is stated generally 

 at 350 gallons per year; of butter 87 1-2, 116, 140, 

 lbs; of cheese I have been able to obtain no return 

 on which I could place reliance. These returns 

 are very small ; and indicate either |)oor stock, 

 or jioor pastures, or poor management. I am in- 

 clined to think the returns much ui.der estimated. 

 I have the returns of a dairy of six cows, which I 

 have often visited, where in 1830, 181 lbs. of but- 

 ter were made to each cow, and this without any 

 extra feed. In another case, from four cows bv 

 high feeding, 208 lbs. of butter were obtained in 

 a season to a cow. Such examples ought to stim- 

 ulate efforts at improvement. 



1 am struck often with the remarks made by 

 persons, who are disposed to speak well of their 

 cows, when after stating what they produce, they 

 finish by saying, "but we give them nothing but 

 grass or hay," as the case may be ; and " they go 

 in a very poor pasture." This may be very re- 

 putable to the eovvs, but it is very disreputable to 

 their owners. A poor cow is not worth keeping; 

 lint no animal will belter pay for liberal treatment 

 than a gooil cow. Why should one of the kindest 

 and most liberal benefactors, which divine Provi- 

 dence has given to men in the form of a quadru- 



ped, be treated in this negligent and niggardly 

 manner ? 



It cannot be denied that a great (lart of the but- 

 ter made in New England, is of an inferior qual- 

 ity ; and bears a disadvantageous comparison 

 with the butter of Pennsylvania and New York- 

 There is a freshness and delicious flav(U' to be 

 found in the Philadelphia and much of the Goshen 

 butter, which is rarely, though sometimes, to be 

 met with in ours. It may depend somewhat 

 upon the feed ; somewhat upon the animal her- 

 self; but I believe oftener upon the management. 

 I shall be pardoned for speaking of some lemark- 

 able but not uncommon faults. The cream i< of- 

 ten kept too long. The milk room is not always 

 well ventilated and white washed ; and is fre- 

 quently in the neighborhood of the effluvia of de- 

 cayed vegetables, and musty cider barrels ; and is- 

 often made the depository of the remains of the 

 dinner table, cider, pickles, cold meats, and various 

 nnmentinnables. The milk and dairy room^ 

 should beexchisively for milk and its products; 

 and by itself. Cleanliness in every part of it, in. 

 every vessel, in every operation connected with 

 it, and in every person permitted to enter it, 

 should be the first and an indispensable requisite. 



The color of butter depends, doubtless some- 

 what, but not entirely, upon the management of 

 the milk and cream. The bright golden surface, 

 sparkling like a [lieceof rock candy or loaf sugar, 

 is altogether [ireferable to a slimy, waxy appear- 

 ance, or a cheesy whiteness, which it often has. 

 A lady in Boxford, whose own butter showed that 

 she understood the art, told me that she knew two 

 neighbors, each owning one cow, who engaged to 

 use their two cows together alternate weeks — 

 The cows went in the same pasture. One of 

 ihese persons, in the week when she milked the 

 cows, produced from them a beautiful yellow but- 

 ter; the other, in her week, from the same cows, 

 produced butter that was white and crumbling- 

 like cheese. The (bnner ke[)t her milk in a well, 

 aired room above ground ; the latter kept her 

 milk in the cellar I had no opportunity of mak- 

 ing further inquires, and I am not prepared to say 

 that this was the occasion of the difi'erence; but- 

 it is a strong circumstance. The main point is a. 

 pure atmosphere and perfect cleanliness in every 

 opeiation and utensil. 



I shall subjoin here the Tsnggea'iions of a re- 

 specteil fri.'ud in iMaine ;■* u geniieinan who yields; 

 to no one in agriculluru'. inttlligence, zea', and. 

 experience. 



'•Take one quarter oj- even one third of the^ 

 milk of a cow— ai- eo ,i„l niiniiitiy fiom each teal -,; 



-. :.. V. /*■ ■ " . I ...;il. 



use this ill your fam /f. or for your pigs, and 



milk 

 the residue for the d.-i'irv. You will make betier 

 butter in less time ; and nearly (in equal qunnlihj." 

 I have been long of an opinion, that a winlei- 

 dairy for mahlng butter in Essex County, where, 

 access to market is so .easy, wciifd be quite prolita- 

 ble. In this case it v/ould be necessary to liavv* 



•Charles Vaughan, GgC i. of Mallowcll. 



