MANAGEMENT OP THE DAIRT.' 



145 



MANAGEMENT OF THE DAIRY. 



Statement of William S. Lixcolx to tlie Committee of the Wor- 

 cester Agricultural Society, appoiuted to awanl the premiums for 

 Dairies, offered by the Massachusetts Society for Promoting Ag- 

 riculture. 



Gk.nts : — As a competitor for the premiuras at 

 your disposal, I oITer for your examiaatiou, twelve 

 animals coastitutiug my Jairy. One other cow has 

 been kept with these during the summer, but as she 

 has beou kept exclusively for the use of my family, 

 she is not exhibited. Having determined, early in 

 the season, to become a competitor for our own soci- 

 ety's premiums for dairie.'?, it was necessary to divide 

 my stock; and the milk of each, and the product of 

 such milk, has been kept separate during the assigned 

 period of five mouths. 



Informed by the circular issued by authority of the 

 board of trustees, that the purpose was to " encour- 

 age the better attention to the business of the dairj', 

 and in return for its premiums, to secure the most 

 varied and largest amount of information in its suc- 

 cessful and faithful management," which purpose was 

 best to be promoted by leaving each competitor to 

 pursue his own course of management, at the peril 

 that some other mode might " prove more productive 

 under the conduct of some other competitor." I 

 deemed it be.-^t, and likely to be more satisfactory, to 

 keep along in my regular system, deviating in no de- 

 gree from that course which is practiced by me every 

 day of every season. 



Thus the committee will perceive that I render no 

 account of the quantity of milk, either in weight or 

 measure, yielded by any one or more of my cows, for 

 any one or more days. For, though a statement that 

 a cow has given a specified number of quarts or 

 pounds of milk for a given number of days, might 

 gratify the curious in statistics, the experience of no 

 inconsiderable number of years has convinced me 

 that such was of no value in testing the worth of an 

 animal for butter. 



The return, then, which I submit, will be merely a 

 statement of the mode imrsiied by me in the manage- 

 ment and feeding of my stock, of the care of the 

 milk, with the dairy utensils, and the amount of but- 

 ter produced during the required period of trial. 



The trial began on the 2oth of April last, before 

 turning to pasture. 



Management of stock while stalled. — In the man 

 agement of my stock, the utmost gentleness is ob- 

 served, and Ex.f^T regularity in the hours of feeding 

 while confined to the stable, and of milking through 

 out the year. 



The stock is fed regularly three times a day. 



In the morniug, as soon as the milking is over, 

 each cow (having been previously fed and her liag 

 cleaned hy washing, if necessary), is thorouglily 

 cleaned and groomed, if the expression may be used, 

 with a currycomb, from head to foot, and when 

 cleaned, turned out to drink. 'J'lie stable is now 

 cleaned out, the mangers swept and the floors sprin- 

 kled with plaster, and as the cows return, which they 

 do as soon as inclined, they are tied up and left un- 

 disturbed until the next hour of feeding, which is at 

 noon. 



The cattle at this time are again turned out to 

 drink, and after being tied up on their return, again 

 fed. Of course the stable is at this time asain thor- 



oughly cleaned. And so again at night, the same 

 course is pursued. At this time a good bedding is 

 spread for each cow, and after all are in, they are fed. 



At six o'clock the milking commences, and at its 

 termination, after removing from the floor whatever 

 manure may have been dropped, the stable is closed 

 for the night. If carrots are fed, which is the only 

 root allowed to my cows in milk, they are given at 

 the time of the evening milking. 



Whatever material is taken for bedding (such as 

 corn-stalks, husks, &c.) is passed through a cutting 

 machine, and composes the noon feed — such portions 

 as are not consumed by the cows being used for bed- 

 ding. The additional labor of cutting up is amply 

 compensated by the reduced amount of labor in 

 working (loading) and plowing under the manure. 



While I consider it highly desirable that the cows, 

 during the period they are stabled, should be kept 

 warm and dry, 1 regard it as indispensable that they 

 should be perfectly clean; and although the stock is 

 stabled the whole time, care is taken that there is a j 



sufficient degree of ventilation. | 



Milking. — As before observed, this takes place ] 



throughout the year at six in the morning and six in i 



the evening. ' 



As a general rule each cow is milked separately, \ 



her milk strained and set separately. Witli heifers ; 



this is invariably done; as I believe there is no other ; 



reliable mode of determining the value of an animal \ 



for butter; and in this way, and a separate churning i 



also, is it determined whether to retain in my dairy 

 or sell to some milk-man such heifers as I may raise. 



The same regularity is observed in the order in 

 which the cows are milked as in the hours of milking. 



The milk as soon as drawn, is taken to be strained 

 and carried into the milk-room. Here it stands from 

 twenty-four to thirty-six hours, in some mouths of the 

 year, forty-eight hours, at which time it is removed 

 to an adjoining room to be skimmed. In this way 

 the room is free from those odors which always fol- 

 low the spattering of milk or cream upon the floor 

 or shelves of the daily. We mean to skim sweet 

 milk. 



The milk-room is upon the second floor of the 

 house, and running its whole width, ventilated by 

 windows at the north and south, and in the winter 

 months warmed to a proper degree by a stove. 



Tin pans are used in which to keep the milk, -filled 

 generally to a depth of two or two and a half inches. 



The cream as it is skimmed is poured into stone 

 pots, which in warm weather are kept in a refrigera- 

 tor, and during the winter stand in the milk-room. 



The times of churning depend upon the quantity 

 of cream. During this summer there have been four 

 churuings a week. 



The time usually occupied in churning is from fifty 

 minutes upwards. This is deemed a matter of im- 

 portance. 1 consider it much preferable to bring 

 the cream to the degree of temperature necessary to 

 the formation of butter by a steady, moderate agita- 

 tion than to use artificial heat to take it to that point 

 before commencing to churn. By such moderate, 

 long-continued agitations, we think the butter has a 

 firmer, more tca.ry consistence than it can have by 

 more rapid churning. The churn used is " Gait's." 

 Numerous trials have been made with many of the 



