so 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Jan. 



cheese-mtilier often gets as high a figure as 

 $l,0liO to $1,200, and more, for the season 

 (nine months). When a small amount of 

 milk is to be made up, good dairymaids can be 

 employed often at from $8 to 12 per week 

 and board. In cheese dairying it generally 

 pays better to employ a skilful cheesemaker 

 at a good round price, than an inferior one at 

 a low price. 



III. Persons commencing the business of 

 dairying, often make great mistakes in em- 

 ploying inferior or second rate manufacturers, 

 because they' can be had cheap. A poor 

 cheese-maker will entail heavy losses on the 

 sales of cheeses besides damaging the reputa- 

 tion of the dairy, which last is of more impor- 

 tance than many are apt to imagine. 



IV. Milk is sometimes purchased by a man- 

 ufacturer, or by the proprietor of a factory. 

 In this case the purchaser must fix upon some 

 data to regulate his rates. 



Ten pounds of milk is usually considered 

 sufficient for one pound of cured cheese. 

 About two cents per pound is taken as a fair 

 rate for manufacturing, care of cheese, box- 

 ing, bandage, &c., and putting it into maiket, 

 Now if cheese can be sold at 15 cents per 

 pound, about 12 cents can be paid for every 

 ten pounds of milk delivered. The margin, 

 however, is commonly made larger than this, 

 to cover losses on account of poor cheeses, 

 risk of markets, shrinkage of cheese, and other 

 matters connected with the business. We do 

 not pretend to give any exact figures that 

 could be taken as the proper price to pay for 

 milk, but merely allude to the methods, or 

 general data, by which a purchaser makes up 

 his opinion as to the price he can affo- d to 

 pay. Sometimes when milk has been engaged 

 for the season at a low figure, and the price 

 of cheese runs high, the purchaser clears a 

 handsome profit, and we have known cases, 

 where on the other hand he has made serious 

 losses. The business, it will be seen, is of a 

 speculative character, and has never been pop- 

 ular among the New York factories. 



COTTON SEED MEAL. 

 As furnishing information concerning the 

 use of cotton seed meal, in addition to the 

 few remarks we made recently, iu reply to the 

 inquiries of a correspondent, we copy from a 

 contemporary the following notes, by our cor- 

 respondent, A. W. Cheever, Esq., Sheldon- 

 ville, Mass., of a visit to some dairy farms in 

 Cumberland, K. I. 



Mr. Leander Mory had seven large cows, 

 that I think are the largest and best seven that 

 can be found in one ya.«rd for several miles 

 around. They are like the cows of most milk- 

 men, partly fresh and partly drying off. lie 

 sells milk the year round, and has his cows 

 come in at different times through the year. 



He showed me cows that would give as high 

 as twenty-four quarts at their best, that are 

 now giving from twelve to sixteen quarts and 

 are coming in this summer and fall. He says 

 it takes him one year or more after he buys 

 a cow to bring her up to her full capacity. 

 He raises no calves but prefers to buy cows, 

 as he sells all his milk. 



In summer he feeds, in addition to pasture 

 feed, two quarts of cotton seed meal. In 

 winter four quarts cotton seed and from two 

 to four of Indian meal per day with English 

 and swale hay. 



i\Ir. Andrew Belcher keeps about the same 

 number of cows and feeds much in the same 

 manner. They both think very highly of cot- 

 ton seed meal for feed. Mr. Belcher was 

 formerly cautious in the use of it. Now be 

 L'uys a cow and immediately puts her on a full 

 feed of cotton seed and meal. 



He bought a cow this spring for $70, that 

 was claimed by the owner to give twelve 

 quarts. He now milks eighteen quarts from 

 her daily. 



Mr. Mory says if he is out of cotton seed 

 one day his cows will shrink a quart each, and 

 neither Indian meal or wheat shorts will keep 

 them up to their quantity, but after feeding 

 cotton seed again one day, they will come up 

 again to their full rate. 



Neither of the gentlemen have ever bad a 

 case of garget or swelled udder on their pre- 

 mises, which fact does not coincide with the 

 experience of Dr. Loring and some others 

 who think so little of the value of cotton seed 

 meal for cows. 



I know of two herds of milch cows in the 

 town of Franklin, Mass., that are fed on cot- 

 ton seed very fi-eely, that are healthy and free 

 from anything like garget. 



In my own experience I have been quite 

 cautious in the use of cotton seed. I lave 

 rarely fed more than two quarts per day to a 

 cow. But with such examples as those of 

 Mr. Mory and Mr. Belcher, I feel like us- 

 ing it a little more boldly as it is one of the 

 cheapest grains I can buy, and according to 

 the chemists one of the richest. 



In an article on this subject, in the Sural 

 New Yorker, Mr. X. A. Willard says: — 



Cotton cake does not contain any large 

 amount of mucilage nor anything that pro- 

 duces, on mixing with water, a volatile pun- 

 gent and injurious essential oil. 



Cattle ofren take at once to it, and even 

 when fed upon linseed cake they soon get ac- 

 customed to the taste of cotton cake, and ap- 

 parently eat it as readily as linseed cake. It 

 contains a very high and much larger p^r- 

 centage of flesh-forming matters than linseed 

 cake. This circumstance suggests that cotton 

 cake may probably be given with great ad- 

 vantage to young stock and to da try cows. 

 As by far the largest proportion of nitrogen 

 of food is not assimilated in the system, but 



