326 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



July 



buying, and a surplus to sell every year of 

 ten cows. Coninionly a cow is not at her best 

 for milk until slu' is five years of age. T/atf! 

 oiw-lial/ <ij' the icluile lierd consists of grotrintj 

 animals. AV'inter milk being of so much 

 more value to sell than that produced in the 

 season of good pastures, it is important to 

 have a large part of the herd drop their 

 calves in the fall of the year. Proper allow- 

 ances being made for all the circumstances 

 that make up the whole economy of a milk 

 dairy, 1 think Mr. Avery's average yield of 

 milk is a good one. Testing this matter by 

 tables given by Mr. L. B. Arnold in a val- 

 uable article lately published in The Tribune, 

 entitled "Grain Kaisnig vs. Dairy Farming," 

 we find that Mr. Avery's production of milk 

 is fully equal to the yield of what ISIr. Arnold 

 calls dairy farming. He gives -100 pounds of 

 cheese as the animal production of a cow. 

 Five quarts of milk will make a pound of 

 cheese, and the 20 pounds of butter that he 

 credits the cow with in addition should be 

 made from 12 (juarts of milk to the pound. 

 Thus we have 2000 quarts for the cheese and 

 2-10 quarts made into butter, in all 2240 

 quarts, which is just 41^ quarts less than Mr. 

 Avery's average. Mr. Arnold, in his esti- 

 mate of a butter dairy, gives 160 pounds as 

 the average annual production of a cow. Mr. 

 Avery's cows would make, at 12 quarts of 

 milk to the pound, 190 pounds of butter. 



I am satisfied that ]Mr. Avery's average pro- 

 duction of milk is a large one, though much 

 larger stories are often told by men who do 

 not, as Mr. Arnold does, know all the truth 

 in regard to what large dairies of cows ai-e 

 capable of doing. 



Cost of Cooking. 



One more man, or large boy, is required on 

 the farm during winter than was required 

 before the food was cooked. To the cost of 

 this boy must be added use of machinery and 

 fuel to make steam. All of these items are 

 not estimated for the six months of cooking 

 food at more than !ji2,'J0. But Mr. Avery says 

 he has fully determined in his own mind that 

 there is a saving in (piantity of food consumed 

 equal in value to the payment of this expense, 

 and besides a saving of $10 for each of the 

 115 animals fed. This is, in all, $1,150 to be 

 added to the value of increased yield of milk, 

 not less than 18,000 quarts in the year. 



Mr. Avery showed great care in making 

 these statements, evidently desirous to keep 

 within the limits, lest some one might be misled, 

 and he verified his calculation as to the savihg 

 in food, by saying that the average amount 

 paid out for food, not raised on the farm be- 

 fore cooking was adopted, was $1,800 per 

 year, which by cooking had been reduced to 

 $1,000, and that now he had fifty tons a year 

 of hay to sell, whereas before cooking he had 

 none to sell, consuming his whole crop on the 

 farms. 



That is to say, he supports on 200 acres of 

 land, besides raising a little grain to sell, 115 

 head of farm stock, buying $1,0<>0 worth of 

 food in the form of brewers' grains and shorts, 

 and selling fifty tons of hay. Ue sells the old 

 cows and brings up ten calves each year, thus 

 keeping his stock good at the cost of tht? farm. 

 Our Herkimer County friend, in his articles 

 on dairy farming, I think, asked for 200 acres 

 of land to sustain a dairy of forty cows. 



I consider I\Ir. Avery's management a great 

 success, and will now give 



The Method of Cooking and Feeding. 



A small brick building holds the boiler to 

 make the steam, which is carried in an iron 

 pipe under ground about fifty feet to a four- 

 horse power enghie in the barn, that drives a 

 machine for cutting stalks, straw, or hay. This 

 machine cuts the stalks into lengths of from 

 one to three inches, and mashes them. The 

 exhaust steam is carried by a pipe into the 

 cooking-box, which is placed on the floor of 

 the room, directly under the cutting-machine. 

 The exhaust steam is introduced into the steam- 

 box at the bottom, and passes up through a 

 false floor made of narrow slats into and 

 through the mass of food to be cooked. The 

 steam-box is ten feet long, eight feet wide, and 

 6 1-2 feet high, made of plank, strongly 

 clamped, and having close joints. 



The forage is prepared, after being cut for 

 steaTning, by wetting every five bushels of cut 

 stalks or cut hay with fourteen (juarts of water, 

 and mixing with these five bushels one-fourth of 

 a bushel of shorts. 



The pressure of the steam at the boiler, 

 when using the engine, should be sixty pounds 

 to the inch, and then the exhaust steam will 

 do the cooking well. When steam is used for 

 cookin<i only, thi)iy to thirty-five pounds to 

 the inch is better than a higher pressure, says 

 Mr. Avery. 



Immediately after dinner (noon) the engine 

 is started and cutting stalks or hay commences. 

 When enough is cut for a day's feed, the fire 

 is no longer replenished with coal, but is al- 

 lowed to go down, making steam for some 

 time which is let into the box of cooking feed 

 — which will remain hot till the ne.xt morning, 

 say eighteen hours, when the box is emptied 

 by feeding out its contents, and again the box 

 is filled from the cutting of the day before. 



Feeding. 



There is a door in the side of the steaming- 

 box, which is opened, and the hot food taken 

 out and carried in baskets to the mangers of 

 the cows — they having been turned into the 

 yards in sufficient time to have the stables 

 cleaned, and all the orts (coarse leavings of 

 the manger) of the day before taken away, 

 and fed to the young stock and horses. When 

 the cows are let into the stables they eat the 

 hot food then before them with avidity. 



Twice during the day dry hay is fed to these 

 cows, which they also eat with a relish. The 



