102 ILLINOIS DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 



plowing up the ground and sowing German millet, a crop of from two to four 

 tons of hay can be cut. Millet can be sowed early, and two crops can be 

 grown from the same ground, but of course that will exhaust the land. Cow- 

 peas can be sowed in July, and will produce trom twenty to fifty tons of 

 green feed per acre, and they come during the drouth of September. Cow 

 peas have no superior and but few equals for a green feed for cows, being 

 very rich, aud they do not exhaust the land like corn, and if sowed early, two 

 crops of them can be raised in a season, and if fed on the ground while green 

 they will never exhaust the soil. 



"If the dairyman is raising garden vegetables for the northern cities, he 

 can follow his sweet corn, tomatoes, cucumbers, melons, onions, etc., with 

 either millet or cow peas to feed green, or turnips for a winter feed for 

 calves. 



*'I frequently hear the question asked— where is to be our market ? In 

 answer, I will say that this county does not produce enough now for home 

 consumption, for the grocers all keep northern-made butter for sale at all 

 times. The Insane Hospital also imports five hundred pounds each week. 

 A commission merchant in Memphis, Tennessee, once wrote me that he 

 could sell 1 000 pounds of butter per week if I would furnish it to him. By 

 using a refrigerator-car packaged butter can be shipped to Mobile aad New 

 Orleans with the best results," 



Probably the oldest dairyman in this part of the state is Mr. E. G. Eob- 

 inson, of Anna, but who is now out of the business. His practical knowl- 

 edge of dairying in Southern Illinois is worthy of careful attention. He 

 writes as follows : 



"It was thought a few years ago that it was impossible to make good 

 butter here in the summer, and good butter at any season was an almost un- 

 heard of thing. Behold how altered ! Now a number of our dairymen ship 

 butter to Cairo, where it commands a good price, and if the business was en- 

 larged we could easily supply Memphis, and place our products in that 

 market in prime order. With proper facilities butter can be made as well 

 in summer as in winter, and in winter as well as in summer. In winter it 

 lacks the beautiful color which green grass alone can give. With the aid of 

 art a yellow tinge can be given, which rightly applied improves its appear- 

 ance, but, like paint on the cheek of the maiden, cannot compare with the 

 lovely tint that God and nature gave. A supply of water at a temperature 

 of about 54 deg. is a prime necessity. A spring, if convenient, if not, a well 

 near the house with a windmill pump will afford every requisite. Our many 

 agricultural journals have so fully described the various methods of raising 

 cream in water that I can add nothing new under that head. Butter, to be 

 good, must be thoroughly worked, and to do this took all the strength the 

 dairy woman possessed. Invention has come to her aid, and that formerly 

 so laborious is now, by the aid of the butter worker, no longer to be dreaded. 

 Butter only partially worked weighs heaver by the amount of buttermilk 

 left in it. When fresh it may look and taste well, but in a very short time 

 it becomes rancid and only fit for grease. The dairy that adopts this plan 

 may gain a little in weight, but never can command the top price for its pro- 

 ducts. Many salt butter by guess, therefore it can never be as it should, 



