1874] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
131 
(2,866 quarts). At Mr. Cooper's price (2°%°° 
cents per quart) the others received, respec- 
tively, $97.73, $94.25, and $83.11 per cow 
per year. 
Per contra, the Country Gentleman published 
last autumn a series of very carefully prepared 
articles by E. Lewis Sturtevant, analysing the 
reports of over 300 butter and cheese factories 
in the State of New York, and of dairy farms 
to which the premiums of the New York State 
Agricultural Society have been awarded. In 
these articles it is demonstrated that: 
1. " The average yield of the average cow of 
New York State can not exceed annually 
1,350 quarts." 
2. "The average yield of superior dairies will 
not exceed 1,800 quarts." 
He concludes " that the annual yield of the 
native cow in dairy regions of America can be 
fairly estimated at 1,800 quarts a year." 
Taking 2 S0 /i<>» cents as the average price, we 
have $39.15 for the average of NewYork State ; 
$52.20 for the average of the best dairies in that 
State ; and $37.70 as the average of the dairy 
regions of America. 
Here is a difference between the average of 
the four cases reported in Chautauqua and 
Wyoming and the average of American dairies 
— $37.70 per cow on one side and $85.43 per 
cow on the other. The average of the good 
herd is one hundred and twenty-seven per cent 
better than the average of the whole. 
The question naturally arises whether the 
better dairies cost 127 per cent more than the 
average, or whether any considerable part of 
this increase is profit. Remember that we are 
not considering the average cow of the whole 
country, including all the poor animals kept 
on poor forage by poor people, but the average 
in what are sufficiently large herds to be con- 
sidered as dairies, and where the sale of dairy 
products is an important item of the farmer's 
business ; this being, presumably, much above 
the average of all, if we include the poorer 
cows kept by the poorer people, and in those 
regions, especially in some parts of the South, 
where there is nothing worthy of the name of 
dairying carried on. 
We shall certainly be within the mark if we 
say that the keep of a common cow generally 
requires, on average farms, for pasture and hay 
the year through, not less than six acres of 
land; so that the product of $37.70 gives a 
gross return of $6.28 per acre. Out of this 
must come interest, insurance, and depreciation 
on one-sixth of the value of the cow, the same 
on her proportion of the farm buildings and 
implements needed for the business of dairying, 
the maintenance of wagons and horses needed 
for marketing, and all the labor of hay-making, 
driving to and from pasture, feeding, watering, 
milking, and the care of utensils. The income 
from twelve cows would be $452.40. How 
much of this would be left for clear profit 
after all the foregoing deductions were made, 
and after paying interest on the value of 73 
acres of land, any farmer can figure out for 
himself. If he gets more than a meager sub- 
sistence in return for his slavish work he will 
probably find on examination that it comes 
from some other item than the dairy. 
It may. seem anomalous, but if it is fair to 
allow six acres per cow in an average dairy, it 
is fair to allow four acres per cow in the su- 
perior dairy. In the first case I allow three 
acres for pasture and three acres for hay (24 
tons) ; in the second I allow two acres for pas- 
ture, li acre for hay (two tons), and half an 
acre for corn (grain, stalks, and green fodder) 
and a few roots. The secret of this difference 
is that better cows imply better farmers, and 
better farmers imply better land, for improve- 
ment in farming is literally a " double back-ac- 
tion " affair. Good feeding reacts on the more 
copiously manured land, which responds with 
better supplies of food, and both of these stim- 
ulate the farmer to the general bettering of his 
farm and furnish him the means for it. A good 
farm in the hands of the right sort of man is 
like a swelling river in a limited channel : it is 
always growing out of its bounds, getting big- 
ger and bigger, and demanding more and more 
capacity for its rising tide — just as a poor farm 
in the hands of a dullard is like a stagnant 
pool, which the rains of heaven are barely able 
to keep from drying up altogether. 
Seventy-two acres of well farmed land of the 
same original character as that considered 
above will carry eighteen cows as readily as 
that would carry twelve cows. These, at an 
average income of $85.43, will yield a gross 
return of $21.36 per acre, instead of $6.28, and 
for the 72 acres $1,537.74 instead of $452.40. 
The interest on the cost of the land will be the 
same ; on stock, buildings, and implements 
more, of course, but we may leave an ample 
allowance for this without nearly equalizing 
the incomes. The labor will not be very much 
more except for milking, for the labor of cul- 
tivating the half acre will not greatly exceed 
the cost of harvesting and renewing the extra 
amount of mowing land of the poorer farm, 
and it will be more than compensated for by 
the extra profit from the incidental items of 
the better farming. 
Such estimates as the foregoing are not suffi- 
ciently well grounded to be made minute and 
exact ; but no one competent to form an opin- 
ion would hesitate to say that after all expenses 
are paid the inferior of the foregoing examples 
would result in a tight squeeze to make both 
ends meet, while the other would show a hand- 
some and yearly increasing profit. 
In the better cases cited (Chautauqua and 
Wyoming) the cows were only well selected 
natives, and the result might be materially in- 
creased by the use of thorough-bred or even 
grade Ayrshire or Hutch cows. In Mr. Tefft's 
case the result was largely due to the fact that 
he feeds his skimmed milk to his cows, mixing 
ground feed with it (bran and corn and oats). 
In reply to my question on the subject, he says 
that this has long been his practice, and that 
the whole product of skimmed milk may be fed 
back to the cows yielding it, with excellent re- 
sults in product and in health. Having had 
no abortions in his herd, he ascribes his im- 
munity (as is usual) to his manner of treatment. 
I have previously referred to the subject of 
coloring butter, and during the past five years 
have experimented with nearly every recipe 
that has come to my notice. I have now set- 
tled on a system which is so satisfactory — after 
nearly three winters' application of it in the 
coloring of over 3,000 lbs. of butter — that it is 
worth while to state it somewhat in detail. 
The question whether butter ought to be col- 
ored at all is one that may be left to the judg- 
ment of the maker. It is quite certain that 
butter of a good color sells for a better price 
than that which is as white as winter butter 
almost invariably is. I do not find that, my 
customers object to artificial coloring, and I am 
sure they would criticise an uncolored article. 
No one objects to coloring with carrot Juice, 
which is unreliable in the matter of taste, and 
grows more and more so as the spring ap- 
proaches; but annatto is sometimes looked 
upon as a "drug," and many hesitate to use it 
on this account. The annatto plant, which 
grows in the tropics, bears a prickly pod about 
the size of a horse-chestnut. In this are many 
seeds, of about the size and shape of kernels of 
buckwheat, which are imbedded in a reddish 
pulp. When the pod ripens the pulp dries and 
adheres to the secus. This pulp, removed from 
the seeds, is the annatto of commerce. The 
common means of preparation is by steeping 
in water and boiling to a paste and then drying ; 
this is "basket annatto." Recently, Mr. G. de 
Cordova has developed a process for removing 
the pulp from the seeds by washing in cold 
water, separating the coloring matter from the 
liquid and drying it without the application of 
heat, and then pulverizing it, securing the col- 
oring principle pure and of full strength. This 
is called " annattoine," and is the substance 
that we use, the form being not different from 
that in which it exists in the native pulp, which 
is used by the people of Brazil as a Savoring 
matter in cooking much as we use salt, and 
which is as much an article of food and as little 
a "drug" as is carrot juice. Annattoine is a 
natural vegetable product, artificially separated 
from its natural combination without being 
changed in character, and may be regarded as 
wholesome and even nutritious. It may be 
used in several ways. That which we have 
adopted (and which costs about 10 cents per 
100 lbs. butter) is according to the recipe of 
Messrs. Whitman and Burrell, of Little Palls, 
N. Y., who are large dealers in the material. 
I first got their recipe from Willard's Dairy 
Husbandry, and afterwards in an improved 
form from themselves. It is as follows : 1. Dis- 
solve one pound of the best potash and one half 
pound sal-soda in ten quarts water, stirring oc- 
casionally, and allowing it to stand until well 
dissolved and until the impurities have all set- 
tled to the bottom of the vessel. Pour off all 
the clear liquor possible, let it settle again and 
pour off more, and repeat until only the sedi- 
ment remains. 2. Dissolve one pound annat- 
toine in eight quarts clear cold water, and let 
it stand in a cool place from one to two days 
until perfectly dissolved, stirring occasionally 
and thoroughly. This mixture will ferment if 
too warm. 3. Mix the two liquids together 
and let the compound stand until the annat- 
toine is perfectly united with the alkali and 
the liquid becomes clear, stirring occasionally. 
4. Store in earthen jars, or if in glass keep in a 
dark place. 5. Immediately before churning 
shake the bottle and put into the cream a large 
table-spoonful of the liquid for each gallon of 
cream, and stir it at once. More or less may 
be used, according to the depth of color de- 
sired — more for butter to be sold fresh than 
for that which is to be salted down, as the tint 
becomes stronger with time. 
I have received a long letter which I con- 
dense as follows. (It is evidently written under 
the erroneous impression that we — O. P. — own 
the American Agriculturist. I wish we did.) 
1. Why have you discontinued the use of 
cooked food for neat stock ? 2. How can I 
keep my stable from freezing ? It Is made of 
matched rough boards, but there are some 
cracks. Shall I cover with paper, then with 
clapboards, and board up inside the joists and 
fill in with sawdust? Would it be desirable to 
make the stable warm, and what would it cost? 
3. Would paper be better or cheaper than plas- 
