1872.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
11 
ami of au increasing conviction that the real point 
of excellence is the butter point. It is rare to find 
a thorough-bred Jersey that has not the charac- 
teristic beauty of the race, and your first-class 
butter-maker is very likely to be an extra-fine 
looking cow. The public taste is fast turning 
iu the direction of this class, and it would be 
well for the breeders to turn their attention to 
their production. It will not be long that we 
can make even a greenhorn from the city satis- 
fied with a black switch in the place of a good 
udder. 
Early in November I was away from home 
for ten days, and the weather became very cold ; 
so much so that the cream which had, since 
the hot weather ceased, been kept in the old 
milk-room, got so chilled that it took several 
hours to churn. The dairy woman at once 
suspected the cold water in which the milk cans 
are kept, and she not only moved them into the 
old room, but built a firo there to keep them 
warm. The result was that when I came home 
I found bitter butter, and less of it, than there 
should have been. It would, of course, have 
done very well to set the milk in shallow pans 
in the heated room, but in such masses as the 
large cans hold (say 15 quarts) the heat was 
fatal. We at once put the cans back into the 
water, but left the cream-kettles in the warm 
room, at a temperature of from 60° to 65°. The 
result is as fine a lot of rich, sweet butter, made 
on the 24th of November, as we have ever had, 
although the weather has been cold and wintry. 
The only remaining test that is now needed to de- 
termine the advisability of setting the milk in 
deep cans immersed in cold spring-water (which 
i s, relatively, warm water in winter), must be de- 
termined by the severely cold weather that is 
almost at hand. If we can make as much and 
■as good butter when the thermometer outside is 
at zero, as wo can when it stands at 30°, then 
there is no more question whether the plan is a 
good one, than there is whether it is a good plan 
to use a mowing machine. Indeed, I am con- 
vinced already that those who do not adopt this 
system for their summer dairies are decided 
losers in quality of butter and iu the labor of 
making it, and slightly in the quantity they 
make. 
I suppose that after having had three years of 
cheap hay, I have no right now to complain, 
but I am not a bit the better satisfied to pay $30 
a ton because I have hitherto bought for from 
.$16 to $20. Fortunately I 'have less stock this 
year than I had last, and I have a good lot of 
corn-fodder and roots to help me out, but I 
must still be a considerable buyer, and, fix it the 
best way I can, I shall have to pay out more 
money for feed than I had counted on. The 
temptation has been strong to come down to 
short rations, but a little exercise of the faculty 
of common sense saved me from that, for if I 
am sure of anything in farming, it is that it 
costs a good deal more to maku flesh than it 
does to keep it, and that starvation will never 
bring good calves ; so I shall face the music, and 
try to bring my stock out in good order in the 
spring, even though hay goes to $50. I shall, 
however, use only so much hay or other coarse 
fodder as is necessary to health — necessary for 
what they call in the South-west "roughness." 
The nutriment I can get more cheaply in other 
ways. Iu my calculations I take as a basis 
Boussingault's tables of nutritive values — being 
the mean of experiment and theory — the pres- 
ent market prices of feed iu Newport, and 
Lawes's estimates of the value ofthemanurial 
residuum of each article, and allow sufficient 
margin for safety. 
Iu the table below, the first column of figures 
shows the quantity of the article named that 
equals ISO pounds of good ha}'; the second, 
the cost of that quantity in our markets; the 
third, the amount to be deducted for the manure 
produced by the consumption of the quantity 
named; and the fourth, the actual cost of the 
nutritive effect produced. 
MATERIAL. 
1 
2 
3 
4 
Hay 
Oats 
1U0 lbs. 
Hi U.S. 
1115 lbs. 
".'.libs. 
57 lbs. 
*1.50 
1.20 
1.81. 
1.18 
.90 
— .33 
— .18 
— M 
-.W 
-.20 
- $1.17 
- l.oi 
- .97 
- .93 
— .70 
If this computation is not absolutely correct it 
is relatively so ; at least it constitutes as good a 
guide as any calculation we can make, with our 
present very slight knowledge ef the processes 
of animal life. Indian corn is too heavy a 
food to be given largely to cows, but I shall 
mix a little of it with ground oats and add 
them to my cut fodder and bran before steam- 
ing, increasing the quantity gradually until the 
animals will be satisfied with a minimum 
amount of "roughness." 
If the effect of such feeding is what Miv Ilors- 
the buildiug, this shed is made to inclose three 
sides of a court which is open to the south. The 
gaps in the roof of the shed at the corners, and 
the cracks between the platforms, are covered 
with straw and boards. There is nothing that 
fowls love better than convenient nooks where 
they can retreat from the crowd of their fel- 
lows, and select their own company. Confine- 
ment brings not only loss of health but the 
vices of feather-eating and egg-eating. No sys- 
tem of diet will remove the liability of fowls 
that are habitually kept iu-doors learning to 
pluck each other. If the room is large and the 
flock small there may be no risk of this, but the 
expense of such quarters would be fatal to suc- 
cess. When fowls are allowed freedom th<$y 
never learn to eat feathers. If anybody wants 
to keep poultry under some highly artificial 
plan, and prevent out-door range in winter in 
order to promote laying, he is welceme to do 
so. But nature if thwarted is sure to havener 
revenge, if not in one way then in another. 
Whether iu-doors or out, the birds must be 
busily employed every day, and then they will 
be happy and contented, and not learn egg-eat- 
ing or other abnormal practices. Without a 
chance to scratch in earth or straw, they will be 
as badly off as a rich man with nothing to do. 
Fig. 1. — WINTER QUARTERS FOR LAVING STOCK. 
fall's experiments would indicate, it is not im- 
possible that we may learn a lesson that will be 
worth all that the high hay market will cost us. 
We shall see. 
A correspondent iu Maryland asks me to 
define the quality of the bran of which I rec- 
ommend that ten quarts per day be fed to a 
cow. I refer to what is known in the New 
York market as " 50-lb. feed," i. e. — a 3-bushel 
bag full weighs 50 pounds. Say 16 pounds to 
the bushel ; or, about a half-pound per quart. 
■ i ■♦— ►— 
An Egg Farm. 
bt ii. h. btoddabd. — Ninth Article. 
Quarters for the laying stock during cold 
weather are shown in fig. 1. When the house 
is located for winter, the doors in the north roof 
are covered with building-paper in overlapping 
sheets tacked on slightly so that it ma}' be re- 
moved in spring. Straw is laid over the paper 
to the depth of a foot. A temporary shed is 
made for a rod east, and the same distance west 
of the building, connecting with the roof of the 
latter, the platforms for drying earth (figured in 
the third article, p. 258) being used for this pur- 
pose and supported by stout rails. By turning 
a corner, as at the post A, east and also west of 
Straw is scattered under the sheds, and on pleas- 
ant days a few haudfuls of feed are buried un- 
der it, using a fork. When the weather admit?, 
a larger pile is used for a scratching-place, situ- 
ated soulih of the feed-room, where it can be 
moved by the aid of a team, as stated in a pre- 
vious article. The arrangements for burying 
grain iu-doors have also been already described. 
The ground is raised a few inches by plowing 
in the fall, where the sheds are to be placed. 
When the house is placed upon the dust-bin, 
jB, waste strips of cloth, called " headings," ob- 
taiued at the woolen factories, are used to make 
the joints air-tight between the two. The pas- 
sage leadiug to the feed-room is represented at 
G. The feed-room itself is not shown in the il- 
lustration, because figured in a former number. 
A small opening (D) nt each end of the house is 
for ventilation, and must never be closed. A 
projecting cap over it keeps out rain, and wire- 
cloth of J-inch mesh breaks the force of enter- 
ing air incase of high winds, though ordinarily 
the current will be outward. Fresh air is ad- 
mitted through the passage C, and as it must 
enter the feed-room through an outside door in 
the latter, and pass several angles before gain- 
ing admission to the ro»sting room, strong 
draughts will be avoided. Care must be takea 
during cold spells to fartially close this door at 
night, so as to raise the temperature at the 
