May 1, 1884. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
355 
VEGETABLES 
s. 
d. 
S. 
d. 
s. 
d. 
8. 
d. 
Artichokes 
.. dozen 
2 
0 
to 4 
0 
Mushrooms .. 
punnet 
0 
9 to 
1 
6 
Beans, Kidney 
lb. 
1 
0 
1 
6 
Mustard and Cress 
punnet 
0 
2 
0 
0 
Beet, Red 
.. dozen 
1 
0 
2 
0 
Ouions . 
bushel 
2 
6 
3 
0 
Broccoli .. .. 
0 
9 
1 
0 
Parsley .. dozen bunches 
2 
0 
3 
0 
Brussels Sprouts 
.. i sieve 
0 
0 
0 
0 
Parsnips. 
dozen 
1 
0 
2 
0 
Cabbage .. .. 
0 
6 
1 
0 
Potatoes. 
cwt. 
4 
0 
5 
0 
Capsicums 
100 
1 
6 
2 
0 
,, Kidney . 
cwt. 
4 
0 
S 
0 
Carrots .. 
0 
8 
0 
4 
„ New .. .. 
.. lb. 
0 
4 
0 
0 
Cauliflowers .. 
.. dozen 
2 
0 
3 
0 
Rhubarb. 
bundle 
0 
4 
0 
0 
Celery .. .. 
1 
6 
2 
0 
Salsafy. 
bundle 
1 
0 
0 
6 
Coleworts doz. bunches 
2 
0 
4 
0 
Scorzonera 
bundle 
1 
6 
0 
6 
Cucumbers .. 
.. each 
0 
8 
0 
6 
Seakale. 
basket 
1 
0 
1 
0 
Endive .. 
1 
0 
2 
0 
Shallots. 
.. lb. 
0 
3 
0 
6 
Herbs .. .. 
0 
2 
0 
0 
Spinach. 
bushel 
2 
6 
3 
6 
Leeks 
0 
8 
0 
4 
Tomatoes .. .. 
.. lb. 
2 
0 
8 
0 
lettuce .. .. 
1 
1 
6 
Turnips. 
bunch 
0 
8 
0 
0 
IMPROVING AND KEGULATING THE SUPPLY 
OF FRESH BUTTER. 
(Continued from page 336.) 
In continuation we will refer to the popular or customary 
mode of allowing or compelling the cows to go dry without yield¬ 
ing profit at all for a period of three months, more or less, in 
accordance with the time they are expected to calve again. To 
give an instance of the manner in accomplishing the object 
which we call unnatural, unprofitable, and afterwards attended 
frequently with sei'ious results, we quote from an article pub¬ 
lished in the Agricultural Gazette, February 24th, 1884, by Mr. 
J. H. Walker, Worcester, Mass., in the United States, as follows 
—“ Two months before a cow is due to calve every kind of food 
■excepting dry hay, straw, and corn butts should be taken away 
from her, and only two quarts of water daily be given to her 
until she is dried off. Her milk should be drawn only once a 
day for two or three days. Milk every drop from the udder 
when any is taken. Rub and manipulate the udder very gently, 
just enough to prevent caking. Milk once in three days, then 
once in four or six. Dry as fast as it is safe. Some good cows 
will dry in one-fourth the time it takes to dry others. After 
you are sure the milk glands are dormant commence to give her, 
with her hay, dry oats. From that time until she calves give 
her only dry feed, hay, straw, corn butts, and oats, with roots or 
shorts enough to prevent constipation until she shows she is 
within a day or two of calving. From this time give a few 
potatoes or other cooling and relaxing food until she calves. 
After she calves give her a table-spoonful of nitre in warm water 
twice a day, or oftener if any fever appears, and feed very 
sparingly for a few days with relaxing drinks. Make haste 
slowly in getting her back on to hearty butter-producing food.” 
This perhaps may be one of the best methods which can be 
adopted for the purpose of drying or stopping the supply of 
milk, but the time here spoken of is limited to two months before 
the next calf is due. It is, however, the act of stopping the 
supply, whether it is two, three, or four months, of which we 
complain, for it is unnatural, because as wild animals like the 
white Chillingham cattle, would continue in milk without any 
interference at all except the spring of milk which would occur 
in the anticipation of another offspring. Again, it is unprofit¬ 
able for the dairyman to lose ten or twelve weeks’ produce of 
milk and butter out of twelve or thirteen months between the 
periods of calving, because feeding goes on although the returns 
of produce have been stopped. It is also serious, because it fre¬ 
quently happens that inilammation of the udder and puerperal 
fever set in after calving. Mr. Walker after advising dry food 
before calving, no doubt with the object of preventing any in¬ 
ternal accumulation of fat in the cow ; but he goes further, and 
advises nitre being given if fever appears, thus showing that it 
is commonly expected more or less when animals are dried of 
their milk prematurely, whereas it is by no means a natural 
result if the animals continue a milk record down to the period 
of calving. But these are not the only ill effects arising from 
shortening the milking period, because it is frequently attended 
with the loss of one or more teats by the caking or clogging of 
milk in the udder, especially in the case of great milkers; nor 
is it so easy, although Mr. Walker’s system may be correct, to 
meet with men when in charge of and entrusted with the man¬ 
agement of the cows to find them carefully and willingly carry¬ 
ing out the necessary orders. 
There is yet another point to be considered, for in the syste 
of drying cows of their milk prematurely in a dairy herd which 
are required to breed animals for maintaining the numbers of 
the dairy it is more than likely, that the short milking periods 
having been effected by compulsion, that future generations will 
also yield milk for short periods only, or in other words it will 
become hereditary, and the young stock succeeding prove capable 
of giving only a short supply of milk like that imposed and 
restricted in their dams. We will now hear what the advocates 
of the short milking period have to say in their own defence and 
in support of compelling the animals to cease yielding milk at 
any given period. They say that a continuation of the milking 
period up to the next calving time injures the constitution and 
reduces the quantity of milk for a certain period afterwards, at 
the same time weakening the calves when they come and reducing 
their size ; at the same time they declare that the cows will not 
live so long in the herd if no period is allowed for them to be 
out of profit by prematurely drying of their milk. Supposing 
all these points are true in the practical management of a butter¬ 
making dairy, which we do not admit, still there can be no com¬ 
parison between the advantages gained by the longest milking 
period and the freedom from losses which are traceable to cows 
lioving gone dry and accumulated fat internally, and by death 
through puerperal fever at calving time. 
A With respect to the profits of dairymen in butter-making, it 
s well to consider the disadvantageous results of the popular 
practice of having nearly all the cows to calve in the spring 
months and going dry in the autumn ; for instead of any benefit 
accruing, the dairymen are positively not only acting against 
their own interests by having only a diminished quantity of 
butter to sell, but they are actually at war with each other by 
furnishing an over-supply in the summer months and reducing 
the selling price of their products at that period; and in the 
winter months, when the price it is not only at the highest, but 
in most cases actually unattainable at almost any price. This 
must be a serious loss to themselves, as it is also very difficult 
for the consumers to obtain supplies without resorting to the 
use of foreign imported butter, the quality of which in most 
instances is not only very unpalatable and nauseous, but posi¬ 
tively injurious to the health of the class of people who must 
consume that article or none. This shows at least the way in 
which the dairymen’s interests are sacrificed by their misman¬ 
agement in two ways—first, by shortening the milking period 
and having little or none to sell when the butter is in most 
request by their customers, and also by not regulating the supply 
throughout the year by having their cows to calve at all seasons 
of the year, instead of acting as now upon their own prejudices 
and the popular idea of having all their cows to calve in the 
spring. In some cases the dairymen attempt to justify their 
mode of proceedings by the argument that they seek to keep the 
cows in profit chieily while the supply of grass is most abundant. 
This may be true in the grazing districts where the produce of 
the arable land is only to be obtained by purchase, or a portion 
of the grass produce cannot be secured in the silo as ensilage 
for use in the winter. But our previous remarks go to show 
that true economy in butter-making consists in furnishing and 
regulating the supply at all times of the year; and this is in 
fact the only way in which the butter-makers can benefit them¬ 
selves by furnishing a supply in the winter months, which is now 
monopolised by the importers of foreign compounds of obnoxious 
ingredients. We consider the best policy in dairy management 
is not to allow the cows such short periods between their times 
of calving, but to extend the period by only taking a calf once 
in twelve or thirteen months, and continue the milking and 
butter-making during the whole interval between the calving 
periods, and feed the animals so that the last pound of butter 
should be as good as the first, which is the true commercial and 
practical view of the subject. 
Let us see what records of milking have been substantiated 
both in America and on the continent. Mr. George Willis, in a 
paper read before the Nantwich Association, says, “ I may tell 
you that 1 have seen in America a cow give 74 lbs. of milk in 
one day. I have also before me the milk records of some Holstein 
cattle kept at Little Falls in Western New York, showing that 
one cow six years old is credited with 84 lbs. of milk given in 
one day, 2360 lbs. in one month, and 18,004 lbs. in one year.” 
Again, we find Mr. Jenkins, Secretary to the Royal Agidcultural 
Society of England, speaking before the Farmers’ Club in London 
said, “I know a farm in Denmark on which 220 cows have been 
kept for some years. On that farm there is no permanent grass 
land, and 220 cows are kept on arable land. I have myself seen 
a careful account of the yield of milk every day on these farms. 
