1881 .] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
351 
It is out of proportion with other necessaries 
of life, and with prices in England and on the 
Continent. Just now, first-class butter is sell¬ 
ing about the same in Sweden, Norway, Den¬ 
mark, Holland, and the United States, but 
oftener than otherwise, it sells higher in Phil¬ 
adelphia, New York, and Boston, than in Co¬ 
penhagen, Liverpool, or London. We seldom 
export first-class butter, because it is generally 
held above the price exporters can pay for it. 
This fact has often been noticed by dairy 
writers. The twenty-five or thirty millions 
of pounds, which are annually sent abroad, 
come mostly from second and third-class 
goods. The higher price of butter in the 
United States is not because it necessarily 
costs more to produce it than elsewhere. Our 
fine climate, and cheaper lands, which are well 
watered and rich, ought to enable us to pro¬ 
duce butter as we do beef and grain, cheaper 
than it can be produced in England or Eu¬ 
rope. It comes chiefly from the improvident 
management of dairymen which makes the 
production of milk needlessly expensive. 
Harris Lewis, of Herkimer County, N. Y., 
who is well posted in all that relates to the 
dairy, has often remarked that one-third of 
the cows in his county, do not give milk 
enough to pay for their keeping. I have trav¬ 
elled in about all the dairy districts of the 
Untied States, and considerably in Canada, 
and wherever I have been, I have found a 
similar proportion of poor cows. I think the 
milking capacity of cows in Herkimer County 
fully up to the average. 
The policy which would shut out all com¬ 
petition, so as to maintain such a state of 
things that dairymen can make money with 
one-third of their herds non-paying, is wrong 
in principle. It is unjust towards consumers 
.and no advantage to dairymen. It would be 
better to let the production of butter, whether 
natural or artificial, expand until prices come 
down nearer the necessary cost of production. 
Nobody would be hurt by such an expansion. 
A reduction in price would at once increase 
consumption at home, and swell the export 
trade, and it would have the good effect of 
weeding out the non-paying cows, and com¬ 
pelling a better selection and breeding of dairy 
stock, and a better economy in general dairy 
management, which would result in greatly 
reducing the cost of milk, and of course the 
cost of butter also. 
A too high price of butter invites the inven¬ 
tion of substitutes, and makes their introduc¬ 
tion possible. If butter was sold at a fair 
profit above the necessary cost of production, 
•oleomargarine could not exist. 
To say that butter can be produced in New 
York as cheaply as oleomargarine, would 
•doubtless seem to most dairymen a very ex¬ 
travagant statement. But such a thing is far 
from being impossible. The average cost of 
milk in New York and New England is esti¬ 
mated at half a cent a pound. This is be¬ 
lieved to be a close approximation to the 
present actual cost, but it is too high. Milk 
can be, and ought to be, produced for less 
than half a cent a pound. Messrs. Whit¬ 
man & Burrell, of Little Falls, N. Y., who 
keep a strict account of their business, say 
they can produce it for one-fourth of a cent 
a pound, and I have no doubt they can, and 
possibly for less. The way they work to do 
it is, in the first place, by providing suitable 
buildings atad means for keeping their cows 
comfortable at all times of the year. There 
is a great deal in the economy of comfort; 2d, 
by selecting the best milking stock they can 
procure—a very efficient way to reduce cost; 
3d, by cheapening the cost of their cattle food 
by better and cheaper culture and larger 
crops. Here is an opening for a large reduc¬ 
tion ; 4th, by keeping their cows the year 
round on succulent food, by means of soiling 
and ensilage, feeding from the silo, when 
they cannot do so from the fields; 5th, by 
making the supply of food constant and 
liberal, trusting nothing to the uncertainty of 
rainfalls and the variations of seasons. In 
this way a full and uniform flow is maintain¬ 
ed during the entire season, securing thereby 
about one-third more milk than could be ob¬ 
tained from the same cows when periodically 
subjected to shrinkage from drouth and dry 
feed. By such means they can easily reduce 
the usual cost of milk one-half. What Messrs. 
Whitman & Burrell are doing, ten thousand 
other dairymen can do, and a great many are 
now working in the same direction. Great 
advances are being made all over the country 
in improving milking stock, and in reducing 
the cost of cattle food, and in other ways di¬ 
minishing the expense of milk production. 
When the cost of milk is reduced to one- 
quarter of a cent a pound, and the butter is 
separated from it by some of the modes of 
cold setting, so that the skim-milk will be 
kept sweet and sound until used, the refuse 
of the dairy, if judiciously used, will pay the 
original cost of the milk. The buttermilk 
and skim-milk from 100 pounds of new milk 
will, if fed to thrifty calves or pigs, make 
from 5 to 6 pounds of live weight, worth, on 
an average, 5 cts. a pound. In 1875, while in 
Illinois, I called on Israel Boies, at his butter 
factory, in Marengo, and found him buying 
skim-milk of his patrons, and paying 25 cts. 
a hundred for it, and was assured by him, 
that an exact account of cost and receipts 
showed that he was making well by the pur¬ 
chase. By converting their sweet skim-milk 
and buttermilk into cheese, Whitman & Bur¬ 
rell are making double what they could by 
feeding, and considerable more than their 
milk has cost them. Thus it is clear that the 
cost of milk can be so reduced that the 
refuse of a butter dairy will handsomely pay 
its cost, and the butter be had for the mak¬ 
ing, which certainly will not be more than 
the cost of making an equal amount of oleo¬ 
margarine. What occasion is there then for 
alarm from substitutes for butter ? Dairymen 
may as well possess their souls in patience. 
They have the staff in their own hands. If 
they will only put as much brains into their 
products as are put into their substitutes, 
they may let them take their course and 
smile at the result. The dairy interest is 
secure, and its security lies not in the high 
prices, but in reducing the cost to a minimum, 
and casting their goods before the world at 
prices so low as to defy competition. This 
course will gradually be adopted, and in the 
long run give a permanency and expansion 
to our dairy interests which we are now 
hardly prepared to anticipate. 
Strawberry Plants in Pots. —Not 
long ago only a few dealers in small fruits 
offered strawberry plants struck in pots. This 
year nearly every nurseryman has sent a spe¬ 
cial list of varieties of strawberries in pots. 
These plants set this month will make a good 
growth, and yield a fair crop of fruit next 
spring. Of course, they cost more than ordi¬ 
nary plants, but not in proportion to the extra 
trouble required to produce them. The ama¬ 
teur cultivator is willing to pay for the satis¬ 
faction of having immediate results. 
Preparing for Window Gardening. 
Those who have plants in the grounds 
which they intend for blooming in the win¬ 
dow, make a mistake if they delay taking 
them up until frost is threatened. If the 
plants have been left in the pots which have 
been plunged in the open ground, the change 
is not so sudden, but if the plants have 
been turned out of the pots, and their 
roots have been allowed free growth, it is 
another matter. With many plants turned 
out, the better plan is to raise new ones from 
cuttings for next winter’s blooming, and let 
the old ones go. But it is often desirable to 
take up and pot an old plant. In such cases do 
not wait until there is danger of frost, and 
then hurridly dig up the plant, and crowd its 
roots into a pot. Suppose the plant to be 
taken up is a geranium; begin at least a 
month before the time of removal to prepare 
it for the change. It will have made an enor¬ 
mous top, which must be cut back and the 
plant brought into a neat compact shape. 
The change from the open ground to the pot 
should take place before cool nights have 
checked the growth. Amateur gardeners, 
as a general thing, are afraid to use the knife. 
If in taking up all the plants that are to be 
kept in the window during the winter, they 
would cut the tops back, to correspond to the 
disturbance of the roots, they would have 
much better success. Very old specimens of 
such quick-growing plants as geraniums are 
so rarely satisfactory when lifted from the 
open ground, that even at this late day we 
should prefer to start young plants from cut¬ 
tings. On the other hand, hard-wooded plants ) 
such as roses, with strong plants are prefer¬ 
able, and these should be taken up this month 
and be well established in pots. The plant 
should be pruned before it is lifted, and then 
given a Hair-sized pot with rich soil. Give 
water and place it in the shade for a few 
days, and it will recoverfrom th'e change, 
and be in good condition for the window. 
No plants are more satisfactory for window 
culture than the Dutch bulbs, as they are 
called, especially Hyacinths and Narcissus. 
They are not always to be had as early as this 
month, but as soon as the dealers offer them, 
they should be procured and potted, in rich 
soil, and the pots kept in a cool dark place. 
Improving the Cereals. 
BY W. J. BEAL, PROFESSOR OF BOTANY, MICHIGAN AGRI¬ 
CULTURAL COLLEGE. 
In regard to raising and using the best 
seeds, I think the farmers, as a class, are 
quite deficient. Especially is this true in 
regard to the cereals. Heavy or light, of 
good quality or poor, the result of the har¬ 
vest is generally attributed to the richness of 
the soil or the nature of the season. 
A few careful observers and experimenters 
have shown that, with the same care in all 
other respects, a crop may be increased from 
one-tenth to one-half, by using the best seed 
adapted to the soil and climate. Such seeds 
are worth much more than the average far¬ 
mer is likely to be willing to pay for them. 
Every one claims to believe in the use of 
good seeds, and generally thinks he uses no 
