4=50 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[December, 
of form, smoothness of outline and solid colors. 
The second prize cow was “Cyrene,” H. R. 137; 
she is 9 years old, yellow and white, a tine cow, 
having excellent milking properties. When the 
portrait was taken at the Exhibition, the cow was 
nearly dry, being due to calve this month. The first 
premium bull was “ Litchfield,” solid fawn in color, 
owned by F. R. Starr ; the second prize was taken 
by “Bellini,” owned by H. J. Lothrop, a very 
beautiful animal, but yet having good useful quali¬ 
ties. We have not been able to procure portraits 
of these, or we would gladly have given them. 
Ogden Farm Papers—Ho. 82. 
BY GEORGE E. WARING, JR. 
A correspondent in Connecticut writes about his 
cows, which he feeds as follows :—In the summer, 
fodder corn, brewers’ grains, corn-meal and wheat 
bran. The daily average per cow being 2 quarts of 
meal, 4 to 8 quarts grains (or bran when grains 
are short). The supply of fodder corn is unlimited. 
There is little or no pasture. The same in winter, 
with hay and roots instead of corn fodder. Often 
a slight increase in the amount of corn-meal. 
With this treatment the cows go to milk or to 
fat—if to fat they are slaughtered. “ This plan, 
on the average, works well, but for the last three 
or four years I lose every year a cow or two from 
milk-fever—always in September. The cow calves 
all right, appears well at the start, but iu 24 hours 
the fever symptoms appear, and in 36 hours more 
she is dead. There appears to be no help, always 
fatal. I thought perhaps one cow a year ago was 
about the percentage of loss I ought to expect, but 
last September I lost two in a fortnight, w'hich 
caused me to think that there might be something 
wrong in my system of feeding. As the cows ap¬ 
proach calving time, say 7 months, I stop the meal 
and try to dry them off, but as I keep the other feed 
well up to the quantity, they do not always dry.” 
He then asks whether there is anything in his 
feeding which tends to produce fever. He sug¬ 
gests that perhaps cotton-seed meal in place of 
corn-meal would be an improvement. 
The proper percentage of loss by milk-fever is 
precisely nothing at all. It is possible that an old 
cow, whose race is run, may take this occasion for 
departing, but with an animal in good health 1 be¬ 
lieve the disease to be due only and always to over¬ 
feeding. A co w about to calve should be kept in what 
would ordinarily be called good thrifty condition, 
but everything like high condition should be avoid¬ 
ed until the flow of milk is well established. Then, 
with good feeding,she will without danger keep up a 
good flow throughout her milking period. But the 
change of conditions which take place when the 
secretion first begins to break loose, and when the 
milk-giving organs first come into action—this oc¬ 
curring at the time when the birth of the calf has 
already taxed the vital energies to a serious extent 
—is always attended with more or less feverishness. 
Under a judicious system of feeding, the milk secre¬ 
tion will be slowly developed, and after the cow 
has somewhat regained strength, and the natural 
flow has set in, it may be very soon carried to its 
full amount by stronger feeding. Some good, in 
the way of prevention, may be done by giving a 
medicine which tends to check the action of the 
heart—like aconite—but the sovereign preventive 
of milk-fever in a cow is to be sought in a judicious 
system of starvation. For at least a month before 
calving she should have only hay—and hay of 
ordinary quality at that; during the last two weeks 
the poorest hay and straw should be substituted, 
and after the calf is dropped, she should have for 
21 hours little more than air itself, and then a warm 
bran mash. After this she may have a little hay, 
and after another 21 hours it is safe to begin gradu¬ 
ally increasing the food until at the end of the first 
week she is up to her full rations again. 
A new element has come into the discussion 
concerning the different methods for setting milk 
in deep cans. The question as to whether or not it 
is best so to set milk, seems to be difinitely settled, 
and there are hardly two opinions on the subject 
among those who have given it a fair trial, as to its 
convenience, compactness, and its general applica¬ 
bility. Wherever ice is plenty, Hardin’s refrigera¬ 
tor system is attracting attention. A large dairy¬ 
man asks : “ How much ice, under this system, will 
be required to treat the milk of 50 cows, making 
300 pounds of butter per week ? ”—This question 
can not be answered with scientific accuracy, be¬ 
cause of the different conditions under which the ice 
is to be used. The loss of heat through the sides 
of the refrigerator, the leaking out of cold air 
through the imperfect fitting of the door, and when¬ 
ever the door is opened the entire change of the air 
within, would all have some influence upon the 
question ; but supposing the full effect of the ice to 
be available, the result would be about as follows : 
A pound of ice, in melting, takes up the heat 
that would be required to affect the temperature 
of 142 pounds of water, one degree. Milk, when it 
is drawn from the cow, is of a temperature of be¬ 
tween 93° and 99°. From the moment it leaves the 
teat, until it is strained into the cans, it is constant¬ 
ly losing heat. Perhaps it would be fair to estimate 
this loss at from 8° to 10°, and to assume that the 
cans/when placed in a refrigerator, are at90°. We 
will suppose that it is to be reduced according to 
Hardin’s system to 40°, which gives a reduction of 
50° to be effected by the melting ice. If the 50 cows 
average 10 quarts per day, (2.15 lbs. per quart), the 
total weight will be 1,075 lbs., all of which is to be 
reduced 50°, which would require the cooling power 
of 3781 lbs. of ice. It would of course be possible 
to make the refrigerator so perfect, that practically 
all of this cooling effect could be made available. 
If 12 quarts of milk are required for 1 pound of 
butter, the dairy will yield (500 quarts) 411 lbs. of 
butter, and if ice costs 1 cent per pound, the ex¬ 
pense will be 3 cents on each pound of butter, an 
amount which the great economy in utensils and 
cleaning work at the dairy, and the greatly im¬ 
proved and uniform quality of the butter, would 
much more than pay for. At the 6ame time, 3 cts. 
per pound for this element of butter making seems 
high, and I should recommend, even where the re¬ 
frigerator system is to be used, that the cans be 
first placed in a vat of water which will reduce the 
temperature to 60°. This will leave but 20° of cool¬ 
ing to be effected by the ice, and make a charge of 
less than 1 cent per pound for this item. Even if 
the water for this purpose is to be pumped by hand, 
the expense of pumping will be slight—far less 
than would be that of using ice to reduce the tem¬ 
perature from 90° to 60°. 
In our dairy we rarely reach a temperature less 
than from 50° to 54°, and the result is entirely satis¬ 
factory. During such drouths as that from which 
we suffered this year, we have found it necessary 
to put a little ice into the water-vat on first setting 
the milk, but ordinarily, with spring water at hand 
in sufficient quantity, we have had nothing but the 
moderate expense of pumping by wind-power, and 
even this expense has been more than compensated 
for by the convenience of a good supply always at 
hand for watering the stock. 
Perhaps the value of any system for butter-mak¬ 
ing is as well decided as in any other way by the 
effect of a change of butter-makers. Our dairy 
woman, who had been in charge of the work for 
three years, left at short notice about the middle 
of October. Her successor, the fifth we have 
had since we began operations, had only a few 
weeks instruction before the other left, and has 
kept up the standard from the start. Since we 
adopted the deep can system, we have had four 
different dairy women—all Germans—and all en 
tirelynew to the business, and there has never been 
any material variation in the quality of the product, 
save in the summer of 1874, when we bought from 
a neighbor an amount of milk more than equal to 
our own product. This neighbor has no Jersey 
blood in his herd, and occasionally, in bad weather, 
there was a slight falling off in quality from this 
cause. But given a head of Jersey cattle, with deep 
cans, good water, and a Bullard’s churn, the best 
of “gilt-edge ” butter will almost make itself; with 
decent attention to cleanliness and regularity, and 
with a fair quality of food for the cattle—a perfect 
result is a matter of certainty. 
I may add, too, that the amount of labor required 
under these circumstances to carry on the work of 
the dairy, is not more than half so great os that 
where shallow pans are set in a room of the tem¬ 
perature of the external air, or even in the cellar, 
and producing butter of varying quality. 
In the last number of these papers I made the 
mistake of using—when speaking of the judging of 
Jerseys at the Centennial—a copy of the Scale of 
Points which was printed while we were discussing 
its adoption. It was considerably modified before 
it was finally adopted, and the most satisfactory 
way to correct the error is to give the scale as 
finally established by the Am. Jersey Cattle Club: 
SCALE OF POINTS FOR COWS. 
Points. Counts. 
1. Head small, lean, and rather long;. 2 
2. Face dished, broad between the eyes, and nar¬ 
row between the horns... 1 
3. Muzzle dark, and encircled by a light color.. 1 
4. Eyes full and placid. 1 
5. Horns small, crumpled, and amber color. 3 
6 . Ears small and thin. 1 
7. Neck straight, thin, rather long, with clean 
throat, and not heavy at the shoulders. 4 
8 . Shoulders sloping and lean ; withers thin ; 
breast neither deficient nor beefy. 3 
9. Back level to the setting on of tail, and broad 
across the loin. 4 
10. Barrel, hooped, broad and deep at the flank.. 8 
11. Hips wide apart, and fine in the bone ; rump 
long and broad. 4 
12. Thighs long, thin, and wide apart, with legs 
standing square, and not to cross in walking. 4 
13. Legs short, small below the knees, with 
small hoofs. 3 
14. Tail fine, reaching the hocks, with good switch 3 
15. nide thin and mellow, with fine soft hair.... 4 
16. Color of hide where the hair is white; on 
udder and inside of ears, yellow. 5 
17. Fore-udder full in form, and running well 
forward. 8 
18. Hind-udder full in form, and well up behind. 8 
10. Udder free from long hair, and not fleshy— 5 
20. Teats rather large, wide apart, and squarely 
placed. 6 
21. Milk-veins prominent. 5 
22. Escutcheon high and broad, and full on thighs. 8 
23. Disposition quiet and good-natured. 3 
24. General appearance, rather lean than fleshy.. 6 
Perfection. 100 
In judging heifers, omit 17, 18, 19, 20, and 21. 
The same scale of points shall be used in judging bulls, 
omitting Nos. 17, IS, 19, and 21, and making moderate 
allowance for masculinity. 
Note.— It is recommended that Judges at Fairs do not 
award prizes' to animals hilling below the following 
minimum standard, viz.: Cows,- 70 counts; Heifers, 55 
counts ; Bulls, 50 counts.” 
Science Applied to Farming.—XXIV. 
BY mOF. W. O. ATWATER. 
The Editor of one of our best agricultural pa¬ 
pers recently remarked that farmers now read and 
understand scientific material that, ten or fifteen 
years ago, would have been passed over like so 
much Greek. Frequent illustrations of the truth 
of this occur in the inquiries I receive respecting 
fertilizers. To answer these I must continue farther 
the topic discussed last month—the removal of 
fertilizing ingredients by crops and their re-supply 
by commercial fertilizers. The following tabic, 
computed from the figures in the table in No. 
XVIII of this series (June) will give a general idea 
of the amounts of the important ingredients of 
plant-food removed from the soil by different crops : 
Note, that I am simply speaking of commercial 
manures as a means of supplying the food ingredi¬ 
ents needed by our crops, and not discussing the 
question whether it will be most profitable in any 
given case to buy such fertilizers, or to depend on 
tillage, farm manure, or green crops, to supply the 
needed materials. Bearing in mind what was said 
last month, and previously, about the calculation 
of formulas for fertilizers, and the fact that nitro¬ 
gen, phosphoric acid, and potash, are the most im¬ 
portant ingredients, let us notice how much of 
these is furnished by our ordinary commercial 
fertilizers, and at what cost. 
