418 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
May 9, 1895, 
We are writing this article on May Day out among the 
dairy farms of the High Peak in North Derbyshire, and in a 
report of the Manchester Butter Market of this morning we 
are told that warmer weather and an increasing supply has 
brought prices down, giving buyers every opportunity of 
satisfying their requirements at all manner of rates, from 60s. 
to 90s, per cwt., according to quality, in Danish, Swedish, 
Irish, Hamburgh, Australian, Finnish, and Russian butters. 
That Irish butters especially show good value, but the make 
of some sorts is foddery and not yet keeping, except specially 
fine samples. That centrifugal creameries are coming well to 
the front, and making good prices, fully equal to the best 
Danish. This statement of the progress of business in what 
is claimed to be the premier butter market of England is 
specially significant as showing the marvellous competition in 
the open markets of this country, the profitable growth of 
home competition in the produce of butter factories, and as 
marking the difficulty of fixing quality at this season of the 
year. 
The “foddery” condition denotes the adverse influence of 
certain food on the keeping property of butter as winter 
merges into spring, and as a change is being made in the 
dietary from the “fodder” stores of winter to an addition of 
green food. It is precisely this bad keeping, this deterioration 
in quality soon after the churning, which puzzles many an inex¬ 
perienced butter maker. The “ foddery ” condition may be owing 
to the cows having bad hay, or a superabundance of Sweden) 
Mangolds, silage, or they may have had access to foul water, 
or if let out on pasture they have eaten every green plant 
so greedily that it is quite possible some poisonous plant 
may have been consumed by them. All or any of such things 
are to be regarded as predisposing causes of bad keeping in 
butter. The remedy, or rather the means of prevention, is in 
our own hands. 
It is as clearly the duty, as it is to the interest, of every dairy 
farmer to know thoroughly how food affects the milk, what 
proportion of doubtful food he may venture to include in the 
dietary with safety—i.e., without any possibility of imparting 
bad flavour to milk or butter. Also the nature of the herbage 
of his pastures should be beyond a doubt. There are meadows 
in certain localities which have long been known as unsuitable 
for grazing dairy cows, as the butter always goes wrong when 
the cows are turned on to such meadows How anyone can rest 
content with a mere knowledge of the fact without seriously 
setting themselves to ascertain the cause and to apply the 
remedy puzzles us. 
Surely the day has gone by for dairy mysteries of any sort. 
Technical knowledge, and the advice and assistance of experts 
is now available in every country side, the day of the “wise” 
man or “ wise ” woman of the parish is ended, and the day of 
wondering why the butter will not “ come,” will not keep, or is 
streaky, ought to be’ong to the past also. Certainly all that 
goes to the management of dairy cows, to the manipulation of 
milk, cream, and butter is so simple, cause and effect in 
relation thereto are so clearly defined and so entirely outside 
the pale of so-called mysteries, that really good butter all the 
year round ought to be the general rule—bad butter only the 
result of an accident, a passing fault easily corrected. 
We would have plain and simple rules of management, 
mastered by every cowman and dairy woman ; especially would 
we have the term of cleanliness made clear to them in its widest 
and most comprehensive significance — cleanliness of food, 
water, air, buildings, litter, the cows’ udders, the milkers’ hands, 
dairy utensils, of everything brought in contact with the butter, 
all tending in the direction of the prevention of faults, of the 
avoidance of vexatious losses, of the exercise of especial care in 
spring and autumn, of that crown and finish of the work—the 
production of butter of the highest possible excellence always. 
WORK ON THE HOME FARM. 
All really well managed pasture had a full bite of herbage on May 
Day, to the quick, strong growth of which genial showers and warm 
nights during the last days of April materially contributed. There is 
always some risk of butter troubles as turn out time approaches. A little 
extra care in feeding and in churning soon sets matters right, or rather 
prevents any serious mischief, and when the cows are fairly settled 
down to grazing both colour and flavour in butter should be at their 
best. 
Look closely after cows, especially delicate ones, for the first two or 
three weeks after they go out to grass, as it is then that cases of 
hoove, or distention of the stomach by gases generated by the stomach 
being packed with a large mass of food, which the afflicted animal 
appears unable to digest. In our experience such cases have not been of 
frequent occurrence, and one easily detectei, first by the cow getting 
away from the herd, standing alone listless, neither grazing nor 
ruminating, its head hanging down, its stomach much distended, its 
whole appearance denoting suffering. Prompt action must be takeUi 
It is always best to call in a veterinary surgeon, but if one cannot 
be had at once, and the cow by its moaning shows that it is in intense 
pain, it should have a strong purgative, and the gas made to escape by 
the insertion of a short tube through its hide. 
The rough but efficient method of the old cow leech was repeated 
doses of Epsom salts as internal treatment. Externally, at a distance 
of two moderate spans from the nearside hip in the direction of 
the head and in a line parallel with the spinal column, the hide was 
pierced by the point of a sharp knife, and a wooden tube thrust in. 
This tube was cut from the Elder tree, planted for this purpose near the 
cowyard, with bark and pith removed, and a leathern ffange let into a 
nick near the outer end of the tube, which was about 6 inches in length, 
and through which the gas at once escaped with such rapidity that the 
cow had immediate relief. Subsequently the cow was dried off and 
fattened, as it was thought to be unfit for breeding again, and there was 
much risk of a recurrence of the hooven condition. 
HOME-RAISED CABBAGES. 
A FRIEND writes the following :—“ A neighbour of mine has been 
in the habit of getting his Cabbage plants for lamb food from South 
Lincolnshire at so much per 1000. Last autumn, having near home a 
piece of land suitable for the purpose (about 1 acre 1 rood), he bought 
instead 15s. worth of seed, an early variety called, I believe. Emperor. 
Fortunately for him the bitter frost was accompanied by a great depth 
of snow, and this effectually preserved the plant life beneath. He drew 
out 40,000 of the best plants for his own use, and then found he had a 
few to spare. These few brought him the comfortable little sum of 
£14, a sum not to be despised in these days of deep depression. 
Personally, I think he might have made more of them : but being new 
to the trade he hardly knew where to place them to the best advantage.”’ 
[In a lecture delivered at Nottingham five or six years ago Mr* 
J. Wright stated he had been “ admiring 3 or 4 acres of Mangold 
Wurtzel—the finest crop he had seen, and valuable ; but was startled on 
being told it was the second crop, and that the grower of the Mangolds 
had drawn £200 out of the land the same spring. This was by the sale 
of such plants as above named—Savoys, Cabbages, and others, from 
150,000 to 200,000 being pulled daily for a month, and sold for Is. 6d, to 
3 j. a thousand, sent off in truckloads to his salesmen in large markets.” 
That example of profitable culture was in South Lincolnshire, and the 
thrifty farmer is not inithe least likely to go to the workhouse.] 
METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. 
OAMDEN SQUABB, LONDON. 
Lat.Sl® 32'40" N.; Long. 0° 8/ 0" W.; Altitude 111 feet. 
Date. 
9 A.M. 
In the Day. 
d 
'S 
1895. 
April 
and 
May. 
i Barometer 
1 at 32°, and 
1 Sea Level. 
Hygrometer. 
Direc¬ 
tion of 
Wind. 
Temp, 
of soil 
at 
1 foot. 
Shade Tem¬ 
perature. 
Radiation 
Temperature 
Dry. 
Wet. 
Max. 
Min. 
In 
Sun. 
On 
Grass- 
Inchs. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
Inchs. 
Sunday .. 
28 
30-037 
48-2 
46-7 
N. 
48-9 
5v0 
44-4 
100-2 
43-1 
— 
Monday .. 
29 
30-185 
51-7 
49-6 
W. 
48-1 
67-1 
35-6 
110-4 
311 
— 
Tuesday .. 
30 
30-239 
53-9 
49-9 
N.W. 
49 7 
64-2 
43-1 
101-9 
37-8i 
— 
Wednesday 
1 
30-179 
57-3 
50-9 
N.W. 
50-0 
64-2 
45-2 
109-6 
39-2 
0 039- 
Thursday .. 
2 
30-606 
52-7 
45-2 
N. 
49 0 
64-4 
35-7 
107-9 
30-2 
-- 
Friday .. 
3 
30-532 
56 1 
48*9 
N. 
50-0 
63-7 
40-1 
114-3 
34-1 
— 
Saturday .. 
4 
30-514 
54-6 
49-1 
N. 
50-9 
67-8 
43-0 
114-9 
38-1 
— 
30-327 
53-5 
48-6 
49-5 
64-2 
41-0 
108-5 
36-2 
0-039 
REMARKS. 
28th.—Overcast morning, frequent sunshine in afternoon, bright night. 
29th. —Bright sunshine all day, fine night. 
30th.—Sunshine most of the day, but cloudy at times in afternoon. 
1st.—Generally sunny in morning, cloudy afternoon, with rain from 3.30 to 4.30 P.M. t 
fine again later, and clear night. 
2ni.—Bright sunshine throughout. 
3rd.—Bright sunny morning, cloudy at times in afternoon, and windy. 
4th.—Unbroken sunshine, with fresh breeze. . au j 
A very fine week, with two slight radiation frosts and bright sttnny days. Shad* 
temperature, near the average.—G. J. Symons. 
