362 
THE  RURAL  NEW-YORKER. 
June  4 
This  all  happened  live  years  ago.  Since  that  time  I 
have  caponi/ed  all  cockerels  not  wanted  for  breeding 
purposes,  and  have  found  ready  markets  for  them,  and 
they  have  invariably  paid  me  a  net  average  profit  of 
over  SI  a  bird. 
From  my  correspondence  with  people  who  have 
taken  up  the  work,  all  over  the  country,  I  find  that 
the  results  in  all  cases  have  been  very  satisfactory 
and  profitable.  The  fact  has  become  established  that 
just  as  fine  capons  can  be  produced  in  the  North,  West 
or  South  as  in  New  Jersey.  In  fact,  they  can  be  grown 
successfully  anywhere.  The  taste  and  demand  for 
capons  more  than  keep  pace  with  the  supply,  and  I 
venture  the  assertion  that  10  years  from  now  they  will 
practically  take  the  place  of-  cockerels  in  the  market, 
and  all  poultrymen  will  have  to  caponize  in  order  to 
sell.  .Such  is  now  the  case  in  France. 
The  apparatus  is  very  simple,  and  a  10-year-old  boy 
can  do  the  work.  If  proper  tools  are  used,  there  need 
be  no  loss.  The  birds  recover  quickly,  and  are  far 
more  healthy  and  can  be  easily  cared  for  afterwards. 
Caponizing  increases  the  growth  of  all  breeds  of  fowls 
in  proportion  to  their  natural  size  about 
40  per  cent.  It  is  sure  to  add  many  dollars 
to  the  income  of  the  poultry  ra;ser,  and. 
so  far  as  I  know  or  can  learn,  there  is  not 
one  single  practical  reason  why  all  should 
not  perform  the  work  and  produce  more 
big  capons  for  market. 
Selling  Fattened  Water. 
MILK  THAT  IS  NOT  ASHAMED  TO  BE  SEEN. 
In  Clean  Glass  Bottles. 
The  R.  N.-Y.  has  always  urged  its  read¬ 
ers  to  sell  all  the  water  they  can  and  to 
buy  as  little  as  possible.  Lots  of  people 
sell  tons  of  water,  and  every  pound  of  it 
goes  at  a  loss  because  it  costs  too  much  to 
combine  it  with  the  substances  that' make 
it  salable.  That  is,  the  cost  was  not  so 
much  at  fault  as  the  price  they  obtained 
for  the  product.  If  they  had  spent  more 
and  worked  up  a  finer  article  and  thus 
been  justified  in  demanding  a  better  price, 
they  would  have  done  better,  for  the  manufacturer 
finds  his  profit  nowhere  but  in  the  difference  between 
cost  and  selling  price. 
The  milkman  is  a  water  dealer.  Every  100  pounds 
he  sells  contain  85  pounds  or  more  of  water.  If  he 
sells  his  product  at  one  cent  a  pound  it  is  evident  that 
he  will  handle  only  25  per  cent  of  the  money  he  would  v 
receive  if  he  sold  at  four  cents.  A  difference  of  two 
pounds  of  fat  in  the  total  100  pounds  and  a  reputation 
for  care,  honesty  and  cleanliness  that  grades  100,  will 
make  the  three  cents  a  pouhd  difference.  Good  milk 
is  nothing  but  fattened  water.  One  of  the  most  prac¬ 
tical  water  fattening  factories  that  we  know  of  is  the 
Fairfield  Dairy  of  M.  S.  Francisco,  who  supplies  milk 
to  the  aristocratic  residents  of  Montclair,  N.  .1.  A 
complete,  illustrated  account  of  this  dairy  was  printed 
in  The  R.  N.-Y.  for  August  30,  1890. 
The  cows  are  mostly  Jersey  thoroughbreds  or  grades. 
We  do  not  know  of  any  place  in  the  country  where  the 
practical  value  of  Jersey  blood  has  been  more  forcibly 
demonstrated.  Mr.  F  started  with  Holsteins  on  native 
cows.  The  heifers  from  this  cross  gave  a  large  mess 
of  milk  and  were  big,  hearty  animals— first-class 
feeders.  But  the  water  milked  out  of  them  was  not 
fat  enough,  so  a  first-class  Jersey  bull  was  put  at  the 
head  of  the  herd.  This  cross  gave  a  healthy,  hearty  cow 
giving  a  large  mess  of  rich  milk.  ft  was  better  for 
Mr.  F.’s  business  than  either  the  Holstein  or  Jersey — 
it  was  a  combination  of  the  good  points  of  both.  We 
have  told  before  how  the  milk  is  sold  in  glass  bottles. 
Every  precaution  is  taken  to  have  a  pure,  sweet 
article.  The  milk  is  taken  at  once  from  the  stable  to 
the  dairy  house  and  strained  and  aerated  into  quart 
bottles,  which,  in  hot  weather,  are  at  once  packed  in 
ice,  where  they  remain  until  sold.  A  good  supply  of 
ice  is  absolutely  necessary  in  the  bottled  milk  busi¬ 
ness.  Mr.  F.  delivers  no  milk  on  Sunday.  His  ice- 
packed  bottles  enable  him  to  make  a  Saturday  night 
delivery  which  he  can  guarantee  to  keep.  Since  our 
former  article  was  written  Mr.  F.  has  started  the  use 
of  bottles  that  are  marked,  like  a  test-tube,  to  show  the 
exact  percentage  of  cream.  The  cream  rises  to  the 
top  and  the  customer  can  tell  bjr  simply  glancing  at 
the  bottle  what  percentage  of  the  contents  is  cream. 
This  device  is  very  popular  with  customers  who  like  to 
know  what  they  are  buying. 
Value  of  Pedigree  in  Cattle. 
Last  winter,  when  we  visited  the  farm  there  were 
116  head  of  cattle — 92  cows,  the  rest  bulls  and  young 
stock.  They  were  then  milking  67  cows  of  all  ages 
and  selling  620  quarts  of  milk  per  day.  The  herd  is  a 
mixture.  There  are  pure-bred  Holsteins  and  Jerseys, 
grades  of  each  and  cross-bred  animals,  as  well  as  the 
remnants  of  a  lot  of  cows  picked  out  for  milkers  in 
the  stock  yards.  Mr.  F.  is  gradually  weeding  out  of 
his  herd  all  but  two  classes  of  cows — thoroughbred 
Jerseys,  larger,  healthier  and  stronger  than  the  aver¬ 
age  of  the  breed,  and  large  cows  of  mixed  Holstein, 
native  and  Jersey  blood,  the  latter  predominating. 
One  bull  much  used  in  the  herd  is  Bonfire,  a  registered 
Jersey  of  fine  pedigree.  Another  is  a  home-bred  ani¬ 
mal,  really  a  Jersey  grade,  whose  mother,  a  native  cow. 
was  one  of  those  phenomenal  scrubs’"  that  really 
do  excel  90  per  cent  of  thoroughbred  cattle.  Mr.  F. 
knows  that  the  mother,  grandmother  and  greatgrand¬ 
mother  of  this  bull  were  all  far  above  the  average  as 
milkers.  For  practical  purposes  that  is  “pedigree” 
enough  for  him — as  honorable  as  that  of  Bonfire.  The 
only  pedigree  that  is  worth  anything  is  that  which 
chronicles  performance.  Mr.  F.  says  he  can  easily 
remember  when  there  were  no  herd-books  to  guide 
dairy  breeders.  In  those  days  breeders  picked  out  the 
best-looking  animals — the  ones  that  came  nearest  to 
their  ideal.  His  father  owned  a  bull  that  weighed  a 
ton  and  it  was  considered  a  wonderful  animal.  It  was 
probably  what  we  would  call  now  a  big,  overgrown 
“native.”  Another  peculiar  illustration  of  the  value 
of  a  pedigree  is  seen  in  the  record  of  the  cow  pictured 
at  Fig.  169.  This  cow  is  Aaltze  89,  recorded  in  the 
North  Holland  Herd  Book.  She  was  dropped  May  27, 
1884,  and  imported  November  9,  1885.  We  believe  this 
cow  to  be  one  of  the  best  in  the  country.  If  she  were 
fed  and  milked  for  a  record  we  believe  she  would  give 
the  famous  Pauline  Paul  a  close  rub — she  has  repeat¬ 
edly  given  over  100  pounds  of  milk  per  day.  Yet,  Mr. 
F.  bought  her  for  $45  !  Why  ?  Because  she  is  recorded 
only  in  the  North  Holland  Herd  BQok  and  is  not 
eligible  for  entry  in  the  IIolstein-Friesian  Registry. 
In  order  to  get  her  into  the  latter  she  would  have  to 
be  taken  back  to  Holland  and  imported  over  again. 
Thus  we  see  how  this  “  red  tape  ”  destroys  value.  A 
cow  that  would  be  worth  every  cent  of  $?>00  if  her 
“  pedigree  ”  were  safely  recorded  in  the  Holstein  book 
is  bought  for  $45,  and  attracts  no  attention  because 
she  is  only  recorded  in  the  North  Holland  book. 
What's  in  a  name  ?  The  low  price  named  is  accounted 
for  by  the  fact  that  the  cattle  were  sold  at  a  forced 
auction  sale  and  nobody  in  the  neighborhood  cared  to 
breed  North  Holland  cattle.  So  these  wonderful  cows 
went  begging  simply  because  they  are  “  in  the  wrong 
book.”  This  cow’s  calf,  also  shown  in  the  picture,  will 
be  raised  and  kept  for  breeding.  He  will  be  used  on 
the  cows  that  for  some  reason  or  other  are  not  suitable 
for  breeding  purposes,  but  are  wanted  for  milkers. 
The  calves  from  this  bull  will  be  large  and  will  be 
more  salable  for  veals  than  calves  from  a  small  Jersev 
bull. 
Mr.  F.  says  that  every  dairyman  who  hopes  to  suc¬ 
ceed  must  breed  his  own  stock.  He  has  tried  picking 
out  cows  at  the  stockyards.  It  does  not  pay  him.  He 
will  let  the  best  cow  expert  in  the  country  go  to  the 
stockyards  and  pick  out  100  cows  and  will  guarantee 
that  within  a  year  one-half  the  herd  will  prove  them¬ 
selves  frauds  that  do  not  pay  their  board.  A  man  has- 
no  business  to  expect  profit  from  a  cow  unless  he 
knows  what  her  parents  and  grand-parents  were. 
This  is  particularly  true  when  a  man  is  trying  to*  sell, 
only  the  best  milk  or  fattened  water. 
Feed  Is  More  Than  Breed. 
Mr.  F.  says  he  has  read  what  the  professors  have 
to  say  about  the  quality  of  milk  depending  entirely  on 
lyreed.  He  says  that  is  nonsense  “of  no  ordinary  kind.” 
His  tests  show  that  he  can  get  richer  milk  out  of  any 
of  his  cows  by  feeding  richer  feed.  There  Is  a  differ¬ 
ence  between  Jersey  and  Holstein  milk  and  he  cannot 
feed  the  latter  up  to  the  standard  of  the  former,  but  he 
can  improve  it  materially  by  good  feeding.  Every 
day  out  of  the  365  in  a  year,  at  least  600  pounds  of 
grain  are  fed.  Think  of  the  cost  of  110  tons  of  grain. 
It  is  all  bought.  Not  a  kernel  of  grain  is  ever  grown 
on  the  place.  Hay,  roots  and  corn  for  the  silo  are  the 
only  crops.  The  grains  used  are  malt  sprouts,  bran, 
corn  meal,  and  some  cotton  and  linseed  meals.  These 
are  mixed  in  a  proportion  of  two  parts  sprouts,  one  of 
bran  and  2%  corn  meal.  It  is  fed  in  the  form  of  a  soft 
mush  on  a  cement  floor  in  front  of  the  stanchions,  and 
a  handful  of  dry  cotton-seed  or  linseed  meal  is  given 
each  cow  in  addition.  Mr.  F.  feeds  less  cotton-seed 
meal  than  formerly,  not  being  fully  satisfied  with  its 
effects  on  the  cows.  He  feeds  more  linseed  meal  than 
formerly.  It  is  a  laxative  and  very  whole¬ 
some.  The  one  great  thing  in  favor  of  cot¬ 
ton-seed  meal  is  that  it  gives  the  milk  and 
cream  a  richer  color.  Roots  are  fed  before 
the  silo  is  opened.  They  are  thrown, 
whole,  before  the  cows  which  nibble  them 
like  sheep.  The  silo  is  generally  opened 
about  January  1.  Mr.  F.  says  he  could  not 
do  business  without  ensilage.  Wet  brew¬ 
ers’  grains  are  never  fed  and  any  grain  that 
D  in  any  way" sour  or  “off  color”  is  thrown 
on  the  manure  pile.  You  may  cheat  a  cow 
and  make  her  eat  sour  grain,  but  you 
can't  cheat  the  milk  made  from  it! 
“  Home,  Sweet  Home  ”  for  the  Cows. 
The  cows  are  made  as  comfortable 
as  possible.  At  present  they  are  kept  in 
a.  warm,  light  basement  with  plenty  of 
windows  They  are  fastened  in  stanchions, 
two  rows  facing  each  other,  with  the  feeding 
alley  between.  Grain  is  fed  on  the  cement 
floor  of  this  alley  from  a  box  on  wheels  that 
is  run  fr<*m  l  he  silo  or  feed  bin.  Hay  dropsdown  through 
a  trap  door  in  the  center  of  the  alley,  within  a  dozen 
steps  of  every  cow.  Mr.  F.  is  going  to  build  a  new 
barn.  After  much  study  he  has  selected  the  plan 
shown  at  Fig.  170.  The  silos  are  easily  reached  by 
loads  of  corn.  In  feeding,  a  wheel  box  can  be  filled 
and  wheeled  around  the  corner  directly  to  the  cows, 
flay  will  be  dropped  through  two  openings  at  about 
the  center  of  either  side.  The  six-sided  room  at  the 
end  of  the  alley  will  be  used  for  an  office,  with  glass 
sides,  so  that  every  cow  in  the  barn  will  be  under  the 
eye  of  the  owner.  Every  operation  will  be  in  plain 
view.  The  yards  are  so  arranged  with  doors  tnat  each 
lot  of  cows  may  be  turned  out  by  itself  if  desired. 
Why  Not  More  Fattened  Water  ? 
Mr.  F.  says  there  is  practically  no  limit  to  the  sale 
of  rich  milk.  The  people  call  for  a  pure  article,  nicely 
served,  and  are  ready  to  pay  for  it.  Hardly  25  per  cent 
of  the  milk  now  sold  would  suit  his  customers.  Dairy¬ 
men  must  have  the  cows  before  they  can  make  fat 
milk.  There  is  no  stock  equal  to  Jersey  or  Guernsey 
for  giving  the  animals  that  will  mix  rich  food  with 
water  in  the  proportions  wanted  by  dainty  people.  It 
costs  considerable  to  work  into  good  Jerseys,  which  is 
why  many  farmers  have  not  bred  in  that  way.  We 
asked  Air.  F.  what  course  he  would  pursue,  with  his 
present  experience,  in  picking  out  a  good  bull  to  head 
his  herd.  He  said  he  would  go  to  some  good  herd  and 
pick  out  a  good  cow,  from  her  looks  and  also  from  the 
way  she  milked,  and  make  a  bargain  for  a  bull  ealf 
from  her.  In  this  way  he  would  be  surer  to  get  what 
he  wanted,  for  the  cow  rather  than  the  bull  would  be 
his  model.  There  is  quite  a  cream  trade  at  this  dairy. 
A  Baby  separator  is  used,  which  gives  excellent  satis¬ 
faction.  It  wTill  handle  175  quarts  per  hour.  The 
skim-milk,  mixed  with  linseed  and  oat  meal,  is  fed  to 
calves. 
Raising  Holstein  Calves  in 
Kentucky. 
When  one  can  employ  good,  intelligent  milkmen, 
whose  punctuality  and  reliability  can  be  depended 
upon,  it  is  better  in  many  respects  that  every  thorough¬ 
bred  calf  should  be  weaned  at  birth  and  raised  by 
hand. 
The  quantity  of  milk  given  the  calf  at  each  meal 
can  thus  be  regulated  with  greater  precision,  and  it 
can  be  taught  earlier  to  eat  other  and  more  nutritious 
foods,  thus  insuring  better  health  and  a  more  rapid 
growth,  while  at  milking  time  both  the  cow  and  her 
calf  give  the  herdsman  far  less  trouble.  The  cows 
soon  forget  all  about  their  calves,  and  give  down  their 
milk  much  more  readily  when  they  know  the  herdsman 
is  the  only  being  who  can  relieve  them  of  its  uncom¬ 
fortable  pressure,  and  they  are  altogether  much  more 
