VOL.  LI.  No.  2239. 
NEW  YORK,  DECEMBER  24,  1892. 
PRICE,  FIVE  CENTS. 
$2.00  PER  YEAR. 
PROGRESS  ON  A  NEW  ENGLAND  FARM. 
HOME  OF  THE  BROWN  SWISS  CATTLE. 
Prospect  Hill  Farm,  the  home  of  the  late  Wm.  R. 
Fish,  of  Mystic,  Conn.,  is  situated  on  the  hill  in  the 
edge  of  the  village  and  has  a  very  commanding  view 
of  Fisher's  Island  Sound  and  the  ocean,  making  it  a 
very  delightful  country  home.  It  has  been  owned  by 
the  family  for  more  than  50  years. 
Mr.  Fish  began  farming  over  40 
years  ago.  The  farm  contains  a 
little  over  100  acres,  and  would 
then  yield  about  15  tons  of  hay  and 
keep  about  eight  head  of  stock. 
The  land  was  very  rocky,  like  much 
of  New  England,  but  he  began  to 
clear  up  the  old  fields  and  to  make 
new  ones,  and  by  the  aid  of  a  stone 
puller  and  wall  builder  was  able  to 
pull  the  large  rocks  and  lay  them 
up  in  mammoth  walls  which  will 
be  a  lasting  monument  to  his 
memory.  This  work  was  done  at 
slack  spells  and  in  the  fall  after 
the  crops  had  been  taken  care  of, 
so  that  it  is  much  easier  to  work 
the  land,  and  he  availed  himself  of 
all  of  the  modern  machines  to 
hasten  the  undertaking,  and  keep 
the  labor  bill  within  bounds.  At 
first  his  outfit  of  tools  was  very 
limited — an  ox-cart,  plows,  hoes, 
forks,  shovels,  chains,  etc.  Iron¬ 
toothed  harrows  and  cultivators 
were  then  unknown,  but  in  later 
years  he  had  horse  teams,  manure 
spreaders,  sulky  plows,  disc  har¬ 
rows,  horse  hoes,  mowing  ma¬ 
chines,  horse  rakes,  tedders,  hay 
loaders,  a  steam  engine,  ensilage 
cutter,  wagons  and  carts,  in  fact 
everything  that  goes  to  make  up  a 
kit  of  tools  for  modern  farming. 
Over  the  carriage  room  is  the  car¬ 
penter’s  shop  with  a  fine  set  of 
tools.  In  one  end  of  the  room  are 
a  stove  and  a  place  to  oil  and  re¬ 
pair  harnesses.  In  the  shed  is  a 
portable  forge  and  kit  of  black¬ 
smith’s  tools:  stormy  days  found 
him  and  his  men  making  and 
repairing  the  tools  about  the  place, 
always  striving  to  keep  everything 
in  first-class  order.  His  method  of 
making  the  farm  more  productive 
was,  first,  to  clear  out  the  rocks, 
then  to  fertilize  the  soil,  using 
some  sea  manure  and  fish  scrap. 
He  kept  up  his  stock  to  the  full 
limit,  and  put  all  the  manure  in 
the  barn  basement,  to  be  worked 
over  by  the  hogs.  Sometimes  he 
bought  wood-ashes  which  do  well 
on  this  land,  and  sometimes  plowed 
in  green  crops  to  good  advantage. 
Ten  years  ago  he  put  in  a  silo  that 
holds  100  tons,  and  planted  five 
acres  of  ensilage  corn  per  year, 
which  filled  it.  Then  he  was  able 
to  sell  about  10  tons  of  hay  per 
year  to  buy  grain  feed  for  the  stock.  By  means  of 
these  improvements,  careful  fertilizing  and  the  use  of 
ensilage,  he  was  able  to  increase  the  number  of  his 
stock  until  the  farm  now  keeps  about  40  head. 
His  fondness  for  fine  cal  tie  led  him  to  try  the 
different  breeds.  First  he  selected  the  Ayrshires, 
then  the  Jerseys,  and  afterwards  the  Holsteins.  In 
the  spring  of  1876  he  brought  the  first  Brown  Swiss 
cattle  into  Connecticut,  and  bred  them  quite  exten¬ 
sively,  showing  them  at  the  various  fairs  about  the 
country,  winning  the  premiums  wherever  he  went. 
He  sold  them  to  go  to  all  parts  of  the  country,  and 
they  never  failed  to  give  good  satisfaction.  As  hardy 
and  able  to  adapt  themselves  to  any  climate,  being  a 
close-made,  thick-meated  breed,  they  are  well  fitted  for 
■ 
she  gave  9,187  pounds  six  ounces  of  milk.  The  bull 
Marshall  Jewell,  No.  121,  is  one  of  her  calves,  and  a 
very  fine  specimen,  being  large  and  handsome  ;  he 
weighed  2,000  pounds,  when  five  years  old.  Last  year 
at  the  Chicago  Dairy  Show  a  Brown  Swiss  beat  the 
world’s  record  for  the  quantity  of  butter  fat.  The 
many  good  qualities  of  the  breed  will  bring  them  to 
the  front  and  give  them  a  high 
standing  among  other  breeds,  mak¬ 
ing  them  popular  wherever  intro¬ 
duced.  The  calves  are  large  at 
birth,  and  grow  very  fast,  often 
weighing  200  pounds  when  two 
months  old.  Walter  fish. 
Brown  Swiss  Cow,  Muotta,  No.  155.  Fig.  319. 
Brown  Swiss  Bull, Marshall  Jewell,  No.  121.  Fig.  320 
the  Western  ranges,  and  as  they  give  a  large  flow  of 
very  rich,  pleasant-flavored  milk,  they  are  well  suited 
for  the  dairy  or  the  milkman.  Being  an  all-purpose 
race,  they  meet  with  plenty  of  admirers  and  purchasers. 
The  accompanying  picture  (Fig.  319),  represents 
Muotta,  No.  155  (imported).  She  weighs  1,400  pounds, 
and  gave  46  pounds  of  milk  per  day  in  March  after 
having  been  in  milk  five  months.  In  eight  months 
DAIRY  GOSSIP. 
The  New  York  State  Dairymen’s 
Association  has  given  the  agricul¬ 
tural  public  an  interesting  bul¬ 
letin  in  the  dairy  census  of  the 
town  of  Bovina,  in  Delaware  Coun¬ 
ty,  N.  Y.  It  was  taken  by  Mr. 
Geo.  T.  Powell,  the  Treasurer  of 
the  Association,  aided  by  Mr.  Chas. 
W.  Jennings,  the  reporter,  and 
covers  the  production  of  the  town 
for  the  year  1891.  The  lowest 
average  production  per  cow  in  any 
dairy  was .128.53, the  highest$101. 13. 
The  latter  was  a  dairy  of  15  regis¬ 
tered  Jersey  cows.  Calves  were 
sold  amounting  to  $340,  eight  of 
them  bringing  $30  each,  four  $25 
each.  The  dairy  were  fed  grain  10 
months  in  the  year,  at  a  cost  of 
$16  per  cow  —  about  five  pounds 
per  day  of  corn  meal,  cotton-seed 
meal  and  wheat  bran.  The  butter 
produced  was  4,492  pounds,  and 
was  sold  at  25  cents  per  pound. 
This  was  an  average  of  300  pounds 
per  cow.  This  production  could 
have  been  considerably  increased 
had  it  not  been  for  feeding  calves, 
12  of  which  were  fed  on  whole  milk 
until  they  were  five  weeks  old.  All 
of  the  herd  but  2  were  under  eight 
years  of  age.  From  $28  to  $101 
is  a  gulf  wide  enough  to  make 
inquiry  a  profitable  thing  for  the 
sort  of  farmer  who  produces  at  the 
lower  rate.  There  were  117  farms 
in  the  town.  On  these  there  were 
reported  used  25  Delaware  County 
creamers,  12  Triumph,  9  Cooley,  8 
Arctic,  4  Smith,  2  Crystal  and  1  O. 
K.  Many  others  used  the  deep 
setting  cans,  and  very  many  used 
the  old,  shallow  pans.  Not  a  sepa¬ 
rator  is  in  use  in  the  town,  and 
very  little  winter  butter  is  made. 
The  cows  come  in  in  February  and 
March.  Butter  is  sold  as  long  as 
the  price  is  satisfactory  in  the 
spring,  when  it  is  packed  and  held 
for  later  markets.  Most  of  the 
butter  is  sold  to  buyers  who  come 
to  the  town  for  that  purpose.  Most 
of  the  cattle  were  Jerseys  or  Jersey  grades.  Cotton¬ 
seed  meal  is  very  generally  used  as  one  of  the  con» 
stituents  of  the  grain  ration.  Very  few  of  the  dairy¬ 
men  use  ice.  The  absence  of  separators  is  notable. 
Their  introduction  and  the  consolidation  of  the  dairies 
into  factories  would  be  a  profitable  move  for  these 
already  successful  dairymen.  There  is  no  system  of 
setting  that  will  remove  the  cream  so  thoroughly  as 
