1893 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
more accurate than any man with shovel, hoe and 
sieve ever can be. The different ingredients are 
thrown in a little at a time. Great iron fingers run 
through them, scoops like giant hands throw them 
back and forth together ; they are shaken as by a 
giant’s wrist, stirred, shaken up and stirred again, 
until the mixture is absolutely perfect. No farmer 
with ordinary tools working on a barn floor can do 
anything like it. A man might just as well attempt 
to compete with a spade against a steam plow as to 
put “ home mixing ” against the wonderful accuracy 
and mechanical skill of this factory. Every appliance 
known to the art is here in use. From crushing to 
bagging every possible item of unskilled hand labor 
is saved. To handle these great mountains of ferti¬ 
lizers with shovels alone would require an army of 
laborers and the work could not be nearly as uni¬ 
formly done as by these machines. 
Even the bags are made at the factory, and three 
big printing presses are used for printing the brands 
and analyses on them. There is a big machine shop 
where almost any machine in use can be duplicated. 
There is no waste about the place, nothing worth 
wasting is ever bought and nothing is lost. A farmer’s 
manure factory is his barnyard, where the rain often 
washes half the value of his manure into the river. 
There is no “wash” from this factory—even the 
fumes that come from the chimney have been “ sifted ” 
so that all the valuable gases are taken out of them. 
Bones are steamed before grinding to soften them 
and get rid of the fat. This heat drives off some of 
the nitrogen, but it is all caught again and held for 
THE PEDIGREE OF PRIZE BUTTER. 
The following questions were sent to the winners 
of prizes offered for dairy butter at the recent Illinois 
Dairymen’s Association : 
1. What breed of cows do you keep ? 2. How were they fed and 
cared for? 3. Was the cream separated or raised by the gravity pro¬ 
cess ? 4. Give an account of the process of making this exhibition 
butter? 5. Do you produce all your own fodder and grain ? In your 
opinion would ensilage and clover alone have made a perfect dairy 
ration without extra grain ? 6. What, In your opinion, Is the outlook 
for good dairying ? 
How They Answer. 
1. My cows are grade Jerseys. 2. All are dishorned 
and loose in a stable 30 x 80 feet with a driveway 
through the whole length, by which the feed is 
delivered to them directly from the wagon. They 
are, of course, well bedded, and the manure is hauled 
directly to the fields. They are fed a liberal ration of 
wheat bran, Indian corn, and occasionally a little oil 
meal. For roughness they get early cut corn fodder 
drilled in one grain to the foot, fed long with the ears 
on, and all the clover and Timothy hay they will eat. I 
formerly fed corn-and-cob meal but find by experience 
that it pays better to feed ear corn cut fine and let the 
hogs follow so there will be no waste. They receive a 
liberal ration, for with the right kind of dairy cows it 
pays to put in feed and take out butter. 3. I use the 
Cooley creamer, or submerged process for raising 
cream. I prefer it to the separator from the fact that 
it saves labor and expense, and practically gets all of 
the cream. A separator requires a skilled mechanic 
to keep it in order. 5. The butter was churned in a 
90-gallon Batcheller’s churn run by horse power, and 
1 83 
A starter was added to the separated cream, which 
ripened in 24 hours, and was churned in a rectangular 
churn till the butter was in a granular form. The 
latter was washed in weak brine, salted one ounce to 
the pound, drained a short time, massed and packed 
in a pail lined with parchment paper. 5. We buy 
wheat bran and oil meal. mbs. n. e. allen. 
Beaver Dam, Wis. 
Water Warmed In the Barnyard. 
1. Guernseys. 2. They were fed Timothy and clover 
hay mixed and cob meal, that is, ear corn ground. I 
have a small engine which I use for churning and 
pumping. I turn the exhaust steam into the water- 
tank, which keeps the contents about blood warm. I 
keep the cows in a stable and let them in a yard four 
or five hours in the middle of the day when it is not 
too cold. When it is very cold I let them out just long 
enough to drink, while I clean the stable and give 
them a warm bed. I never have used any ensilage, 
but expect to build a silo next summer. 3. I use the 
Cooley creamer, though I think the separator saves 
more butter, but I cannot afford one now. 4. I made 
the exhibition butter from thoroughbred Guernseys as 
their cream needs no coloring at all. I am milking 11 
thoroughbreds and 13 grades. I churn in a Boss bar¬ 
rel churn and use Genesee salt, an ounce to a pound 
of butter. 5. I generally raise my grain, but this 
year the shortage of the corn crop compelled me to 
buy some corn. I sometimes buy some wheat shorts 
or middlings. I do not consider ensilage and clover 
hay a perfect ration without grain. 6. I think the out- 
BIRD’S EYE VIEW OF THE BRADLEY FERTILIZER FACTORY. Fig. 78. 
use. The fact is, these works are so vast and com¬ 
plete that they are beyond the comprehension of the 
ordinary visitor. Let a farmer go there and realize 
that this great establishment has grown from one 
single small building and he will surely be impressed 
with the fact that these goods must have merit or 
these works never could have grown to their present 
proportions, the largest fertilizing establishment in 
the world. 
A Word to “Home Mixers." 
The Bradley Fertilizer Company own thousands of 
acres of land in different parts of the country, where 
their fertilizers are carefully tested. Their experi¬ 
ences on these farms have enabled them to test goods 
of every conceivable form and strength. They believe 
that the use of reliable fertilizers will be increased 
from year to year as farmers study the question and 
are thus led to see the real economy of chemical ferti¬ 
lization. There is a tendency among a few farmers 
to experiment with “home mixing” or with simple 
mixtures of chemicals, but certainly no one can visit 
this factory without being convinced, as was the 
writer, that it is utterly impossible to compete by 
shovel and hoe with these powerful mills and great 
mixing machines. 
Fertilizers have come to stay. There can be no 
doubt about that. As a rule, the substances used in 
fertilizers can find no other profitable use. They 
are waste products made useful. Who can object to 
that ? h. w. c. 
washed in the churn when in the granular state— 
about the size of small shot—until the water ran 
clear, spread out in a thin layer on a large-sized lever 
butter worker, allowed to drain for a few minutes, 
salted one ounce to the pound, worked only enough 
to thoroughly mix the salt (the Diamond Crystal salt), 
packed in a tub and shipped directly to the exhibition 
at Sycamore. 6. I grow the fodder corn and hay and 
buy the ear corn, bran and oil meal. Ensilage and 
clover hay would be a well balanced ration, but it 
would hardly be rich enough for dairy cows unless the 
ensilage had a good deal of well-matured corn on it 
when it was put in the silo. 7. I think that the out¬ 
look for first-class dairymen is as promising as for 
those following the line of any other agricultural 
pursuit. “ There is always room at the top.” 
Mendon, Ill. geo. h. Baldwin. 
1 . Grade Jerseys and a few good natives. 2. Clover 
hay, corn in the shock and beets, with four pounds of 
wheat bran, two of oats and one of oil meal, fed at two 
feeds. The cows are kindly treated, kept in a warm, 
well-ventilated stable and curried, and their water is 
warmed by a tank heater. They are turned out to 
drink in the middle of the day when the weather is 
not too cold ; when it is, water is carried to them. At 
this particular time a mishap occurred which ren¬ 
dered them less comfortable than usual for one night. 
I noticed the effects in the lessened amount of milk 
and in the butter, which was not up to the usual 
standard. We do not use ensilage. 3. Separator. 4. 
look for good dairying is very promising provided a law 
could be passed prohibiting the sale of oleomargarine 
colored as the genuine butter, and, still more im¬ 
portant, provided the law were rigidly enforced. 
Earlville, Ill. j. A . case. 
The Grain That Comes Cheapest. 
1 . Mostly grade Short-horns. 2. They were fed 
corn fodder (corn and all) cut three-quarters of an 
inch long, some mixed clover and Timothy hay and 
about four pounds of wheat bran to each daily, and 
housed in a warm stable, tied with chains. They are 
fed twice a day, after milking, and watered once a day 
at a running stream. 3. We use the Cooley submerged 
system of setting milk. 4. The butter sent to the 
Illinois dairymen’s meeting was a part of a regular 
churning. No extra pains were taken with it. We 
get the milk submerged in cold water as soon after 
milking as possible, let it stand 24 hours before skim¬ 
ming ; store the cream in a 100-gallon tin tank, which 
can be submerged at will. In winter we warm the 
cream 48 hours before churning to 66 degrees, putting 
in about two per cent of milk, soured by keeping it at 
70 degrees for 24 hours previous, and churn in a 100- 
gallon barrel churn. I use Perry’s butter color ; Gen¬ 
esee salt was used in the churn at 65 degrees in winter. 
The buttermilk is drawn off as soon as it is possible to 
separate it and the butter, which we wash twice in 
very weak brine at a temperature of 62 to 64 degrees. 
We salt it in the churn about one ounce to the pound, 
varying somewhat according to the moisture of the but- 
