I 
► 
allowed to roam over a considerable range, 
they not unfrequently crop weeds that give 
a taint to the milk—especially is this the case 
when the animals have the range of wood¬ 
lands. Again, impure, muddy water—the 
water from sloughs and frog ponds—will 
often so taint the butter that it is unfit to 
eat. We have known numerous instances 
whore the butter has been spoiled on account 
of the water which the cows drank ; and in 
quite a number of oases we have pointed out 
this cause to dairymen as the source of their 
trouble, and they have remedied the evil by 
supplying their stock with good, clean water. 
Another quite common source of bad 
flavor in butloris from allowing the cream 
to remain too long on the milk, or on account 
of keeping it too long after skimming and 
before it goes to the churn. It is very im¬ 
portant in making fine-flavored butter to 
get up the cream quickly and skim before 
the milk has become old and decomposed. 
It should not be left in the cream pot to got 
old and rancid, but should go to tho churn 
as soon as it can bo made ready ” after skim¬ 
ming.” Sometimes, in the fall, cream is left 
AYRSHIRES FOR THE DAIRY 
DAIRY PRODUCTS AT THE CENTRAL 
N. Y. FAIR. 
Dr. Sturtevant, in a lecture before the 
New York State Agricultural Society upon 
the subject of dairy farming and tho choice 
of breeds, holds the following language : 
‘‘The dairy farmer has not a choice of 
breeds. The effect of climate and food is a 
subject that requires to be taken into consid¬ 
eration. Tho Short-Horn originated in tho 
fertile valley of the Tees ; the smallest ol’ tho 
known breeds in distant Shetland, lhe bai- 
ren pasture of Brittany furnishes a cow 
resembling tho Dutch in all but size ; the 
marshes of the Elbe and the rivers enter ing 
the North Sea build up the large-framed 
Dutch. The fact is well recognized in the 
sheep husbandry of England, and also each 
district has its local breed. 
In stocking a farm we must, to obtain the 
best results,look at the fertility of the pas¬ 
tures, their aspect ami the necessities of the 
season. Where soiling is exclusively or 
main I v carried on, human foresight is able 
to neutralize the action of natural causes to 
a certain extent, and to such a fanner there 
is some choice of breeds. But to the larger 
number this necessity is formed by the re¬ 
quirements of their land. 
The Dutch cattle, With them large frames, 
require fertile pastures and lands unaffected 
by drouth. Their home is among the 
marshes of Holland. The beautiful Short- 
Horn bred for ages to a special purpose, ana 
lacking an extreme hardiness of constitution, 
is better fitted for fertile, rolling, limestone 
pasture. ami to exceptional locations In dairy 
dist ricts. The Jersey is the rich man s cow, 
requires shelter and rich food, can be teth¬ 
ered with ease, is highly ornamental, and 
witli her rich producB of tuillc cun, it ligxitly 
located, be made profitable. 
But the Ayrshire Is fitted, by her part .and 
present history, for the poor lands penodi- 
1 3 ally withered by drouth and broken by hilly, 
while at tho same time alie responds K^te- 
fully to good food and kind treatment that 
she is hardy is well-known, oven to a superi¬ 
ority over other breeds mentioned, and I 
throw it out as a conjecture, to be proved by 
statistics if at all. whether her very hardi¬ 
ness and adaptability to physical changes 
has not rendered her less 1 labia to Abortion, 
than tho other breeds under like circum¬ 
stances and eare. . 
Tho Ayrshire is not a royal animal, built 
up by high feed and pamnering care, and 
adapted to rich pastures alone. She is ol 
the low-born, self-made class, which, strug¬ 
gling for existence with the hardships of the 
earlier periods of Ayrshire*, has improved 
with the growth of the Country, retaining 
A WORD CONCERNING SKIM CHEESES. 
The exhibition of dairy products at the 
recent Central New York Fair was note¬ 
worthy in several respects. In the first place, 
the show was a very largo one 
more exten¬ 
sive, perhaps, than any other in the State, 
save in one instance, when the dairymen 
came out in full force to make a great show 
at the Fair of the N. Y. State Agricultural 
Society in 1865. The State Society at that 
time provided a huge tent for this depart¬ 
ment of tho exhibition, and the cheeses could 
be seen here by the hundreds. In the cen¬ 
ter was placed the Queen Cheese of [Canada, 
weighing 4,200 pounds, and ranged around 
by counties were the various specimens of 
factories and farm dairies from different 
parts of the State. Herkimer county showed 
100 cheeses ; Oneida, 98 ; Jefferson, 41 ; Wy- 
oming, 40, and Lewis, Otsego, Madison, Os¬ 
wego, St. Lawrence, Onondaga, and other 
couuties, ranging from 30 to a half dozen. 
This immense show, at the time, was of great 
interest and benefit to the dairymen of the 
Stato. They came together and examined 
critically the different character and nmka 
of tho cheeses before them, and from the 
comparison they were able to see in what 
rank the product of the different counties 
were held, one to the other, as judged and 
commented upon by the numerous cheese 
mongers, shippers and experts present. 
Cheese manufacture and butter manufac¬ 
ture have improved vastly since 1805, and 
the average product of New York is slowly 
improving from year to year. Not only the 
manufacturers but the dairymen are from 
year to year becoming better informed as to 
tho principles which underlie the dairy art 
in the production and treatment of milk at 
the farm and at the factory. And for this 
much is due to the agricultural press of the 
country, which has brought to light new 
theories and discussed their practical opera¬ 
tions. The dairyman who takes no agricul¬ 
tural paper travels on tho same plane and 
around the same circle that he did ten years 
ago, and his product sells in the market far 
below that of those who keep well informed 
and who put into practical operation the 
improvements which are constantly being 
made. 
At the recent Utica exhibition the samples 
of cheese were of the finest description, full 
of meat, solid in texture, and of that sweet, 
nutty, now-milk flavor—far superior to any¬ 
thing shown at the Fair in 1865, As a noted 
expert remarked to us when testing tho 
premium cheese, (from the Old Fairfield fac¬ 
tory, Herkimer Co.,) “ llero is a cheese which 
it will bo difficult for Englishmen to find 
Again, milk cellars are not unfrequently 
badly ventilated and foul, from want of 
drainage; and notwithstanding the walls 
may be newly cleaned the gases arising 
from decomposing matter will taint the 
milk. We have been called to look over 
premises where the trouble of ill-flavored 
butter could not be at, first accounted l'or, 
and have found the cause hi defective drains. 
Of course, it must be understood that no de¬ 
caying vegetables, nor indeed vegetables of 
any kind, should be in a cellar where milk 
is set for cream, Milk is very susceptible to 
taint, and consequently should bo removed 
from every substance that would be likely to 
influence its character in this respect. 
We have enumerated some of the more 
prominent causes of milk taints, which our 
correspondent would do well to examine in 
detail and see if any of them apply to liis 
case, There are many other causes that 
might be named for taints in milk and for 
bad flavored butter; and in this connection 
we may refer to imperfect or bad milk com¬ 
ing from oueor more animals of the herd, on 
recount of ailments or some constitutional 
peculiarity. Some cows, in tho fall, as they 
begin to decrease in milk and go dry, yield 
a thick and imperfect fluid, highly charged 
with the seeds of decomposition. Such milk, 
if kept apart from that of other animals and 
i set aside by itself, will soon take on putrid 
decomposition and emit an offensive smell. 
BAD-FLAVORED BUTTER 
sive, and the samples oi cnoicc quality. 
We were interested, as probably were 
many others also, iu the goods exhibited by 
Mr. Blanding of Broome Co. Mr. B. con¬ 
ducts a creamery and makes butter, convert¬ 
ing the skimmed milk into cheese. Samples 
of both products were shown. Tho butter 
was of the finest quality, rich in color anil of 
a flavor that must have delighted the most 
fastidious. It has been asserted that good 
cheese cannot be made from skimmed milk, 
but no better proof of the fallacy of tills no¬ 
tion could be offered than the skim cheese 
which Mr. B LARDING presented for inspec¬ 
tion at the Fair. Some of the experts who 
cut it with the iron pronounced it prime, de¬ 
claring it would sell equally well with good, 
whole-milk cheese in any market. Under 
the thumb and finger it was mellow and ap¬ 
parently full of meat, while its flavor was 
clean, sweet and nutty. Here, then, was 
demonstrated what intelligence and skill in 
the manipulation of milk a,re able to accom¬ 
plish, viz :—that two products, butter and 
cheese, can be produced from tho same milk, 
placed in separate packages, each proving 
excellent and comparing favorably with pro¬ 
ducts where the milk is treated exclusively 
for the one or the other. 
Mr. Blanding informed us that he had no 
difficulty in marketing his cheese at good 
prices, and consumers often preferred it to 
whole cheese, the rates per pound being the 
same for both. 
It is only about nine yearn ago that we 
announced publicly, in an address, that good, 
well-flavored, mellow, palatable cheese could 
HOW TO LEAD A COW 
The Ames, Town, Intelligencer has the 
following :—Every woman will tell you that 
a man can lie led easier by putting an arm 
around his neck than by pulling his hair, but 
we never knew till recently that the reason 
you can’t lead a COW behind a wagon is be¬ 
cause she objects to having her horns pulled. 
The other da.y a red-shirted emigrant passed 
through here on his way to Carroll county. 
His family and household possessions were in 
a covered wagon, to the hind end of which 
wits fastened a cow. Behind her with a 
WORK ON DAIRYING-DAIRY PAPER, &c 
X, A. WlLEARE, Esq. Having been re¬ 
ferred to you as authority on matters per¬ 
taining to the Dairy, I would like the title, 
where published, and price, of some one or 
e veral ol' the. most complete works on the 
subject, together with the periodicals most 
largely devoted to its interest. Please inform 
and oblige— T. Entrkkin, Independence, Mo. 
The only complete work on the dairy, or 
one which gives alltha modern improvement 
in this branch of industry is that printed at 
the office of the Rural New-Yorker, enti¬ 
tled “ Practical Dairy Husbandry.” Nearly 
every subject connected with the dairy is 
taken up and discussed, and a general scope 
of the topics treated may be had by referring 
to the advertising columns of this paper. 
We know of no paper exclusively devoted to 
dairying, but nearly all the Agricultural 
papers have a department on this interest. 
on account of feeding the pumpkins. Cows 
are generally very fond of pumpkins, and if 
allowed, will eat them greedily, not unfre¬ 
quently gorging themselves, and thus injur¬ 
ing the flavor and healthfulness of their milk. 
When the herd is fed in the open yard the 
master cows often overfeed in this way. 
Again, all kinds of food, like turnips, which 
are liable to carry a taint to the milk, if fed 
immediately after milking, are less likely to 
give their flavor, or at any rate do not taint, 
the milk so strongly as they do when fed 
previous to milking. Our correspondent 
should have withheld tho pumpkins for a 
few days from his stock, and he then would 
have been able to determine whether it was 
the pumpkins or some other cause which 
produced the ill-flavor of his butter. 
When pastures are poor and cows are 
