THE VZRKSNT DAIRY CONVENTION. 
The fifth winter meeting of the Vermont 
Dairymen’s Association, at Essex Junction, 
January 21, 22 and 23, was a great success 
and was regarded as altogether the most 
profitable in Its papers and discussions of 
any agricultural convention which has been 
held in the State. The attendance during 
the three days was large, embracing delega¬ 
tions from other States outside of New En¬ 
gland. 
PRESIDENT MASON'S ADDRESS. 
The opening address on the first day was 
given by the President of the Association, 
Hon. E. D. Mason, Richmond. He said in 
this age of progress the fanner is beginning 
to partake of the spirit as never before. He 
referred to the benefits which had resulted 
from tho Association, and urged upon mem¬ 
ber! concert of action a a the means of future 
success. A very important feature of pro¬ 
gress is agricultural publications. Every 
farmer should take at least one good agricul¬ 
tural paper. Partners’ Clttbs, also, should be 
organized and maintained, and farmers 
should leant to speak in public bodies. In 
conclusion he congratulated members upon 
their leadership in the great strides of pro¬ 
gress lately being made in dairy improve¬ 
ments and in emancipating women from 
the drudgery incident to dairy manufacture, 
which prematurely wore co many out or pre¬ 
maturely impaired their health. 
Mr. Mason was followed by Dr. L. C. But- 
i.kr of Essex, mi a spec::h welcoming the 
A ssoeiat.ii >n to the place. 
Hon. Henry Clark, Rutland, Secretary 
of the Vermont State Agricultural Society, 
then addressed the Convention on the 
PSOORESS OF AGRICULTURE IN VERMONT. 
He had watched the progress of this Society 
sinee it was formed, and in liis opinion no 
other association has accomplished sp much 
fur farmer-i in Vermont as this. Twenty- 
five years ago there was no special farming 
in the State, but now wo have men devoting 
themselves to dairying, to wool growing, to 
stock breeding and to lruit raising. It was 
gratifying to know that there is a general 
revival of interest in the pursuits named 
throughout the country. Tho farmers of 
Vermont are no* so well prepared to show 
on the face of their labor such progress as 
many other's, but they are beginning to de¬ 
velop facts which testify success. The farm¬ 
er has discovered that n union between the 
producer and consumer is of immense advan¬ 
tage to each. A board of trade has enabled 
him to have his eye upon the market and 
control it. The comparison of views that 
has taken place in associations of this kind 
lias given dairymen freedom over other 
classes engaged in specialties. Ke reviewed 
the work of tho Vermont Dairymen’s Asso¬ 
ciation during tho past fi ve years, and showed 
what an immense benefit the farmers of the 
State had derived from the papers and dis¬ 
cussions submitted at the winter meetings. 
One of tho signs which indicate the value, of 
these meetings is that the farmers all over 
the country are now looking to each other 
for light and co-operation, and to men of 
science for great truths which they can ap¬ 
ply. It requires scientific research in this 
day to be a good dairyman. The duty of 
Vermont dairymen is to survey the whole 
range of opportunities and make the most of 
them. He thought dairymen should sustain 
the Association and nob require it to depend 
upon outside aid for itg support. If this was 
done, the Association would command the 
respect aid support of the whole people of 
the State. 
Dr. G. F. Cole, Potsdam, X. Y., was then 
introduced, and read an interesting paper on 
THE COMPLAINTS 0* TNC FARMER. 
He said farmers complain that they arc op¬ 
pressed, and tho claim cannot be talked 
down or sneered down. Tin- best farms do 
not. pay three per cent. Farmers work hard, 
live poor, dress poor and are seen by their 
servants, the officials, only on election days. 
Their hard hands and thick boots meet with 
cold reception in tho parlors of the opulent. 
All other industries arc paid better than 
farming. He (Cole) had not been long a 
farmer, but long enough to know that there 
is some foundation for these complaints. Ho 
thought farmers could not afford to stand 
idle spectators of the consolidation of eyerv 
interest but that of farmers, without an 
effort at self-defense. These combinations, 
he thought, must be resisted with their own 
tactics or farmers must succumb, as does 
every disorganized force when coping with 
organization and discipline. While farmers 
are feeding others for less than half former 
cost, these interests, by then - compacts, are 
compelling fanners to pay as much or more 
than formerly. All the concessions made to 
the exigencies of the times are made on the 
cost of the raw material. We pay as much 
for clothing and agricultural implements as 
we did when it cost the workmen twice as 
much to live as now. 
It is wholly wrong when farm products do 
not bear a just relation to the products of 
other labor. It can, therefore, be remedied; 
for right, not wrong, is omnipotent. The cost 
of the table i8 two-thirds the cost of the 
household, and there is no other standard so 
proper by which to adjust a scale of prices 
as agricultural product ions. No matter’what 
the price is, if w« make a fair exchange. 
But when the odds are from two to twenty 
against- us—when we give a bushel of corn 
for a box of pills, as they do West, and the 
pills cost five c^ts—tho joke is too severe. 
We have to sustain ourselves by working 
more horns and enduring greater privations, 
or depleting our capital, as we now are do¬ 
ing; for our farms are wearing out and we 
are getting nothing but the value of our own 
labor. And how does our labor compare 
with that of those in other callings ! We 
give the mechanic from four to six hours for 
one of his. Hehool teachers, many of them 
educated at our expense, protected from the 
weather in a house that wo furnish and 
warm, buy with six hours’ labor forty-eight 
hours of our toil in snow and rain. The 
priest, physician and lawyer get all the way 
from ton to twenty for one. Estimate these 
prices in grain, and we shall find that many 
of them e^rn our corn, oats and wheat as 
fast as a man and team can gather them. 
The brick mason who gets $4.50 per day buys 
with that day’s work half an acre of our oats, 
and the delivering of the sumo to him with 
man and team is equal to his day's labor. 
Why is it, said Mr. Cole, that while farm- 
el's pay all other men their prices no man 
pays the farmer his prices, or rather that ho 
has no price of his own ! Agricultural labor 
is the only free labor that lias no voice, uo 
st ipulation of its own in relation to its prices. 
The farmer’s prices are constantly changing 
at the option of the buyer, and we as coiv- 
stantly follow him in the prices of what lie 
has to sell. When the butter buyer offers so 
much, that settles It. The hat'd working 
farmer complains that, he is not adequately 
paid for his sore hands and aching muscles. 
It might be some consolation if we thus 
benefited the toiling consumer, lmt he will 
never establish the price any more than we. 
We invite another party to do this—the very 
party who has his»fortune to make out of 
the differences between what ho pays and 
what we pay him. When wa farmers go 
ihto the market to sell we ask, softly, “ What 
will you give ?” And when we buy we say, 
•• What, do you ask 1” All our lives have wc 
done this, and have come to regard it aa 
legitimate. As a remedy against the evils 
complained of he urged organization and 
union among fanners. We want union to 
protect our interests as farmers ; to elect 
legislators who are honest and pledged to 
sec that expenses and salaries are cut down 
to a farming basis : to exercise what little 
power there is left us over railroad*charg68. 
so that the roads wc have mortgaged our 
fanns to build may be compelled to recog¬ 
nize that they exist for us as well as we for 
them. 
MilK—ITS TYPAL RELATIONS. 
This was a very valuable paper, by Dr. 
Lewis Kturtevant of Massachusetts. Each 
separate breed of cows, he said, lias not only 
its own type hut also includes individuals 
who depart more or less from the typical 
form. The Short-Horn is “ the brick-set-on- 
c.dge” form, with the head, tail and legs 
added, more from necessity than desire of 
tho breeder, ami with certain other require 
ments suited to the fancy or supposed needs. 
The type of the dairy cow is the wedge- 
shape that results from the superior develop¬ 
ment of those parts concerned in the pro¬ 
duction of milk. These two forms maybe 
considered the most perfect representations 
of animals fitted for the two requirements of 
civilization ; cheap and therefore abimdant 
milk. He referred to a few of the leading 
breeds in reference to dairy uses, and gave a 
description of the typical udder of our breeds. 
In the Ayrshire cow the glands of the udder 
arc flattened and heid firmly to the belly by 
a fibrous and, in part, elastic tissue. The 
teats are small, cylindrical and set far apart. 
The teats are a prolongation of the gland 
structure, in order to form an outlet for the 
secretion. 
In the Jersey the glands of the udder are 
pointed and the teats are cone-shaped. They 
partake in form of the elongation of the 
gland. The glands are not held as close to 
the body as in the Ayrshire, but are more 
pendant. 
The so-called Holstein or Dutch breed have 
an elongated udder. The glands are elongat¬ 
ed, and in turn the teats are elongated cones. 
The milk globule of the Jersey breed is 
larger than is the corresponding globule of 
the other breeds mentioned, and there are 
fewer globules under a certain size — say 
1-27,000 inch, and such, for convenience, he 
calls granules. 
The milk globule of the Ayrshire "breed is 
smaller than that of the Jersey and Holstein, 
and the milk from individual cows of the 
Ayrshire breed can be grouped into two 
classes or grades, according to the size mid 
distribution of the globules. This milk 
abounds in granules. 
The milk globule of the Holstein is the 
smallest of the three. The globules are more 
uniform in their size than in the Ayrshire 
milk, and there are fewer granules. 
Tn churning, the milk of the different 
breeds acts differently in the churn. The 
larger the globule the quicker is the butter 
produced from the milk ; and the more uni¬ 
form the size of t he globule the huger tho 
yield of butter from a given quantity of 
cieam of equal richness by analysis. 
The color of Jersey butter 13 yellow and 
more or less tinted with orange. That from 
tho Ayrshire is yellow, often deep yellow, ( 
but lacks the orange tint. Tho Dutch butter 
is of a pale yellow. 
The Jersey milk separates its cream more 
completely than either tho Ayrshire or Dutch 
milks, and its cream usually churns into 
butter more readily. 
In making a summary of his experiments. 
Dr. S. says the breeds can bo arranged in 
the order of tho average size of the milk 
globules, as follows ; Jersey, Ayrshire, (but¬ 
ter family); Ayrshire, (cheese family); Hol¬ 
stein or Dutch. 
Likewise we can arrange the breeds in ac¬ 
cordance with certain properties of the milk. 
The rapidity with, which the cream rises— 
Jersey, Ayrshire, Dutch. 
The rapidity with which the cream churns 
— Jersey, Ayrshire, Dutch. 
The completeness with which the cream 
rises— Jersey, Dutch, Ayrshire. 
Tho value of the milk for cheese— Ayr¬ 
shire, Dutch, Jerse y, 
Qualities desirable for tho milk retailer—• 
Ayrshire, Dutch, Jersey, 
The following he stat.es to be the milk re- I 
quirements:— For butter, that the globules l 
be of good size, of uniform size, and should 
be in abundance (or expressed otherwise) a 
large percentage of cream. Requirements 
best fulfilled by the Jersey-Ayr shire, (butter 
family). For cheese, that the globule should 
lie so small as to remain mixed with the j 
milk under the circumstances ; L e., a white 
and not a blue skim - milk. Requirement 
fulfilled by the Ayrsh ire. That the globule 
should be easily mixed with the milk again 
after rising. Requirement beat fulfilled by 
the Dutch and the Ayrshire. For the milk 
retailer, that the globule should remain for a 1 
sufficient period mixed with the milk, so 1 
that an evenness of quality may occur dur 
ing delivery to customers. Requirement best 
fulfilled by the Ayrshire and Dutch. Farm 
er’s requirement, an abuudanoe of yield un ( 
der given circumstances. Requirement, ful¬ 
filled in order— Ayrshire, Dutch , Jersey, 
In conclusion he says tho .Jersey c< w is 
fitted by the quality of her milk for the vil¬ 
lage resident, the suburban locality which 
has special facilities for the disposal of but¬ 
ter, and for the amateur farmer. The 
Dutch cow passesscsii milk neither pre-emi¬ 
nent for butter or cheese, yet possessing 
qualities which will allow of the manufac¬ 
ture of either, but not lo the bust advantage. 
Tit® products of tiffs cow require further 
study, as the keeping qualities of the butter 
in Dr. Sturtkvant’s experiments was so re¬ 
markable as to indicate strongly the direc¬ 
tion of her usefulness. 
The experiments of Dr. S., it will be seen, 
are out of the usual line, and the conclusions 
drawn will he worthy the attention of most 
of our dairy readers.—[To he continued. 
■-- 
Jersey Butter Deficient in Flavor.— 
The New England Farmer in reference to the 
above subject, quotes Mr. Flint in saying 
that Jersey butter does not compare with 
first class Vermont butter in flavor, and that 
people judge more by tho eye than the taste 
: iu purchasing. “There is none of the sweet, 
nutty flavor in Jersey butter that there is in 
Vermont butter. The high color is not 
owing to its richness, but to a peculiar yellow 
pigment, secreted in the Jersey cows and car- J 
ried off in the milk.” The Farmer further ! 
says that Jersey butter is not as sofid as that I 
from common cows. ‘‘As a rale the higher 1 
the color, the greater the need for ice in the 
manufacture and sale of butter, from any 
cow, or breed of cows.” 
Jim 
TROUT CULTURE. 
A*. J. Hinds, Patchogue, L. I., famishes tho 
following general hints on trout culture : 
Trout spawn about October. The male seeks 
a graved bed, then mates. The female wal¬ 
lows at intervals in the gravel to squeeze the 
spawn out., Tho male then sails over the 
same place and emits a few drops of milt, 
which are filtered through tho gravel. Now, 
by taking this pair at that tune and carefully 
running the thumb and finger along the ab¬ 
domen every egg will come out into a pan of 
clean water. Then do tho same with the 
male (only a few drops are wauled). Stir the 
water and the egg will turn to a light yellow. 
If any become hal’d in the least, put the fish 
back ; they are not ripe. The eggs arc about 
tho size of June peas, and yield from 1,000 to 
4,000, according to the age of the Hah. Hon. 
Stephen II. Ainsworth invented a spring race, 
say two foot wide, in which ho placed shallow 
boxes, two feet square, bottomed with gal¬ 
vanized wire screens, half-inch mesh ; one or 
two inches under this he placed fine wire 
gauze screens to catch the eggs as they went 
through. A large quantity of trout will 
spawn in one of these races, two rods long, 
but t he boxes have to be removed quite often, 
as the eggs would get too thick. Mr. A. S. 
Collins improved on this by making an end¬ 
less chain of gauze cloth, two inches below 
the coarse wire screens. This bus rollers at 
each end. The low*er one lias a crank, so 
that by turning this crank the eggs are 
drawn out into a pan under water without 
moving ^he boxes, or upper screens at all. 
In fact, no boxes are used on this plan. 
Either way is good if done right. Parties 
take spawn in October and sell all winter. 
The longer t hey have to wait before hatching 
the more work. So I havo adopted the plan 
not to sell (or, L should say, deliver,) any eggs 
before February, or until the young fish aro 
plainly visible iu each egg. Tiffs gives gen¬ 
eral satisfaction, as they hatch in two or 
three weeks, and from the numerous letters 
in my possession show they do not lose five 
per cent. 
Trout eggs will hatch buried carefully in 
gravel in a running brook, say two inches 
deep. Put screens above and below to keep 
away all intruders. Then clear the brook of 
all other fish. The. only practical way to do 
this, or at least the safest way, is to dig a 
ditch or canal, the width to bo determined 
by the quantity of water in the brook. Then 
turn tiio stream into this canal. Always 
have a little dam below a fine wire screen, 
say a foot or two, to keep the young fry 
from being drawn against the screen, if a 
person had time and wished to follow this 
business, and wished to know exactly how 
many he can hatch out ol' every 1,0(10, curb 
up a spring with box or a barrel, and raise 
the water as high as possible. Then make a 
trough, say 12 feet long, 42 to 15 inches wide 
at bottom, of clear pine board planed, sides 
6 or $ inches high ; elovate the end to the 
barrel one inch, make exactly level the other 
way; L' or % inch of walls are enough. If 
the current moves the eggs out cut laths and 
put in cross pieces, say 18 inches apart. 
Cover the bottom with coarse mud or very 
fine gravel, slate or glass; place the eggs 
evenly so as not to have any touch each other 
more tlxan is possible. Put in a flannel strain¬ 
er at upper end and change this every day. 
Be sure to keep perfectly dark with cover. 
Every day examiue them ; if any die they 
will turn white first ; throw out ami count 
them. Use for tin's purpose nippers made 
by bending a wire and flattening the ends. 
When all, or nearly all, are hatched, put in a 
board and raise the water. All pounding by 
nailing on slate for raising the water, or any 
other purpose, must be done before the eggs 
are placed in tho trough. In two or three 
weeks utter they are all hatched, or as soon 
as the last is off, and they begin to feed, let 
them loose. The more wuter the better, 
provided all fish and other enemies are ex¬ 
cluded. Don’t feed too much. One spoonful 
of clabbored milk is enough for 1,000 per day 
for the first six montns, to be diluted in a 
bowl of water, and flirted in with a quill. 
Blood or liver, if ground very fine, is good ; 
so are eggs, but too expensive. After they 
are six months old, any fresh meat, as fish, 
chopped up, is good food. If you have plenty 
of water, so as not to foul up, you can’t feed 
too much after they are six months old. 
-- 
The Enemies of Large Trout in stock 
ponds arc fisli-luiwks and night-herons. Wa¬ 
ter-frogs, snakes and ducks muy also be de¬ 
structive to the fry when flirt turned out of 
the nursery. The water-snake first muddles 
the water and finds its victim; aLso the duck. 
The frog waits their approach in solemn si¬ 
lence and pounces upon them.— Norris. 
