whose brands are a guarantee of excellence, 
and why should not certain dairy districts 
strive to acquire the same kind of reputation 1 
Herkimer County has obtained a world-wide 
reputation for her cheese, nn<l Orange County 
is noted for its butter. There is uo good rea¬ 
son why Herkimer County should yield up 
her name and reputation, which has been 
won by long years of toil and effort to excel 
in her product, simply because some other 
locality objects to such name and insists that 
all cheese should be classified under some 
general head of “firsts,” “seconds” and 
“ thirds.” 
We do not know what action will be taken 
by the Butter and Cheese Exchange of New 
York in this matter ; but we presume its 
action, whatever it be, will be guided by a 
high sense of commercial honor and without 
prejudice and for the best interests of the 
whole country. 
HOW TO OBTAIN CHOICE BUTTER, 
We present the following brief summary 
of the leading or more essential requisites for 
the production of good butter : 
I. Securing rich, clean, healthy milk—milk 
obtained from good cows, well cared for, 
kindly treated, grazed upon sweet and nu¬ 
tritious pasturage free of weeds, and pro¬ 
vided with an abundance of clean, fresh 
water, 
II. Drawing the milk from the cow in a 
cleanly manner and setting it in an imtainted 
atmosphere and keeping it a uniform tem¬ 
perature—about 60’ Falir., while the cream 
is rising. 
ITT. Skimming at the proper time and be¬ 
fore the milk becomes old and bitter or is 
decomposed. 
IV. Proper management in churning, 
V. Washing out the buttermilk thoroughly 
and working the butter so as not to injure 
its grain. 
VI. Thorough and even incorporation of 
pure salt and putting down in tight, clean, 
well made packages—packages that will ex¬ 
clude, as far sis possible, the admission of air. 
VII. Placing the butter after it is packed 
(if not sent at once to market) in a clean, 
cool, well ventilated cellar—one that is mod¬ 
erately dry and absolutely free from all im¬ 
purities and offensive odors. 
Till. Clean 1 mess in all the operations from 
the time the milk is drawn to the packing 
and marketing the butler is of tmper<iMvn 
necetoriU/. Judgment und experience in ma¬ 
nipulating the cream and working the butter 
must, of course, be an element that is not to 
be overlooked or dispensed with. 
THE BUTTER CLASSIFICATION 
MANAGEMENT OF SHEEP IN ENGLAND 
Some of our Western friends have taken 
exception to the system of classifying butter 
adopted by the New York Butter and Cheese 
Exchange, claiming that all butter, without 
regard to the locality where it is made, 
should be sold on its merits, and that to des¬ 
ignate the different grades under the head¬ 
ings of Eastern and Western operates very 
unfavorably on Western butter, inasmuch as 
the latter always sells for less than the form¬ 
er, notwithstanding it may be graded as 
“extras,” “firsts,” “ seconds” and “thirds.” 
At the recent meeting of the Nat ional But¬ 
ter and Egg Convention in Chicago, which 
was largely attended by dealers in butter 
from different States, this question was dis¬ 
cussed and the following resolution adopted : 
“That any discrimination against butter 
on account of the section of country in which 
it is made is wrong ; that the term Western 
shall be dropped in our market reports, and 
it shall be graded and stand on its merits as 
butter, without any reference to the locality 
in which it is made.” 
Perhaps this iB all proper, and we certainly 
have no objection if all parties interested, 
East and West, are agreed upon the omission 
of the exceptional word Western; but it 
occurs to us that the demand by our Western 
friends would not have been insisted upon so 
strenuously—and, indeed, not at all-in case 
that Wcstem butter had sold for two or three 
cents per pound above Eastern. 
And another question occurs to us, viz.,— 
Whether it would not have been better to 
have said nothing about this change but 
rather, on the other hand, to have urged 
Western dairymen to take the matter up in 
good earnest at their dairies, stimulating 
them to the determination of excelling East¬ 
ern dairymen in the quality of their goods. 
In other words, the making of a name for 
Western butter, so it may be sought for in 
the market< iu preference to Eastern and at 
better prices. 
The St. Louis brand of flour has an enviable 
reputation, second to none in the market; 
the Elgin watches are esteemed for their 
excellence, and so with some other Western 
manufacturer which, on account of then- 
solid merits, can go into any of our Eastern 
markets without prejudice—except, peihaps, 
in their favor—on account of being “ West¬ 
ern” goods. And is it not the true way for 
the prosperity and success of Western dairy¬ 
men to build up a reputation for the goods 
of their own locality -to sell them under 
their own name rather than seek to hide 
that name and slip into the market under 
borrowed colors, In the hope of obtaining 
some temporary advantage i In the foreign 
markets butter is properly graded, but it is 
known under the name of the locality from 
which it comes. Thus we have Irish butter 
under the name of Clonmells ami Corks ; 
Normandy butter, Jersey butter, Danish, 
Kiel and Swedish with several other well 
known brands, all of which are regularly 
quoted ill the English markets. And here it 
may be well to observe that .Sweden, a few 
years ago, hud a poor reputation for butter 
in the English markets; but of late the 
Swedes have paid great attention to the art 
of butter making ami have built up such a 
reputation for tine goods that their butter 
now commands the very highest prices in 
London; often higher than that from the 
best English dairies near at hand to the 
market, while the Swedish butter has to 
make a sea voyage and is much older before 
it can reach the table of consumers. 
We do not discuss this matter out of any 
sectional feeling or prejudice, for we cer¬ 
tainly would be glad t.o see our Western 
friends excelling in the production of fancy 
“gilt-edged” butter, and for which the very 
top price in the market is obtained. Nor do 
we think any better prices will be paid for 
Western butter in New York by dropping 
the headings of “ Eastern” and “ Western” 
from the quotations. Consumers look for 
There are few farms ill England which 
have not hundreds of sheep, for they are the 
main support of the farm and the farmer. 
It might also be added that the landlord is as 
much beholden to the Hocks as his tenants, 
for the rents could not be paid without the 
raising of mutton and wool. The common 
tenant fanners always hare a shepherd ; in 
fact, as often stated before, on every farm 
the shepherd is a regular institution, as com¬ 
mon and as general as the carter (here called 
teamster). The farmers away from large 
towns and cities seldom sell lambs, and as 
the season for lamb Is much shorter, there 
are comparatively few who market their 
lamhs, and the ram breeders arc proportion- 
ably less in number, hut arc generally large 
farmers and men of renown. 
It is of the common farmer, who keeps his 
flock for profit, from mutton and wool, that 
I wish to write about. He has a shepherd 
who in summer sees and counts the sheep in 
each field twice per day, very early and about 
six In the evening. He has charge of the 
sheep under his master’s general orders, with 
some discretionary liberty. Sheep are kept 
in many Helds and are in separate lots—those 
of different ages, and of either sex, ore kept 
apart, and they are often moved from field 
to field. In the summer the shepherd is a 
very useful man otherwise than attending 
to the sheep. He builds the ricks of hay and 
grain (for there is very little grain put in 
harps and uo hay) and the shepherd thatches 
the ricks with straw so that they can stand 
out for years without being damaged, grain 
and hay being often kept there till the second 
year before being used. 
In September and October the sheep are 
put on the turnip fields and penned (folded) 
with hurdles till the next April, and some¬ 
times till May, and although the climate of 
England is notoriously wet, yet miliiona of 
long wooled and short wooled sheep remain 
on the hare ground with daily additions to 
the pens, without any kind of shelter beyond 
the hedges which surround the fields, but 
which they arc not able to lie under, except¬ 
ing in the regular way, as the hurdles are 
moved every day. The tegs, the shearhogs 
and the cull ewes are the sheep which gener¬ 
ally eat the turnips ; the ewe tegs have no 
grain or aught but turnips and hay ; but 
many of the beat farmers give the wether 
tegs pens or barley and bring them out in 
Spring heavy and good, the fleeces from all 
of the fat sheep weighing from 10 to 14 lbs. 
each and always washed wool, for all sheep 
are washed hefore being shorn, even in 
March or April, if shorn as early as they 
sometimes are, Breeding ewes never have 
grain. So ignorant arc such men as “ Penn¬ 
sylvania” that they imagine statements like 
these untrue, and actually suppose long 
wooled sheep to bo so tender us to require 
shelter from rain iu summer. There cannot 
he the slightest knowledge, theoretical even, 
of long wools, when food of the linestquality 
is given with such results us scouring and 
filthy noses, &c., &c. 
PioNN. went to sleep and lost his sheep; 
lie wasted hay and cloyed ’em; 
Then made ’em taka so much oilcake 
It really quite auxoyed ’em. 
To mend their coats he gave ’em oats. 
And didn’t neglect to corn ’em; 
Shtpstulf to cure and good pasture, 
All fulled when he had shorn ’em. 
Disgusting pose and nasty nose, 
However could ho shear 'em ? 
This did not mead the other end— 
How could he e’er go near ’em? 
Poor, simple Picnn. coddled ’em then; 
He thought the rain would hurt ’em, 
So he did try to keep them dry 
For fear the mtnl should dirt cm. 
With all his putns and fear of rains, 
The long wools ailed and died ; 
Therefore, all men take heed from Penn.— 
Beware of him who Hud. 
The truth to tell, long wools won’t sell; 
Now Penn, has told his tale, 
Who cares a button for English mutton, 
There’s none on earth for sale. 
“ Little Bo Beep lost his sheep. 
And didn’t know where to And 'em; 
Leave ’em alone and they’ll come home 
And bring their tails behind 'em; 
These were the sheep which grieved Bo Peep 
A nd he could never find ’em : 
They’ll never roam back to their home 
Ashamed of tails behind ’em. 
Little Bo Peep may go to sleep. 
Long wools are now extinct,— 
For after Penn, who’ll keep again 
A breed that always stinted? 
A Working Farmer. 
FACTORY OPERATIONS FOR 1874 
The Utica Herald prints returns from 20 
factories, showing the result of the year’s 
work, Wc have condensed the reports and 
plgced the chief points of interest in tabular 
form, so that.the statistics maybe compared 
readily, the one with the other. The reports 
in this form will be of interest to manufac¬ 
turers and others engaged in the dairy busi¬ 
ness, since a comparison can be made with 
results obtained in different localities. 
BRAHMA FOWLS 
Average Num 
ber of Cows. 
No. pounds 
milk. 
Pounds of 
cheese made, 
Pounds of 
ndlk tu pound 
of cheese. 
Average price 
per pound of 
cheese. 
Net to patrons 
per 100 pounds 
of milk. 
Commenced 
operations. 
Factory closed 
In looking over the table, it will he ob¬ 
served that the factories, for the most part, 
report a pound of cheese made from less than 
10 pounds of milk, there being bub four out 
of the 20 factories in which it took 10 pounds 
ami upward for a pound of cheese. If these 
reports are to be relied upon as strictly cor¬ 
rect, this result must be gratifying, as show¬ 
ing that our manufacturers arc making prog¬ 
ress in securing agood average from the milk 
intrusted to their management. Some errors, 
however, are likely to creep in and vitiate 
these statistics from the difficulty of placing 
the average number of cows at the exact 
figure. Home of the factories report the 
average number of cows from 50 to 60 short 
of the greatest number delivering milk at 
any one time. In others, the difference be¬ 
tween the greatest number and the average 
number is as low as five cows. 
Looking down the column showing the 
average price received for cheese, we find, 
with few exceptions, the range to run from 
13)^0. to 14c., and in some cases above 14c. 
per pound. The column, perhaps, of moat 
interest, however, is that, which gives the 
average amount received from 100 pounds of 
milk. It will be observed that those factor¬ 
ies reporting sales at extreme rates do not 
return to patrons so much money for 100 
pounds of milk, and some factories selling 
cheese at lower figures, 
first brood. This breed is found fault with 
for wanting to set too frequently, but that is 
their nat ure, und a part of their moat paying 
business ; for A Brahma hen will often hatch 
and rear a dozen or more of fine chickens. 
The Brahmas are seldom inclined to frequent 
setting before the warm weather sets in, 
when it will pay you four times as well to 
give a hen a nest full of eggs, than to break 
her up, though die was the best laying hen 
in the world—for at this season eggs are 
cheap, though a dozen of them put under a 
hen may bring 83 in less than three months 
or 45 io less than five months, as this breed 
matures, it well fed, at from four to five 
months. c. h. 
Logan Co., Ohio, May, 1875. 
Thus, for Instance, 
the Vernon and Verona report sales at 
14.16-100 cents per pound, returning to pa¬ 
trons not quite 41.37-100 per 100 pounds of 
milk. On the other hand, the North Wilna 
sold cheese at less than 18t£c. per pound and 
returned to patrons 41.86 per 100 pounds milk. 
The table in other particulars is valuable 
for reference and comparison and being some 
mouths in advance of what we can get in the 
reports of the Dairy Associations will be of 
interest to dairymen who are now closing up 
the operations of the year. 
More than Five Hundred Fowls, Mr. E. 
Simmer is informed, cannot, in our opinion, 
be kept profitably on two acres of land if in 
deed naif that number can. If they can be 
it will involve greater skill in management 
than we have yet seen developed by any 
breeder. 
