27 
T 
HE BUBAL MEW-YOBMEB 
time and trouble as the best of care and atten¬ 
tion to our dairy cows—or indeed any stock. 
SkadeB of Solomon, what wisdom 1 I read 
in a paper not long 6ince that “ farmers should 
not let their sows have large litters of pigs. 
Five are enough, unless the}' have plenty of 
milk. This precious bit of knowledge doubt¬ 
less had Us birth in the capacious brain of 
6ome city wiseacre who “runs " the agricul¬ 
tural column of a secular or Christian weekly, 
and who, without doubt, has not practical 
knowledge enough to engineer the construc¬ 
tion of a fourth rate chicken coop. I had a 
sow farrow yesterday, dropping seven nice, 
fat pigs, and I have not plenty of milk either, 
but I trust that the sow will afford an abun¬ 
dance if I keep her as 1 should. We say on 
Willow Grove farm, let your sows have all the 
pigs they can ; then use judgment in feeding 
for a few days, giving only coarse, sloppy 
food, poor and bulky, gradually increasing to 
a richer diet. After two weeks, give her all 
she will eat of the richest milk-producing food 
you can provide and you will “thank your 
stars" that you did not bid her stop after she 
had given yon five! Now let the reader 
“ point the moral,” and provide himself with 
a good agricultural paper 6uch as the Rural 
New Yorkek, if he would be thoroughly 
posted, and not depend upon the ordinary 
weekly newspaper wilh its column of extraor¬ 
dinary theories and suggestions. c. 8. b. 
-*-M- 
Our Animal Portraits.— We give this week 
likenesses of two of the most fashionably-bred 
specimens of one of the best known Short-horn 
herds in Englaid—that of Mr. T. Holford. The 
cow — whose head is finely represented—is 
Baroness Oxford 3d, grand-daughter, iu direct 
liue, of the celebrated cow, Lady Oxford 5th, 
belonging to the Holkcr herd. On the other 
side, her sire was the famous Duke of Hilhurst, 
who won added renown for the Kingseote herd. 
The young bull whose striking portrait we 
present, is the Duke of Leinster. On the side 
of hissire, he is a grandson of the cowof which 
we have just been speaking; buton the side of 
his dam he belongs to the Airdrie family ol 
the Duchess tribe. Ilia dam, Duchess of Air¬ 
drie 7th, was bred in this country by Mr. Albert 
Crane, of Kansas. The Duchess was the oldest 
of the Bates’ tribes; while the origin of his Ox¬ 
ford tribe may be put at 1834, with the birth 
of the Oxford Premium Cow. 
iiairp ijusbantuu. 
WINTER BUTTER MAKING-NO. 4. 
HENRY STEWART. 
Washing the Butter. 
After the churning comes the final working 
and packing for sale. Butter that has been 
well churned is easily cleansed and freed from 
the butter-milk. There is a poiut in the 
churning at which the butter is iu the best 
condition for washing This is when it is in 
the state known as small butter. This may be 
produced in any churn, but it comes best in 
those which are without dashers, and in these 
over-churuing is not so easy as in the dash 
churns. The point when churning should be 
slopped is wheu the butter is in small lumps 
about the size of a pea. Then the butter-milk 
Bhould be drawn off through a strainer which 
catches the small particles, and these, if 
amounting to but half an ounce, are worth 
saving, as oue cent even will not come into 
one's pocket without workiug for it, aud this 
saving will pay for the salt aud for pails in a 
very short time. The butter-milk having 
been drawn off, I turn in pure cold water, end 
give two or three turns to the churn and then 
draw off the milky water. This is repeated 
until the water comes away clear. Some ex¬ 
cellent butter-makers wash the butter in 
cold brine and work and pack it directly 
from the churn. I would rather take the 
trouble to salt the butter in the butter worker, 
and put it away for 24 hours, during which 
time I think the butter ripens and improves 
iu liavor. The color certainly deepeus, and 
the texture is made more solid by the subse¬ 
quent working. By adding three-fourths of 
an ounce of salt to the butler as it comes from 
the churn, and working this in, and setting 
it away foroneday, 6ome water is drawn from 
it, which isan advantage to the consumer at any 
rate; at the final working an additional quar¬ 
ter of an ounee of salt to the pound is added. 
It is very important to use the first quality of 
salt. So much has been 6aid about salt of late 
in dairy conventions aud elsewhere that the 
subject has lost its savor, aud one is tired of 
hearing of this or that salt beiug indispen¬ 
sable. Every butter-maker should get the 
best,irrespective of cost; for one cent's worth 
will season 16 pounds of butter, and the sav¬ 
ing of a dollar on a bag is hardly to be con¬ 
sidered in comparison wilh five cents a 
pound difference in the value of the butter. 
Each may try aud choose lor himself. But in 
choosing salt, that should be avoided which has 
small, thin, hard white scales in it. The Balt 
should be finely ground, white, of even fine¬ 
ness and free from specks of any kind. 
As a rule, when one is doing well in 
making butter, especially in the winter season, 
it is best “ to leave well alone,” for changes 
often seriously upset things. Some salt has 
particles of lime in it. If there is but one per 
When shipped to a near market, they can be 
returned as “empties” at low rates, and the total 
cost for carriage need not be more than one 
cent per pound. Pails of this 6ize arc con¬ 
venient for families, as they last two or three 
weeks. Larger pails may be chosen, but they 
should be made of white oak, or of spruce, such 
cent, of lime in the salt, there will be one lime 
particle to every 99 of salt. A hundred par¬ 
ticles of salt are spread through a very small 
piece of butter, aud as each lime particle will 
make a white speck, it is very easy for the 
appearance of good butter to be changed for 
the worse. In making microscopic examina¬ 
tions of samples of butter recently, the pres¬ 
ence of lime in some of them was quite plainly 
shown by a whitish, mottled character from 
which others were quite free. And touching 
on microscopes, I might say that a dairyman 
would find a $25 instrument a source of much 
interest und instruction in his business as re¬ 
gards milk, cream, salt and butter. The mod¬ 
ern butter workers are labor-savers. To work 
up 20 pounds of butter with the old-fashioued 
dish and ladle, is a tiresome job aud wearier 
many a conscientious woman's hands and 
arms; and it does not seem a fitting business for 
a man to potter with a butter ladle. Twenty or 
fifty pounds of butter may be worked io a but¬ 
ter worker with ease, and in atenth part^ft the 
time required with the ladle. Aud iu using 
the worker, it is necessary to use the same 
cutting and gashing manuer of working the 
butter as with the ladle, and to avoid drawing 
or sliding the worker over the mass. The 
right action is to cut off slices from the mass 
and press them together to form a new mass. 
Packing the Butter. 
Good butter should be put into good pack¬ 
ages. I have seen excellent butter sacrificed 
because it was put up in an unattractive shape. 
The old-fashioned oval rolls, or round lumps, 
do not sell well. 
Fancy prints and cakes are popular for re¬ 
tailing from grocery 6lores, but these are apt 
to be mussed in the carriage aud handling, un¬ 
less packed in a costly manner. After trying 
many methods of packing, I found the five or 
six, and ten or twelve-pound pails, made neatly 
of white oak, with close covers and handles, 
as the Welsh pails, and should be neatly made 
and varnished. 
The best market for winter-made butter 
is that which supplies private families who 
are ready to pay five or ten cents per pound 
above the highest market rates for such 
butter as may suit tbeir tastes, and is 
packed iu convenient form for use and to 
avoid waste. The average dairyman need 
waste no time in pursuing the ignis fatuus of “a 
dollar a pouud" fr*r his butter. There may be 
a large discount taken from that value. This 
may be the retail price In some instances, but 
in regard to one noted and much puffed dairy, 
it has been stated that a discount of 40 per 
cent, was made from the “dollar a pouud,” 
aud this sort of business savors of “ ways that 
are dark.” and has misled and troubled and dis¬ 
satisfied many persons whose product has been 
equally gilt-edged with that of the most favored 
dairies. A dairyman should be content to 
sell hisproduet at first for whatitwill bring; let 
him. however, put his name on every package, 
aud if the butter is sufficiently good, those who 
eat it will find it indispensable and “cry for 
more.” Then comes the tide iu the affairs of 
dairymen “ which taken at the Hood leads on 
to fortune.” Then be can say, when pressed 
with orders, “I want more money for mv but¬ 
ter” or I caunot supply you; or, as happens 
now and then with me, those who get the butter 
will order direct from the dairy, and the dairy¬ 
man may make his own terms. Batter is au 
article of prime necessity. It flavors the staff 
of life. There is no other such educator of 
taste. 
When a person has eaten choice butter he 
becomes an expert and views an inferior ar¬ 
ticle with totally new ideas. It is as though a 
blind man ouee sees the blessed sunlight and 
instantly appreciates the depth of darkness 
from which he has emerged; or, as a deaf man 
might feel, who is suddenly endowed with 
MR. HOLFORD'S “BARONESS OXFORD THIRD.”—FIG. 98. 
the most convenient and popular. The butter 
is not exposed to air or dust; it will keep good 
for months if required, being protected from air 
by a covering of salt and paraffine paper ; the 
butter can be cut from the pail as it is needed; 
the pails may be packed in a cheap box, and 
may bo carried 1,000 miles with perfect safety 
und can be returned to the dairy, or sold, if 
desired, for what they cost the dairyman. 
power to bear the sweetest music. So the man 
who eats the best butter becomes a confirmed 
consumer of it and thus the demand for this 
article spreads aud grows constantly as the 
supply increases. To make choice butter is 
my business. From feeding the cows, through 
milking and all the rest of the work mv hand 
is in it. From it I look for a profit on my in¬ 
vestment in farm and stock. Nevertheless, so 
sure am I that the demand can never be 
filled that I would be willing, nay glad, to in¬ 
struct my neighbors in the art, as I am here 
trying to do. It has been said that horticul¬ 
ture enlarges a man's soul ; makes him sym¬ 
pathetic and intensely generous and liberal. I 
have noticed the same traits among dairymen; 
unselfish liberal-minded men are they, who 
never forget to do good, and to communicate; 
and such a sympathy and good feeling I hope 
always to sec among my fellow dairymen and 
competitors, of whom “ the more the merrier ” 
so long as they keep to the ‘top of the ladder. 
If I shall have helped by these papers to en¬ 
thuse oue of them with the ambition to excel 
in butter making at a season when the labor 
is the most profitable, I shall have been well 
repaid. 
#f(i) Crop. 
LEGUMINOUS FORAGE PLANTS.-No. 3. 
FROFESSOR W. J. BEAL. 
Spotted Medick — Medicago maeulata — 
The leaflets of this plant are three, with a pur¬ 
ple spot on each. The plant is a rapid grower 
of some interest and value. It was introduced 
with wool into waste places. The curved pods 
are fringed with a double row of prickles. 
Melilot — Melilotus. — There are two spe¬ 
cies iu cultivation, the yellow, M. officinalis, 
and the white, M. alba. They are both tall, 
upright annuals in this climate. They were 
ouce grown as forage plants in England ; but 
they are not much liked by cattle on account 
of a bitter taste. In Switzerland and Germany 
they are much grown to give a peculiar flavor 
to a ceriaiu brand of cheese. For this purpose 
the flowers and seeds are bruised and mixed 
with the curd before pressing. The previous 
item is taken from Sowerby’s Useful Plants of 
Great Britain. It is also stated ia The Treas¬ 
ury of Botany. The flowers of the plains are 
among' the best for honey bees 
Sanfojn or Saintfoin — Onobrychis sa¬ 
liva. — This is a perennial herb, the roots 
having been known to last fifty years. The 
leaves are pinnate; the flowers grow in spikes; 
the pods are wrinkled and contain one seed each. 
It has long been much cultivated in England, 
France and syrne other portions of Europe. It 
looks somewhat like lucerne, and, like that 
plant, sends down a woody root to a great 
depth. It is not much pastured, but cut for 
green food or made into bay. At Lansing, 
Michigan, a few plants have been grown each 
year. Iu most cases they have not lived 
through the cold winters. I do not know that 
the plant is of any value as a forage plant in 
the Northers States. 
Vetch or Take— Vicia saliva.—'This plant 
much resembles small peas, except that the 
plaut seems more delicate or slender. Sower- 
bysays: “This vetch has been grown from 
remote times iu southern and central Europe 
as a fodder plaut, aud has been cultivated here 
(in England) commonly at least as far back as 
the lime of Ray. It is probably not indigenous. 
It is an aunuul, growiug two feet high. Tko 
stem climbs by tendrils, like peas.” It is sown 
from March to May, aud cut for soiling. 
Horses, cattle and sheep are very fond of it. 
The seeds arc sometimes used for feeding poul¬ 
try, but are not fit for human food. 1 have 
raised some vetches for the past six years. 
They amount to but little. They are small, 
feeble, aud are much damaged by our Lot 
weather. 1 think we have several wild species 
which arc worth more to us than this for- 
eigner. 
Lupines. —Lupinus albus.—This plaut thrives 
to some extent in some portions of our country. 
Each of these species or varieties has failed to 
mature seeds iu Central Michigan. It thrives 
in climates like Italy and Sicily. The leaves 
have five to seven leaflets. The plants attain the 
hight ot two to four feet. We have oue kind, 
L. perenuis, east of the Mississippi, aud many 
more still further west. 
Furze, GojikK OR Whin.— Ulex Europaeus. 
—This is a small, prickly shrub bearing yellow 
blossoms. When cut annually, and the stalks 
bruised to deaden the prickles, it is fed to 
6tock, especially horses. It is probably nearly 
as go%l a forage plant as our large bull thistle. 
It grows ou poor, sandy soil, and is often cut 
for fuel. At Michigan Agricultural College it 
grows with difficulty. Borne survived oue of 
our mildest wiuters. 
Dyer’s Weed —Genista tinctoria.—This low 
shrub is sometimes eaten by stock in Europe, 
but is of no value for forage. 
Kidney Vetch, or Ladje&’ Fingers. —An- 
tbyllis vulueruria.—This is a low herb abuud- 
ant on the chalk hills ol England. Bheep are 
fond of it, aud some use is made of it as a fod¬ 
der plaut. 
BirdVfoot Trefoil.— Lotus corniculatus. 
Suttou of England says of this:—“A very pro¬ 
ductive perennial plant, particularly suitable 
for dry, heathy and sandy soils. It is eaten 
wilh avidity by cattle, aud also by sheep." I 
have not been able to. grow any except 
