45G 
JULY K7 
THE BUBAL HEW-YOBKIR. 
is kept supplied with a load now and then 
from the cow yard for them to work up with 
swamp muck and such stuff; that was your 
idea, and it is a good one-’’ 
•‘I have mine cleaned every morning and 
fresh litter thrown in, and as the yard gets 
full it Is cleared out and the manure is used in 
the field tor the fodder crops; by doing this I 
make three times as much manure as you do. 
The pig-pen is painted white, has glszt'd win¬ 
dows and no one would know by any bad smell 
about it, that it was a pig-pen. But this isnot 
ttie point I wanted to talk about. This is, how 
should all the wastes of a dairy be best util¬ 
ized ? There is always a lot of skim-milk, 
washings of cans, pails, and churns, butter¬ 
milk, and in my case, waBte milk that has been 
left unsold in addition. In some dairies agood 
deal of whey is thrown away that might be 
used. Then there are wastes in feeding, for 
cows cannot be fed so close as to use up every 
particle of food, aud the refuse should be 
utilized. Now you have said that It does not 
pay me to buy corn to make pork ; that my 
pigs cost me 25 cents a pound for the meat; 
and my eggs 50 cents a dozen, and I know this 
is a very common opiuion, but is not true, and 
I want to show you that it is not.” 
“Let us see about it," said Mr. Martin, 
“ that is what I tell Mary, but she just shuts 
me up with a quotation from some book she has, 
which makes out that the manure is worth 
more than the food from which it is made; 
and that the pork is all profit. That is some 
of Fred's teaching I expect.'' 
“ I do not doubt that Fred is right about that 
and your daughter too," 1 replied, “but we 
won’t talk about that now; let us leave that 
for another time. Let us figure up what a 
pound of poi k costs to a dairyman. No doubt 
Dr. Jones can give us some help on this 
question. 
“Let us go to the principle of it" said Dr. 
Jones. “ It has been shown unquestionably 
>hat 28 grains of carbon per pound of live 
weight are needed to sustain an animal of 150 
pounds in good condition under moderate 
exertion. A pig of 300 pounds weight when 
killed, would have an average live weight of 
150 pounds from its birth, and therefore 28 
grains of carbon a day, with the usual propor¬ 
tion (1 to 5) of nitrogenous food which should 
accompany this quantity of carbon in perfect 
food, as corn and milk, will be needed for each 
pound of weight. That will equal nine ounces 
of carbon, which I believe is equivalent to one 
pound six ounces of corn. This will 6imply 
maintain the weight. To add one pound of 
fat and flesh per day to this weight, there 
would be required two pounds of corn in 
which there are 3 84 ounces (12 per cent) of 
flesh-lorming substance and 13.12 ounces (41 
per cent) of fat-formers. The whole amount 
of corn required, then, to make a pound of 
pork seems to be three pounds, six ounces. If 
corn is purchased at 56 cents a bushel, or one 
cent a pound, a pound of pork should cost 
less than S£ cents." 
“ a great many experiments in feeding have 
shown that about one-third of the food is re 
turned in flesh, ou the average; so that the 
Doctor’s figures are corroborated by actual 
facts," remarked Fred. 
“ Then, if corn only was bought and fed to 
our pigs, the pork should cost cents a 
pound. For 100 to 200-pound pigs, which are 
the most profitable, I can get seven cents a 
pound. So that at this rate I have 100 per 
cent, profit, and the manure is a clear gain." 
" But there are the wasted substances—tbe 
buttermilk, the skim-mllk, the sour milk and 
the trampled fodder from the cow6' feed 
troughs, all of which save so much corn, what 
are they w«rth ?” asked Mr. Martin. “ Mary's 
pigB get little else but these. One hundred 
pounds of corn-meal last her a long time; and 
why won’t it pay to feed tbe pigs longer and 
have them weigh 300 pounds ?" 
“ One thing at a time," I replied. “ Seven 
pounds of skimmed milk or buttermilk are 
estimated to be equivalent in feeding value to 
one pound of corn. There are 33 pounds of 
solid matter in 100 of sklm-milk, of which four 
pounds are flesh formers aud 71 pounds are fat 
formers, chiefly sugar. The mixture of some 
corn-meal with the skim-milk is an advantage 
to each ; the one helps the nutritive value of 
the other. But the large proportion of nitro¬ 
genous matter in the solid part of milk in¬ 
creases its money value, and I believe this 
solid part of milk is nearly twice the value of 
corn for feeding a growing animal—as a young 
pi^—sothatl think four pounds of milk will 
be found equal in feeding value to a pound of 
corn-meal. At this estimate buttermilk or 
skim-milk should be worth half a cent a quart. 
It is ofteu sold at one cent a gallon, for feed-, 
ing pigs, by dairymen who don’t know its 
value, and is a cheap food at that price. Frea 
has helped to find out the value of young pork, 
and can answer your other question.” 
“ In Dr. Miles’s experimeutsat the Michigan 
Agricultural College, some grade Essex pigs, a 
good feeding sort, were fed from two weeks 
old for 203 days or 29 weekB, in which time 
they gained 141 pounds in weight. At the be¬ 
ginning of the feeding the growth was mor 
rapid than at the end, and Dr. Miles's conclu¬ 
sion was that the best return for food is 
obtained by liberal feeding in the early stages 
of growth, when the organs of nutrition are 
capable of converting the largest amount of 
material into flesh and fat lu a given time." 
“ And I am sure he is right.” said my old 
neighbor; “ the most profitable pigs are Spring 
pigs fattened in tbe Fall and sold before the 
Winter. There Is no Winter feeding then, 
which is a waste of food, for pigs don't grow 
in the Winter time—at least mine don’t.” 
“Here is our last year's pork account, which 
shows that pork may be made a profitable 
product on dairy farms: The keeping of two 
brood sows and one boar is not included In the 
pork account, which takes in ooly the pigs 
when weaned and their keep up to their sale as 
pork. The pigs are pure Borkshlres. 1 value 
a weaned pig -U $5, and credit the sows and 
the boar with the value of tbe litters at that 
rate, and they pay a good profit, too, on their 
keeping, for they produce two Utters in the 
year : 
VOHK ACCOUNT FOB 1879. 
Mar. 7, 7 weaned pigs, estimated value....$35 00 
May 8,6 " " “ “ — 80 00 
Kept. H, 8 piKH. 883 pounds pork sold at 7c.. $26 81 
Sept. 11,2 pi«B. 371 poundB pork sold at 7c. 26 97 
Oct. 12,1 pig, 182 pounds pork sold at 6>$e. 11 83 
Oct, 18.1 pip, 176 pounds purlt sold at. 7c... 12 32 
Dee. 24, 3 pips, 621 ponnds sold at 7o. 8b 47 
Deo. 31, 3 pips. 612 pounds pork sold at7o. 42 84 
l,l2o lbs. malt sprouts at $12 a ton. 6 72 
2.822 lbs. corn at lo. a pound. 23 22 
864 lbs. bran at 74c. a pound. 7 66 
Balance (value of milk, etc,). 58 74 
$166 24 $166 24 
The average weight is 173 pounds nearly for 
seven-months pigs (here Mr. Martin smiled), 
and the money returned for waste milk and 
the rakings ot the cow-barn—waste fodder, 
etc.—is $58.04. We kept no account of the 
milk used, and so cannot give the quantity of 
that. ’’ 
“We can beat that,” remarked Mr. Martin, 
“Mary shall show you her pork account.” and 
Mr. Martin and Fred nodded to each other, and 
looked immensely pleased. 
THE DAIRY COW.-No. 2. 
HENRY STEWART. 
What it Costs to Keep a Cow. 
Few persons know or believe how easy it is 
to keep a cow. One may feed two cows lib¬ 
erally for six months on the grass cut from 
half an acre, or less, of lawn, aud an orchard 
of an eighth of an acre, with the help of gar¬ 
den waste and two or three quarts of mea( 
daily. One ton of hay with the wastes of tht) 
house—as peeUngs of potatoes, apples aud 
other vegetables—and half a ton of meal and a 
tou and a half of hay will liberally support a 
cow through the winter. If one lives on a 
road the side of which is covered with grass* 
he may lawfully aud properly pasture a cow 
upon it by tethering her with a chain and an 
iron pin to be driven into tbe grouud to secure 
it; or, with rare exceptions, one may proeuro 
pasture in the Summer from a neighboring 
farmer or owner of unimproved laud or vacant 
village lots for a dollar, or two dollars at most, 
per month. Then one’s land may be used for 
growing fodder for Winter use, and half an 
acre of good land will produce an abundance 
for one cow, so that the owner of one or two 
acres of land in tbe country or in a country 
village, may keep a cow at very small cost. 
The circumstances are so varied that estimates 
of this cost cannot be made precisely for 
every case. It may serve, however, to sum up 
the cost of everything, supposing all the feed 
to be purchased, and from thatonemay gather 
the exact information as to the cost in his own 
particular ease by variations and substitutions. 
The following figures are taken from the ac¬ 
count books of a milk dairy In which all the 
feed m one Winter was purchased and in the 
Summer the exact cost of the feed was ascer¬ 
tained with accuracy : Average coBt of Winter 
feediog on hay, corn-fodder aud meal in a 
dairy of 25 cows, 13} cents per day; cost of 
Summer feeding on soiling crops and meal, 
I2jj cents per day. This will apply not only to 
the case of one eow, but also to that of the 
business dairy iu which strict accounts are 
rarely kept. 
To begin to estimate what a cow will cost to 
keep, the coat of the cow may be considered 
first. A very good common cow can be pro¬ 
cured for $40 where cows are high-priced. An 
extra-brtd cow, with everything handsome 
about her aud fit for any family of high de¬ 
gree even, may be purchased for $75 to $150. 
When one has begun the business and has a 
cow, it is not much trouble to keep a calf, aud 
it is often possible to buy a well-bred, hand¬ 
some heifer calf, to save her from the butcher, 
for her value In veal. With a little extra care 
the little creature may be kept and trained as 
a pet, and fed until of a cow’s estate for the 
sum of $25 or $30 or thereabouts. In this way 
one may procure a really haudsome cow and 
one that “handsome does” as well as looks, 
and be gentle and kind and easily haudled, 
at a very Bmall cost. A tair common cow, but 
with no beauty, except, perhaps, in regard to 
her usefulness, and in the fullness of old age, 
may be bought for $25 or even less, and after 
having been milked ont may be sold to a farmer 
for feeding for $15 or $20. This is a convenient 
method, as there is no trouble about calves and 
it is not difficult to “ make a trade” when a fresh 
cow isdesirable. It is convenient for the private 
family aud for a milk dairy, as the loss on the 
wear and tear aud exchange of the cow is 
small. 
A cow may be fed for 20 cents a day and 
“ live in clover,” and for less if her feeding is 
somewhat less luxurious. But a cow needs good 
feeding for profit. The better she is fed, the 
better she will feed her owner, so that it is best 
always to be liberal about the feeding under 
any circumstances. A fair-sized eow will con¬ 
sume 15 pounds of hay and eight pounds of 
meal daily, or the equivalent of these. The 
following rations may be considered as eqiva- 
lent to each other and as sufficient for a cow 
for 24 hours : 
Gents. 
16 pounds of clover hay at $15 a ton.10V 
8 poundB of meal at $20 a ton .8 
18* 
10 pounds of corn fodder at $5 a ton..2J4 
X bushel of maturels at loc. per bush.5 
8 pounds of meal at $20 a ton....8 
lipj 
10 pounds of marsh hay at $5 a ton. 2J4 
10 ponnds of com fodder at $5 a tou. 2.X 
10 pounds of maal at $20 a ton.10 
15 
Allowing something for the cost of stable 
furniture, salt and other small contingencies, 
the average daily cost of keeping a cow will 
be 20 cents. If one grows the feed that is 
sold to the cow at the prices named above, 
the grower could thrive and grow rich if 
he did enough of it. This would be equal to 
$30 from Nov. 1 to May 1, which 1b the moat 
costly period of a cow's keepiug, and the above 
prices are rated as those current In the most 
expensive localities and at tbe present very ex¬ 
pensive period in regard to feed; the figure is 
therefore a maximum one. The Summer feed¬ 
ing is much lees costly, for grass is cheap and 
green fodder may be grown as cheaply as grass. 
But it it is considered that the Summer feed 
may cost bo much as $24 even, the whole year’s 
feeding, with everything purchased at the high¬ 
est prices, will not reach over $60. which is 
considerably less than the yearly income, and 
leaves a large dividend to repay the first cost 
of the cow. 
THE TRUTH ABOUT IT. 
[The object of articles under this lioadiuK is not so 
much to deal with “humbugs” as with the many un 
conscious errors that creep Into the methods of daily 
country routine life.—E ds.] 
HAS OLEOMARGARINE INJURED THE 
DAIRY INTEREST 1 
large consumers of it, hotels, pie baker- 
cooks, boarding-houses and ships, would 
rather take sweet oleomargarine than the 
rancid, ill-flavored, very poor butter which 
disgraces its name, and the profession of the 
dairyman. When “very poor" fails off so 
many points, “poor” is dragged down with it; 
with “poor" down comes “ordinary" and that 
clings to “medlam” and this to “prime” and 
when prime falls off, the buyer of “choice" says 
“How is this, I cannot give 30 cents for choice 
when prime is only 22, the usual difference is 
only two cents, 1 will give two cents aud no 
more.” 
The loss of six cents on “ choice” then is due 
clearly to the interference of the substitute 
which makes the lowest grade unsalable. This 
seems so clear that one may very well apolo¬ 
gize for stating it, but many of the best butter- 
makers have said, “ This is a fight for the poor- 
butter makers; we are not iu it; you may 
count us out.” They are very much mistaken. 
My own customers are private families who 
are willing to pay 10 or 15 cents more than the 
highest grades of butter sell for at the stores. 
When store butter comes down, these claim a 
corresponding reduction, and in some cases 1 
am bound to make It. Oleomargarine then 
takes money out of my pocket; and, if so* 
much more does it take it from the creameries 
and the best private dairies that go into the 
open market. Cannot these see that this is 
“ the truth about it.” 
But I am sorry to say that the hands of some 
dairymen are not clean in this matter. There 
is the very best reason to know that a large 
portion of the “ oil" goes to the creameries to 
bo mixed with butter and to be worked in with 
skimmed milk to make "full milk” and fine 
cheese. And yet some of these very men will 
join in the cry against those who openly ac¬ 
knowledge their dealings in oleomargarine, 
and denounce those persons as mischievous 
frauds. If I have an adversary, give me one 
who fights openly and not in concealment or 
iu the guise of a friend; aud it is a startling 
truth that the worst enemies of the honest 
dairyman in regard to this competition are 
“those of bis own household.” h. s. 
Ijfrfrsntaii. 
ENGLISH JERSEY HERD BOOK. 
Butter makers do not seem to appreciate 
the injurious effect which the manufacture of 
oleomargarine and the mixture of it with 
butter, which goes by the name of butterine, 
have bad upon their business. Because it is 
not apparent, aud their commission merchants 
do not plainly say to them when they return 
sales at a reduction of five or ten cents per 
pound, " This is because of the competition of 
oleomargarine," they do not seem to realize 
the facts in the case. Now it is very plain 
that if there are purchasers for a certain 
quantity of butter at a certain price, and just 
so much butter, and no more, is made as will 
supply these purchasers, the price will remain 
steady. But let a competitor come with a 
cheaper article aud say to half those purchas¬ 
ers. “ I will supply you with this butter at 
10 cents a pound less than you have been pay¬ 
ing,” Immediately the other half will claim an 
equal reduction, if indeed, the butter makers 
with twice as much goods to dispose of as 
there is demand for at the old price, do not 
begin to compete among themselves aud re¬ 
duce their prices with a view to increase the 
consumption. Then the measure of the reduc¬ 
tion is tbe ability of tbe dairyman to produce 
butter at a certain price, and that in the cost 
or very little more than that. This seems to 
be plaiu, and it Is “ the truth about it.” When 
butter fell last year to the lowest prices for 
many years, can we suppose that the enor¬ 
mous production of oleomargarine had nothing 
to do with that? When the market was crowd¬ 
ed with goods seeking purchasers, did not the 
thousands or hundreds of thousands of tubs of 
bogus butter offered and sold as butter, help 
the downward course of prices and assist in 
overstocking the market ? Any dairyman who 
cannot perceive this, must be blind indeed. 
“ But” says the fancy-butter maker, “ It does 
not hurt me, aud my goods are of the highest 
quality aud do not come into competition with 
the bogus butter, or with low common stuff 
at all.” Let us see if It does not. Take the 
market rates and consider. There are regular 
gradations of price from 24 cents for “choice 
creamery,” dropping one cent per pound for 
each grade down to “ very poor” at 10 cents 
Let it be supposed that the “very poor" ouly is 
subjected to the competition with oleomarga¬ 
rine, as the “gilt-edged" butter maker may 
claim. What then? “Very poor” tumbles 
down four or five cents a pound because the 
The first volume of tbe English Jersey Herd 
Book, edited by John Thorntou, has just beeu 
published in Londou. This is au entirely dis¬ 
tinct work from the Herd Book published for 
years past iu the Island of Jersey, and it rec¬ 
ords only Jerseys which are bred in Great 
Britain and Irelaud. This volume contains 973 
bulls ; cows aud heifers are retained for a sec¬ 
ond volume. 
To show how rapidly Channel Island cattle 
are increasing iD England, only one, a bull, 
was exhibited at the Royal Agricultural show 
in 1839, while 292 were entered and shown in 
that of the past year. The advance iu prices 
at auction sales of these has also greatly in¬ 
creased. The one which came oft in 1855, 
averaged only £25, 15s. 4d. per head, while 
another in 187S, rose to £51, Is. 9d. 
Mr. Thornton in this volume has given a 
history of Jersey cattle as known in their own 
Island home, as well as in England. Nothing 
positive can be told as to their origin, but it is 
supposed by him to have beeu in Brittany, on 
the opposite coast ot France, as native cattle 
resembling them are still found there. Another 
reason, if he had known it, which might have 
beeu adduced to corroborate this, is, that many 
of the native cattle, among the Freuch inhabi¬ 
tants of Lower Canada, are precisely like or¬ 
dinary Jerseys. Now many of the ancestors 
of these people came from Brittany among the 
earliest settlers in Canada, and unquestionably 
at thi3 time brought the ancestors of their 
present cattle with them. 
I have seen hundreds of cattle in the moun¬ 
tainous parts of Switzerland, mostly of dark, 
solid colors, closely resembling Jerseys, ex¬ 
cept they were larger and somewhat coarser. 
I was informed that they gave abundance of 
extra-rich milk. Napoleon III had a consider¬ 
able herd of these iu his dairy near 1‘aris hi 
1867. The great fault of their shape I observed 
was a coarse ridge of boue and brawn running 
from the root of the tail on to tbe loins, an un¬ 
sightly excrescence to my eye ; otherwise they 
were rather nice-shaped beasts. £• 
Suwiex Cattle. 
THEBEare thought to be acoguate breed with 
the Devons, but are considerablj larger aud 
somewhat coarser, aud slower to mature. Yet 
improvements in these BCem to lie tbe order of 
the day in England, which has at length 
reached such a point as to demaud the getting 
up of a Herd-Book for their record. The first 
vulume of this was published last year, and 
they are now at work on the second. Form¬ 
erly animals of this breed could not be matured 
till four to five, and even six years old ; now 
they are made ready for the market, weighing 
just as much at half these ages. This enables 
