THE BUBAL NEW-YORKER. 
was selected by commission appointed by 
the Motherland Herd Boole Association, to 
be sent to the exhibition at Hamburg, as a 
representative of the Netherland breed. 
On the right and left of the bull’s head are 
two scenes representing the poetical side of 
dairy farmiug They are intended for 
the farmer’s boy. The pasture scene on 
the left i.- meant to allure the imaginative 
bo) to return to the farm after he has left it 
The stable view on the right will affect the 
more practical youth and should prevent him 
from ever leaving the farm. 
Moral: Don't leave the farm. 
The purpose of the picture aud the accom¬ 
panying articles is to present to the readers of 
the Rural the comparative merits of the 
four milk breeds, Jersey, Guernsey, Ayrshire 
and Holstein, by presenting portraits of typi¬ 
cal cows ot the four breeds, accompanied by 
short, articles by competent writers giving 
the claims of the respective sorts. We do 
not intend to injure or prejudice the claims 
of any other breeds by this selection. 
Dairy. 
MILK. 
SIR J. B LAWES, BART. L. L. D., F. R. S. 
In the London market, milk is usually sold 
by the barn gallon of 17 pints. The usual 
course pursued by the owner of a dairy, is to 
make a contract with a dealer to deliver all 
the milk produced by his cows during a period 
of twelve months. In my own case, the milk 
is cooled down to a temperature of 50 degrees 
Fahrenheit, and leaches London at 9.30 a. m., 
aud at 6 p m. every day. The price varies 
t hree times during the year, being at the low¬ 
est price in the Summer and at the highest in 
the Winter. The average price during the 
year is about 30 cents per ordinary gallon. 
A dairy of fairly good Short-horn cows should 
average from about 030 to 050 gallons of milk 
pei bead yearly; and unless a cow can earn 
$ i25 in milk, she will hardly pay for her keep. 
At Rothamsted the nerd goes into the fields 
of permanent pasture about the middle of 
May and remains out about six months. The 
cows corno in to be milked twice a day In 
additiop to the pasture they receive decorti 
catod cotton cake, varying ia amount from four 
pounds per cow to very much less, the quanti 
ty allotted to each cow being in proportion to 
the amount of milk she is giving. Although we 
ha ve earned out so many experiments at Roth¬ 
amsted upon oxen, sheep, and pigs, we have 
never attempted the dairy: and I am inclined 
to think that >t would be almost impossible to 
arrange a series of experiments which could 
not be open to objection. My dairy, there¬ 
fore, has never been subjected to a rigidseien- 
tific investigation, and the statistics 1 shall 
bring forward are merely those taken in the 
ordinary way. 
The cows are kept under cover for about six 
months, and are tied up iu pairs—40 in one 
house and about 10 in another. The urine runs 
into a large underground tank, from which 
when full, it is carried on to the pasture by a 
water-cart. The food of the cows varies with 
their condition, and the more milk they are 
giving, the higher they are fed; but when dry. 
or nearly so, they have only roots and hay or 
straw, unless it is decided not to keep them for 
the purposes of the dairy, in which case they 
are milked and fattened at the same time. 
When fat they sell for about $150. The fol¬ 
lowing is tho amount of food consumed by 
the cows while in the stalls: Tons short. 
Cotton cake.13 
Bai’ley meal,.11)^ 
Bran .10}£ 
Chaff ( V hay, % straw'.70 
Mangels pulped....224 
In addition to this, 18 tons of cotton cake 
are used during the Summer. It is some¬ 
what difficult to estimate the number of acres 
of pasture used by this herd, as the cows 
have the first run of tho grass, aud the 
coarser and rougher part of the pasture is 
fed by other stock. Possibly each cow may 
consume the produce of one-and-a-hnlf acre. 
In tho Winter mouths tlie milk sells for 
about 22 cents per gallon, a price which is 
hurdly more than sufficient to cover the cost 
of the food aud attendance, so that the dairy 
does not often get back more than the manure 
free of cost. The annual expense of labor 
upon each cow amounts to about $13. 
It is probable that ensilage as a substitute 
for roots will lie fairly tried in this country 
during the Winter. The experiments which 
have bean published both in the States and in 
Canada appear to show that ensilage is inferior 
to roots as a food for milking own. Still, in 
the United States where a crop like corn is 
available for the purpose, and where great 
difficulties exist in the production of roots, 
ensilage may prove of much value, while it may 
be of but little value under the different con¬ 
ditions that prevail in England. Roots are 
our cleansing crop, but rye—which would 
probably be the crop most 
suitable for ensilage—is not a 
cleansing crop like corn. 
A dairy cannot be carried 
on with profit unless a supply 
of some succulent food Is 
available for Winter con¬ 
sumption. In the proximity 
of towns, brewers grains are 
largely employed for 
purpose, but the cost of 
riage confines their use 
localities not far removed 
from the place of production. 
At the present time I find no 
food so suitable for my own 
purposes as mangolds The 
course I pursue is to manure 
highly but not to aim at get¬ 
ting large roots. The plants 
are thinned out to stand one 
foot apart from each other, 
with a space of 27 inches 
between the rows, and the 
produce amounts to from 20 
to 30 tons per acre. 
The success of a dairy depends very much 
upon individual atteution to the animals. A 
cow that is not a good milker should be fat¬ 
tened or sold. The food should also be regu 
lated by the milk-producing powers of the 
larity throughout the whole period in pro¬ 
portion to its weight. But with the cow the 
process is totally different, as it may com¬ 
mence by giving from three to four 
gallons of milk per day for some time, and 
Salome Aprle Fig 601.— See Page552. 
end by giving none. Four gallons of milk 
per day would in a week amount to 28 gallons 
which would contain 35 pounds of dry sub¬ 
stance A fattening cow w ould not, in the 
same time .increase more than 15 or 16 pounds, 
Salome The Seedling Tree.—From a Photograph. Fig. 60S. 
cow. and as the milk declines the more costly 
food should be reduced Special care should 
also be taken that the cows are thoroughly 
milked, as a oared ess milker will sometimes 
not draw more than halt the imilk that the 
an fin a t is capable of yielding. 
The diet of a euWwherv yielding milk should 
contain more l/ftrc^en than the diet of a fafc- 
Salome Apple. Fig. 602.— See P 
teuing animal, as milk contains more nitrogen 
—in proportion to its other oonstitutents—than 
the increase of a fattening animal. A fatten¬ 
ing animal also increases with tolerable regu- 
of which amount not much more than one- 
half weuld be dry matter. As, further, the 
nitrogen contained in the milk would be from 
six to seven times as much as the amount of 
nitrogen contained in the meat, it is evident 
that tho regulation of tho food of a cow to its 
varying condition in regard to its milk sup¬ 
ply constitutes a most important item in 
the economy of a dairy. 
The amount of nitrogen con¬ 
tained in cotton cake differs but 
little from the amount of that 
substance contained in dry 
milk- -which is atioiit six jier 
cent. In bran it is about four 
per cent; in barley, two per 
cent; iu dry mangels, also about 
per cent; and in hay aud 
straw, one per cent, aud one- 
half per cent, respectively. It 
is evident therefore that by in¬ 
creasing and diminishing the 
three former foods, the require¬ 
ments of the animal in the 
various stages—ranging from 
the time of its yielding an abun¬ 
dant supply of milk, to when it 
becomes absolutely dry—can be 
; }E 552. fully met 
The actual amount of dry matter consumed 
daily by the herd, during the six months of 
Winter, amounts to about 31 poundsper head: 
but, as L said before, tho quality and quan¬ 
tity of food are regulated by the milking 
properties of the particular animal. 
■■ - 
PRINT BUTTER A HUMBUG. 
HENRY E. ALVORD. 
Appearances go far with many people. 
Not only in the matter of dress but in the 
preparation of food, appeals are made to the 
eye. The arrangement of a table and the 
compounding or serving of a dish to appear 
well and thus sharpen the appetite, are of com¬ 
mon occurrence. This is seen in the markets 
as well as in the household. Strange as it 
seems, and absurd as it really is, there is a 
positive tendency to sacrifice flavor and qual¬ 
ity in numerous articles of food, for the sake 
of size and '’the looks of the thing.” This :s 
especially true in the case of fruits. Any re¬ 
tail dealer in the market will testify that 
articles sell quickest which look the best, and 
producers are constantly taught to pay as 
much attention to pleasing the eye of the 
buyer as to satisfying his taste. 
It is under this general influence, chiefly, 
that the fashion has grown up of preparing 
mice butter for the retail market in prints and 
fancy forms. It is simply a fashion, and like 
many other fashions, devoid of sense. In any 
market of size, butter can be found of as del¬ 
icate flavor and truly fine quality as can pos¬ 
sibly be made, packed in tubs of 40 to 60 
pounds. Yet such butter rarely retails for 50 
cents a pound, while in the same market, 60 
and 75 cents and sometimes a dollar a pound, 
are paid for an article really no better, but 
which looks so well put up in the pleasing form 
o£ pound and half-pound prims, sometimes 
square, sometimes brick-shaped and oftener 
round. These prints are stamped with some 
fancy design, or the monogram of the favor¬ 
ite dairy from which they come. The butter 
from one well-known farm, very popular in 
New York for a long time, was put up in little 
round cakes of a quarter of a pound each, 
bearing an appropriate stamp, wrapped in a 
bit of cloth and sold at a quarter of a dollar 
apiece. 
Now it is very nice for the makers of these 
fancy brands of print butter to sell it at prices 
away above the market, and the extra labor 
oi putting it into these attractive forms is 
usually well paid for; but. when we come to 
maturely consider the matter, the only possL 
ble conclusion is, that the “print butter” busi¬ 
ness is a great humbug! 
Much good butter is ruined by overworking. 
Print butter is always worked in advance, and 
the extra manipulation necessary to put it 
into the fancy form, eveD although done 
without hand contact and with the most 
approved appliances, often acts as so much 
additional working, injuring the grain and 
impairing the quality. The added labor is 
lost to the maker, or mast be paid for by the 
consumer with no gain whatever, save in the 
matter of appearance. Then, transportation 
is more expensive and more difficult in the 
print form than in any other. In order to 
keep up the effect, every lump or “print” must 
be kept perfect in shape, a very hard matter, 
particularly when 'hey are round. This 
trouble continues when the butter has to be 
stored, and increases when the retailer de¬ 
livers it to the consumer. There is a still more 
serious difficulty, however. Butter has such 
an absorbent power that it loses flavor and 
quality faster from contact with, or nearness 
to other substances, than in any other way. 
The greater the surface of butter exposed, the 
greater the danger of injury in this way. In 
the small print form there is the largest pro¬ 
portionate surface presented, and it is a well 
known practical fact, that it is harder to keep 
butter in high flavor when in prints than in 
any other form. This difficulty is experienced 
at the daily where it- is made, in sending it to 
market, while it is stored in tlie hauds of the 
jobber and retail dealer, and, most, in the 
household, where *t generally goes into the 
family refrigerator, in close contact with 
meats, vegetables and fruits. Unless cut up 
into small inch blocks, butter could not well 
be put into worse form for keeping it of fine 
quality, under the Hsual conditions of house¬ 
hold storage, than it is when in half-pound 
prints. 
As advertised, we are often informed 
that, apparently as a matter of protection, 
“every print is wrapped in a clean linen nap¬ 
kin.” In fact, this “napkin” is generally a 
piece of an old shirts or a worn-out sheet or 
of the thinnest, poorest, fibrous, linty cotton 
cloth, utterly unfit to touch the butter, and 
affordiug the merest semblance of protection. 
There is a wrapper of waxed paper used, which 
is tastel 'ss. odorless and water-proof, so it 
makes a safe cover for a print, of butter, and 
a package, in a measure, air-tight. This is 
the only fit covering for print butter, but 
even this is insufficient unless the article is 
stored by itself away from everything else. 
Finally, if the print of butter, by most care¬ 
ful attention, escapes ail these liabilities to in- 
