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NEW YORK, DECEMBER 29, 1883 
Vol. XLII. No. 1770 
[Entered according to Act of Congress. In the year 1888, by the Rural New-Yorker tn the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.] 
BUTTER-MAKING AN ART. 
cience has much to do with the 
principles of butter-making, but 
it. is after all a mechanical opera- 
tion easy or difficult largely ac 
B. cording to the conditions and ap¬ 
pliances secured. Both the science 
and the art are. however, so sim¬ 
ple and easy to learn that it is a 
continual surprise and disgrace that so little 
first-grade butter is in the markets. 
Improved stock, better feed, creameries, 
butter factories, dairy schools, inspection and 
grading are needed steps in the reform: but 
they do not wholly overcome the difficulty. 
We have poor butter because we have so 
many unskilled butter-makers, just as much 
of the raw material of food is wasted by un¬ 
skilled cooks. A liigh order of civilization 
will demand and get good cookery. When the 
same civilization demands perfect butter it 
will get it also. But it must be sought before it 
is had. Lectures, discussions and schools of 
cookery help us to a perfect cuisine; the same 
means are necessary to perfect butter-making. 
While the promotion of these is the appro¬ 
priate work of agricultural and dairying or¬ 
ganizations, it would not be at nil out of place 
for the State or National Government to aid 
the practical teaching of butter-making in 
every part of our country. 
It is said that Denmark GO years ago ex¬ 
ported very little butter, and its dairy pro¬ 
ducts ranked, in European markets, below 
those of Ireland, France, Hollaud, and even 
Germany. Now Denmark holds first place 
amoug the dairy furming countries of Eu¬ 
rope, aud in butter-making can teach every 
country in the world. How came the change; 
The Danish Government gave aid to this in¬ 
dustry. Through the Royal Agricultural 
College young girls were educated in butter- 
making. Agricultural colleges were multi¬ 
plied, and scientific men engaged to make 
special study of milk and its practical uses. 
Indeed, everything beneficial to dairying—ex¬ 
hibitions, lectures, inventions—wa> encour¬ 
aged. The Royal Society in 1880 took steps 
to encourage young girls wishing to work at 
dairying. In 1858theoretical instruction was 
supplied and a professor appointed for this 
especial branch. A part of the system was 
to place students at the different best farms. 
In these, as elementary agricultural schools, 
both theory and prueti e were taught. Students 
were kept hard at work 1*2 or 15 months all 
the time. They repeated the same operation 
hundreds of times, until they were judged 
perfect. About one hundred students yearly 
go through this course, many of them from 
other countries which, with Denmark, profit 
bv the work. Thus skilled operatives are 
turned out. 
Success was slow and costly, but sure. This 
small State hils given, in aid of this one indus¬ 
try since 1858, $10,000 a year. Many public 
and private establishments contributed to the 
same object. Numerous local agricultural 
societies and private individuals assisted also. 
Nearly a half century has passed since the 
work began; yet who shall say the time, 
money and labor have been iil-spent' A 
year iu pur New World is worth ten in the 
Old. The same effort and co-operation here, 
with our American intensity and enthusiasm 
added, would put our butter-makers in the 
front, rank of the world. It is not necessary 
to copy details, but only to carry out the idea 
and leave its execution to the practical sense 
and ingenuity of the people. 
The idea has already assumed definiteness of 
form in the province of Quebec, Canada, 
whose Dairy Association and Legislative As¬ 
sembly unite in recommending the placing in 
every county, district or parish, of a complete 
outfit for the making of butter, accompanied 
by a lecture on butter-making and a practi¬ 
cal demonstration of the art. The main advan¬ 
tage of this over the Danish plan is its simul¬ 
taneous and wide-spread operation at com¬ 
paratively small expense, since skill in the 
operator, though desirable, is not, with these 
appliances, absolutely essential. 
GRADE JERSEYS. 
So far as the general utility of a breed of 
dairy cattle is concerned, there is probably no 
better test than grading them with the native 
cattle of the country. It is conceded that 
there are distinctive traits of excellence in all 
the imported breeds, and a favorite theory 
with many is that these traits can be combined 
in a single animal by crossing, and undoubt¬ 
edly this has been accomplished in a few iso¬ 
lated oases; but as a rule, the result has been 
so “scattering” that nothing like n distinc¬ 
tive breed has been originated from these 
crosses; while, on the contrary, nearly all these 
breeds have been more or less successfully 
graded with the native stock. This is owing 
to the fact that the natives are not thorough' 
bred and. lacking prepotency, they willing¬ 
ly surrender their characteristics to the new 
and prepotent force of the imported thor¬ 
oughbreds, which allows the offspring to par¬ 
take largely of these foreign characteristics, 
Whilo it is admitted that all these foreign 
breeds give their peculiar virtues to the off¬ 
spring when graded with the native, .vet some 
have a far better effect upon the issue than 
others. Those breeds that are what is called 
the most highly bred are the most prepotent, 
and usually possess the most marked charac¬ 
teristics, aud produce the best results when 
graded with the native cow. Jerseys have 
probably been more exclusively bred strictly 
in the line aud without out-crosses than any 
other of the imported dairy breeds, aud ore 
for this reasou what may be termed the most 
highly bred. They are thus more prepotent 
aud have a greater influence upou the off. 
spring. 
In grading, the native bull is never used 
ou Jersey cows, for the manifest reason of 
economy, it being much cheaper to make up 
a herd of native cows and a thoroughbred 
bull than with Jersey cows and a native 
bull. The Jersey bull selected should have 
all the fine points of the breed well defined, 
and should, of course, come if possible from 
a family of exceptionally rich milkers, and 
if his color could be a very light gray or 
fawn, all the better. Then, if the- cows se¬ 
lected are distinctively white, black, yellow 
or dun color, the offspring will look so much 
like full-blood Jerseys it. will be difficult to tell 
that they are grades, especially if the dams 
are of fine bone and not too large. The na¬ 
tive cows selected should be geuerous milkers 
that hold out well before drying up, with the 
hopes that they will impress t hese two charac¬ 
teristics upon the young. There need be no 
fear that the bull will not do his part toward 
enriching their milk. The great danger is 
that he may cut dowu the supply in the same 
ratio that he enriches it; but this is rarely 
the ease. The results from such a union are 
generally so good that it seems as though the 
bull acted simply as a medium for transmit¬ 
ting the excellencies of his dam to the off¬ 
spring. Even where his temper is vicious, the 
female calves gotten by him from native cows 
generally show the kindly nature of the Jer¬ 
sey cow. 
Throughout the dairy districts of the coun¬ 
try there are now hundreds of herds made 
up almost exclusively of grade Jerseys, and 
it is rarely, if ever, the case that they have 
been rejected after being fairly tried. There 
is one point, however, where failure sometimes 
occurs. Thinking that, as a little is so good 
more mnst be better, these dairymen have 
in some instances gone a step further and 
bred these grade cows back to Jersey bulls, 
thus creating three-quarter-bred auimals. 
Experience has generally taught that, like the 
crosses of thoroughbreds, the result is neither 
uniform nor satisfactory. Tbe half is better 
than the three-fourths-bred, and makes a cow 
possessed of all the Jersey excellences in 
nearly full development, while it has the 
strong constitution and robust nature of the 
native. It is well worth the trouble of 
every dairyman to try a few of these grades, 
and, my word for it, he will soon have more of 
them. L. s. HARDIN. 
IMPORTANCE OF THE FARMER’S GAR¬ 
DEN. 
CLEM AULDON. 
Webster defines farming as “tilling the 
soil: to labor as an agriculturist.” I presume 
that a good, home-spun, every-day definition 
would be: Working a tract of land and mak¬ 
ing money out of it. 
In one of the States wheat is the staple 
crop, in another it is corn, another perhaps 
runs to hogs, another to cattle: in one section 
the main crop is tobacco; in another it is cot¬ 
ton, while some other locality may bedevoted 
to the production of sugar cane. etc. Inas¬ 
much as the kinds of crons raised throughout 
the United States vary iu the different locali¬ 
ties. it would seem that it mattered very little 
what kind of produce is grown, provided it be 
profitable. But 1 have observed that with the 
average Wcetera farmer, unless in a locality 
where gardening is a specialty—the raising of 
vegetables is looked upou with somewhat of 
disdain. The man who has these to sell is 
called a vender of “garden sass”—with an 
upward curve of the upper lip. He is looked 
upon as being engaged in rather a small busi¬ 
ness. No matter if ho has just as much prop¬ 
erty aud just as mauy fertile acres as his 
neighbor who is engaged in raising a little 
wheat every year and running in debt. Some¬ 
how he is not quite as good a citizen. 
I suppose this feeling on the part of the 
average farmer, coupled with the general 
belief that there is no money in the garden, 
accounts for the common neglect of the 
family garden on our farms. . 
Now I believe this is all wrong. I think 
it is a false estimate of the business and 
a wrong idea of values. I believe that every 
farmer can afford to have some garden. 
He needs the vegetables. He ought to raise 
them as cheaply as he eau buy them. Besides, 
every farmer who has a family of boys, must 
expect to spend some time and money in giv¬ 
ing them an education. If he does uot intend 
to tit them for some of the professions or give 
them a common-school education, he must at 
least educate them in the business w T bieh is to 
j be their work. In my opinion there is no 
place better than the garden where boys can 
learn discipline and gain practical knowledge. 
You may say: 
“ I never cultivated a rod of garden in my 
life: and I expect my boys to follow some 
other business than gardening.” All right. 
We grant the agreement. (?) On the same 
principle the rich man says: 
" My boys never did a stroke of work, and 
I never expect them to. I don’t care to have 
them learn any trade.” But more practical 
men will argue: 
“Your boys may see the time when they 
will be glad to have a trade to turn their 
hands to. Such things have happened. If 
your boys spend a few years of their “teens” 
in acquiring a useful occupation, they are 
taking out an insurance against Time and Old 
Age, just as valuable as an insurance against 
fire.” 
The same argument applies with more force 
to the farmer’s sons. For this reason: 
I maintain that a good gardener is just as 
sure of a living as the tinker or tailor. There 
is nearly always room for one gardener in 
most towns, while there maybe no opening 
for the mechanic. Besides, the superior fa¬ 
cilities which the farmer-boy possesses for 
learning his business, ought to make his ap¬ 
prenticeship less expensive. 
How many farmers keep their boys putter¬ 
ing around at some thing which is of uo con¬ 
sequence (or an inadequate one) to the farmer, 
just because they think the boy must be kept 
busy. Now this idea is good. It’s splendid. 
At least the old man thinks so. But just as 
soon as the boy discovers that his work is ac¬ 
complishing nothing, it is “ fatal to the issue.” 
The game is spoiled. 
I once knew a merchant who had formerly 
been a fanner—or had lived on a farm. He 
was of the opinion that it was necessary to 
keep the boys busy doing chores outside of 
school hours- He never could rest easy if he 
didn't have something for them to do. And 
inasmuch as they could not put in all of their 
time working up hard maple knots into fire¬ 
wood, he generally managed to get an old 
broken-down horse and a few third-rate cows 
on account every Fall. As these were kept 
in a barn where the mamire would freeze so 
hard that it could not be cleaned out for weeks 
at a time—with other conveniences to cor¬ 
respond—the boys usually managed to “ keep 
busy.” He ran a bill at the mill and feed 
store for his bran aud grain, and as he kept 
no account of it, he never knew until last 
Spring how much he had lost by the opera¬ 
tion. I don’t know that he cared. Fis object 
was to keep the boys busy. He could never 
bear to see them go skating, or hunting, or 
fishing. He always wanted to know if there 
wasn't something they could da Well, this 
worked all right so long as tbe boys were too 
young to know how unprofitably they were 
employing their time: but after they became 
old enough to see this, and to reason for 
themselves, they became so disgusted and so 
reckless that they had as lief see the whole 
business go to—Germany. 
All that the boys ever learned about farrn- 
iug or the care of stock was a detriment to 
them instead of a benefit—a positive detri¬ 
ment. They have long since arrived at man¬ 
hood, but even now, it throws one of them 
into violent rage to discuss the subject: and 
the other says it almost gives him the“tre- 
tueus” to think of it. Now this man always 
managed to have some land with his house— 
usually several acres—that bore a good crop 
of weeds each year. If he had expended a 
few dollars iu providing the boys with tools 
and seeds, and taught them how to make a 
