FES 2 
66 THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
many farmers’ ^homes, as Well as at restau¬ 
rants and hotels, is a disgrace to good butter, 
and in no way restores health to poor butter. 
Some farmer’s wife say s good butter served 
in a coffee cup is still good butter, and bad 
butter in neat little pats is tad butter still. 
Very true. But do you not love to have 
everything neat and convenient? I proceed 
as follows: We prefer fresh butter and hence 
save only three or four pounds from each 
churning. I use the bread-board and rolling- 
pin in salting, not touching my hands to the 
butter of course. After the salt is thoroughly 
worked in the butter, I roll it out to about 
three-quarters of an inch in thickness. I then 
use two little grooved paddles of the following 
description: They are each 2 % inches wide, 
4inches long, a quarter of an inch thick, 
with four-inch handles. One side of each 
paddle has 27 parallel grooves running length¬ 
wise. These grooves are about one-eighth of 
an inch deep. Cut the butter that has been 
rolled out flatly on the board, into strips about 
an inch wide. Take from each strip enough 
to make, say, a half ounce roll, or more if you 
desire. Take a paddle in each hand and roll 
the butter on the grooved surface. In a few 
seconds, you will have a beautifully shaped 
ball of butter about large enough for one per¬ 
son. With a little practice these balls or 
pats can be made round, oblong, cob shaped, 
or double cone-shaped with the large diame¬ 
ters together. The surface of these pats, 
however made, will be full of small indenta¬ 
tions and look very pretty. 
I expected at the outset to prepare the 
butter in this way for dinner parties only, but 
having become accustomed to its use, I think it 
is an economy of time and a saving of butter. 
A farm hand takes from the roll placed on 
his butter-dish, just as he would, of course, if 
it was differently served. But there is less 
time required to clean the butter-dish when 
served in this way, and my observation is that 
there is less waste of butter, because when 
the butter is put on the butter-dish in a 
mixed shape, considerably more adheres to the 
dish and is wasted in the wash water. I re¬ 
cently prepared three pounds, making 91 little 
balls in 15 minutes. j. n. muncey. 
THE VERMONT DAIRYMEN. 
(RURAL SPECIAL REPORT.) 
A lively and instructive convention ; hints 
on cheese making by “ the largest cheese- 
maker in the world ;'’ cheese making lessens 
competition in our butter markets; quality 
is money; feeding the wastes of the dairy 
to calves; dairy products must suit the 
consumers; growing mangolds; compar¬ 
ative value of mangolds and silage; beets; 
milk-testing; judging butter; officers 
elected; why Guernseys are preferable to 
Jerseys; linseed and cotton-seed-meal for 
feed; dairy progress in New York; need of 
culling a dairy herd; utilizing a bull; 
treatment of young heifers; increasing the 
fertility of dairy farms. 
The Dairymen’s Association of Vermont, 
assembled in strong force at Burlington, for a 
three days’ convention, January 10,17, and IS, 
at the City Hall, which was well filled by 
them, and the interest manifested in all the 
proceedings was remarkably strong. The 
hall was neatly decorated with agricultural 
emblems, and the exercises were conducted 
with spirit from the start. The society begins 
its twentieth year under encouraging circum¬ 
stances, having been recognized for the first 
time by the State Legislature, at its recent 
session, §1,000 yearly having been appropri¬ 
ated for its benefit. 
After some opening congratulatory remarks 
by President Tinkham, Mr. D. M. McPherson, 
the prominent cheese-maker of Ontario, 
styled on the programme, “the largest cheese- 
maker in the world,” addressed the meeting 
upon cheese-making. Referring to the fact 
that Vermont is mainly a butter-making 
State, he yet claimed that we had a right to 
be interested in the progress and prosperity of 
the allied industry, because the success of the 
American cheese industry relieved the market 
for butter of a strong competitive pressure, 
which it would seriously feel if all the milk 
that now goes into the vats should be devoted 
to the creameries. He asserted that there 
was little difference in the profits of the two 
industries, and that the scale was turned one 
way or the other by special and local con¬ 
ditions. The products of the American dairy 
surpass in money value, the products of any 
other two farm industries, and are an im¬ 
mense factor in the prosperity of our agri¬ 
culture. The great point in these manufac¬ 
tures is to perfect the goodsln point of quality, 
for here is the source of profit. There is no 
money in poor butter or cheese. 
Mr. McPherson’s chief points were the 
necessity of thoroughly controlling the expul¬ 
sion of the 87 per cent, of water in milk, so 
that the finished product should contain near¬ 
ly equal quantities of caseine, butter and 
moisture. The curd must be thoroughly con¬ 
trolled. The sugar of the milk is the most ac¬ 
tive agent, and must be controlled as the 
source of that acidity, the due development of 
which fixes the quality of the product. It 
will not be possible in this report to follow 
out the argument in its details, but the au¬ 
dience, which contained a considerable pro¬ 
portion of cheese-makers, followed the speaker 
with interest, and generally with marked ap¬ 
probation. 
In the afternoon the first speaker was Mr. 
James Cheeseman, Secretary of the New Eng¬ 
land Creamery Association. His topic was 
the feeding of the wastes of the dairy to 
calves and pigs. Pointing out the provoking- 
ly little value that whey and butter-milk 
have as single feeds, he endeavored to show 
how much and how easily this value can be 
increased by the judicious admixture of other 
feeds—especially flax-seed, oat and gluten- 
meal—with whey for calves, and bran with 
butter-milk for pigs. Clover feed for the 
latter was strongly favored. He expressed 
the belief that there is no profit in feeding 
pigs on this system beyond 170 pounds before 
slaughtering. 
The evening session of Wednesday was 
mostly given up to proceedings of a formal 
and ceremonial character (address of wel¬ 
come, etc.,) but was concluded with a spirited 
speech from John Gould, of Ohio, upon the 
Advantages of Dairy Conferences. Speaking 
of the advantages of Vermont over the West 
in dairying, consequent on special adapta¬ 
tion and nearness to markets, he urged the 
improvement of the smaller farms more thor¬ 
oughly by dairying, and the building up of 
the industry by establishing creameries in the 
hill towns. “I advise you,” said he, “to suit 
the consumers. You must find out what they 
want, and then fill the want. When you suc¬ 
ceed in this you are gr?ktly aiding the general 
prosperity of the State. The dairy confer¬ 
ence and the dairy school are what we need, 
together with the best apparatus, and a con¬ 
tinually advancing skill. Put aside preju¬ 
dice, seek knowledge, and sift out a system 
that shall take the lead, and bring in the pro¬ 
fits that always attach themselves to the best 
production.” 
Thursday’s sessions were very lively and in¬ 
teresting, and the hall was well filled. The 
first address was by the foreman of the Bill¬ 
ings farm at Woodstock, George Atkins, an 
Englishman, who knows how to grow roots, 
and told the audience a method with rlian- 
golds. The ridge system is the only practical 
one where profit is the object, the seed being 
sown upon the tops of the ridges and nitrate 
of soda being applied in the drill to give the 
seed a quick start. The young plants are 
singled 10 inches apart, eutirely with the 
common hoe, the neck being straightened so 
that the blade forms about a right angle with 
the handle. This is used with a thrusting 
movement, pushing the surplus plants out. 
When the first movement is made, a plant 
next to the hoe falls over, and the next push 
on the other side will remove all hut that 
plant. No hand work is done, and Yankees 
soon learn this quick English way of singling 
the plants. He never gets less than 24 tons of 
beets (Norbiton Giants) per acre, and he las 
grown 40 tons, at an average cost of four cents 
a bushel, on land in a condition to give 50 
bushels of corn to the acre. The beets are 
topped in the field, and the cows are turned 
in to eat the leaves, which have a considerable 
value. In tests he finds that cows fed 80 
pounds of beets and 12 pounds of hay daily 
give an average of 20 pounds of milk, costing 
9>£ cents a gallon, against hay and grain feed 
producing an equal result at a cost of 31 cents 
a gallon. Professor Cooke, of the Vermont 
Experiment Station, stated that analysis of 
the beets fed show the Norbiton to be as good 
in quality as any other mangold, and better 
than some yellow sorts of smaller growth; also 
that beets are a much better balanced ration 
than silage. A lively discussion followed, 
Mr. Gould, of Ohio, defending silage, and 
saying that in testing it against roots he had 
found that, not counting the value of the 
leaves of the roots, the feed from an acre of 
ensilage was 3>£ times greater than from the 
same area of beets. Dairy Commissioner 
Brown, of New York, stated that he was keep¬ 
ing 17 cattle and four horses on 20 acres of 
silage, with an income of §90 from each cow 
at a cost of §34 for feed, and that he could 
make butter with a slight profit at 10 cents a 
pound. Milk-testing by Professor Short's 
method was then practically exemplified by 
Mr. Gould, and, by Professor Cooke, with the 
lactocrite, the first being adapted to the 
farmer’s house use or the factory; the second 
chiefly to the factory. A simple and effective 
milk aerater was shown in operation by Mr. 
McPherson of Ontario. 
(Continued on Page 81. 
jtyoxzman. 
CLOVER HAY FOR HORSES. 
T. B. TERRY. 
Keeping work horses without grain feed; the 
kind of hay needed ; how lo m feed; experi¬ 
ence with work horses so fed; why the 
animals are kept on hay ; clover j or hay 
should be cut early; driving-horses may 
need grain; slow working horses don't. 
On page 799 of the Rural for last year, 
appeared a short extract from an article of 
mine in the Ohio Farmer, from which several 
readers have obtained the impression that I 
feed my work horses no grain, and they have 
written asking for particulars. 
The impression is correct. No grain has 
been fed to my work horses for seven years 
and very little for 20. I find that choice 
clover hay grown on good land and cut in 
full bloom or very soon afterwards, will keep 
work horses in good order with the work I 
have to do. The hay, however, must be 
choice. It should be three-quarters clover at 
least. A little Timothy in it seems to be an 
advantage. It is more easily cured and the 
horses like a little for a change, although 
they prefer clover to Timothy as a rule, 
and then, clear, early-cut clover is almost 
too loosening. 
Having such hay I want horses of reasona¬ 
ble stomach capacity to feed it to, and I 
want to feed a reasonable amount three times 
a day, the heaviest feed being given at night, 
when the animals are working hard. To 
keep hay before horses all the time or nearly 
all, is not the proper way. I want to see 
them hungry when I go in to feed them. We 
sprinkle the hay slightly after putting it in 
their mahgers. A common garden sprinkling 
can is used, and, having water in the tarn, 
supplying it is very little trouble. Feeding 
in this way, with ordinary care about pulliug 
a horse very hard when he was full, I have 
had no trouble from heaves. In fact, I have 
bought horses that had the heaves and work¬ 
ed them for years on clover hay alone. 
We live 2% miles from town. I seldom 
have occasion to drive a horse to a carriage 
farther than that. For this use, and our 
regular farm work, and teaming crops to 
market, my clover-fed horses answer well. 
Some years I have drawn my potatoes and 
wheat to Akron, 12 miles away, being months 
steadily at work at it, and found no trouble in 
keeping the horses in fair working order with¬ 
out feeding any grain. They were not load¬ 
ed beyond their strength, however, and were 
allowed to take their own gait, without being 
worried by the driver. 
In the summer time my horses are fed clover 
hay three times a day, the same as in the win¬ 
ter. They are kept in box-stalls, in a cool 
basement, when not at work, during the day. 
At night they are usually turned out in a 
small pasture, more to wet their feet and give 
them a little exercise than for what grass 
they may eat. When there is very bard work 
to be done every day, as when we are plowing 
or moving the crops to market, the horses are 
kept in the barn at night and given about all 
they will eat up clean before morning. Now 
many are situated so that it would be as cheap 
for them to feed part grain as all hay, perhaps 
cheaper. I am not. I must raise clover once 
in three years to keep my land up. Good care 
is taken of it. The result is I always have 
literally more hay than I know what to do 
with. 1 do not wish to sell any. It is one of 
the products thatshould be turned into money 
on the farm as I am situated. I have yet to 
find any better use to which I can put 20 to 25 
tons of it than to keep my horses on it. 
As I write, I can look out of the window 
and see a field with clover on it, that would 
have made 25 big loads of hay. It will be 
turned under for potatoes next spring. Had 
I not had a great abundance without it, this 
could have been cut and fed to the horses and 
the manure returned to the field, at a trifling 
expense. There would have been some loss, 
of course; but, after all, my horses could 
have been kept at so small a cost as to be 
hardly worth mentioning. I raise potatoes, 
clover and wheat. My land will bring from 
100 to 300 bushels of potatoes per acre. When 
the yield is 100 to 160 bushels we generally get 
70 cents to §1.00 a bushel, as in 1887. Now it 
would seem foolish to put such land in oats or 
corn; that is, for money-making. 
These facts will probably make it plain to 
all, why I was anxious in the first place to 
keep my horses on clover hay, and why, hav¬ 
ing found out that it can be done, I shall be 
likely to go on doing so. This is simply ray 
experience, and I am not advising any one to 
follow me; I want all to think for themselves. 
Seven years ago last fall, I bought a fine 
team of a neighbor. He had fed them 
grain three times a day. I gradually 
worked them off of grain; feeding more and 
more hay. I took care of them mys8lf and 
just laid myself out to see what I could do. 
They were in fine condition when I bought 
them; but, if I remember correctly, 330 
pounds more of flesh were put on them duiing 
the winter, and their coats shone like silk. I 
twice refused §500 for them. It took all my 
skill and strength to handle them. I used to 
dread to unhitch them from the plow at night 
and drive them to the barn they were so full 
of life. I drove them myself entirely, and it 
took me all summer to work that surplus 
weight off of them without hurting them— 
weight that never ought to have been put on, 
only that I w anted to show what I could do. 
This was done entirely with early cut 
clover hay. For seven years they never had 
a single quart of grain or ground feed of any 
kind. Last fall, after digging the potatoes 
and putting iu the wheat, which took some 
