A116 40 
524 
THE BUBAL WIW-YOBIKfH. 
KEEPING MILK RECORDS. 
PROF. C. S. PLUMB. 
Object of the record; easily kept by a careful 
milker ; a specimen special record ; a gen¬ 
eral one; advantages of the practice. 
For six years I have kept milk records, be¬ 
cause I thought it a matter of business impor¬ 
tance. Could I surely estimate by guessing 
as to whether all our cows gave us a profit or 
not? A cow that will not yield a profit has 
no business on our farm. A big udder is 
often deceptive. A big appetite may make 
more manure than milk. A big pail of milk 
for the first of the season may average a small 
one over eight months after calving; and a 
big pedigree may amount to nothing. Hence 
we ought to resort to the scales, for we may 
guess wide of the mark. 
Scales may be obtained at from 25 cents 
upwards, so the question of expense in this 
direction is inconsiderable. Some will say 
that it takes too much time to weigh each 
milking, and record it, but this is not a good 
excuse, as the milk of one cow can be weighed 
and recorded in one minute. Further, men 
wao do careful, painstaking work, always 
take time to do it. A milker should be neat 
in haoit and careful in work, else he is not fit 
to draw milk from a cow. Such a person is 
always glad to keep a careful watch of the 
way the cows are doing. I have always made 
it a point to get as intelligent and capaDle a 
man for caring for the milch cows as I could 
secure for the money and have usually paid 
him a little higher wages than to the other 
hands. 
The milk is weighed in the pail, on plat¬ 
form scales, the latter standing conveniently 
in a closet, and weighing to one-fourth ounce. 
As soon as the weight of the milk of each cow 
is taken,it is transferred to a slate opposite 
the name of the cow milked. The figures on 
this list are later transferred to a paper ar¬ 
ranged on the following plan. It is ruled and 
arranged so as to serve for binding. Thus we 
preserve the records tor a series of years, and 
have them easily accessible. Below the tab¬ 
ular matter, on a margin of three-fourths of 
an inch, are noted the character and amount of 
the feed of the cows In the table the names 
are arranged alphabetically for convenience. 
I copy from the June milk record of the 
University Farm, in pounds and ounces, the 
yield of three cows, for the month, to illus¬ 
trate the system, and to show the difference 
in productiveness of milk. Aaggie, a Holstein- 
Friesian, calved in November, luka, a Jersey, 
in October, and Lizzie, a grade Short-horn in 
November. There is no intention to make an 
unfavorable comparison of Dreed, it being 
simply a matter of cow, these figures being 
used as the only ones available in cases where 
the cows calved nearly at the same time. 
combined at the bottom of the columns into 
the total for the month. In addition to this, 
in order to know how much milk each cow is 
giving, the total amount is kept up from 
month to month. Lizzie stopped giving milk 
early in July, but she has produced enough to 
yield a small profit. Iuka will continue to 
give a good flow of milk till calving in Octo¬ 
ber, and the same will be the case with Aag¬ 
gie ; hence both of these animals will make 
much better showings than Lizzie. 
In addition to the above form of table, 
which is filed away each month, I have a form 
after the style below, containing a monthly 
record of all the cows in milk on the farm, 
which I have handy in the pocket or on my 
desk, for reference, in order to note at a 
glance what the animals are doing, for com¬ 
parison : 
TOTAL 
MONTHLY 
MILK 
YIELDS 
OF COWS. 
1888. 
No. 1 
No. 2 
No. 3 
No. 4 
No. 5, 
Aug. 
... 800 
1,000 
350 
250 
100 
Sept.... 
... 900 
1,000 
500 
241 
800 
Oct. 
... 910 
1,150 
525 
190 
980 
Nov. 
.... 860 
1,160 
1,076 
540 
183 
999 
Dec. 
1889. 
...840 
500 
150 
975 
Jan. 
... 800 
1,000 
423 
100 
960 
Feb. 
... 760 
960 
375 
65 
800 
At a glance almost, one gets a good idea of 
what the cows have done and are doing. All 
of the figures in both tables represent pounds. 
I have presented the facts above, as suggestive 
to others, but I know from personal exper¬ 
ience that the method is entirely practical 
and business-like. In closing, 1 would say 
that the three animals above referred to have 
been soiled under the same conditions during 
the entire season. A record is kept of all the 
food eaten by each animal. 
Knoxville, Tenn. 
DAIRY NOTES FROM A DAIRY 
RANCH. 
NO. II. 
DAIRYING ALL THE YEAR. 
Winter dairying a comparatively new busi¬ 
ness; present dairy appliances render it 
easy, advantages of it; an unsatisfactory 
substitute; low prices for milk and high 
prices for butter demoralize a creamery 
audits patrons; a cheap ice-house. 
Twenty years ago we never heard of a win¬ 
ter dairy. Everybody tried to set his milk dur¬ 
ing the summer. May, June and September 
were the chosen months for packing the sur¬ 
plus butter for winter use. In the East where 
the dairyman bad at his command soft water 
and cool dairy cellars, the butter that had been 
packed the year before was a very creditable 
article. Having packed butter so that it kept 
nice and fresh there for months, it was natur¬ 
al to suppose I could do the same when my 
dairy work was taken up in Colorado. But 
it proved to be an altogether different matter. 
MILK’iYIELDS: UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE FARM. 
1889. 
J une 1. 
U 
2. 
l( 
3 
It 
4. 
it 
5 
tc 
6. 
u 
7 
«( 
8 
(1 
9. 
14 
10. 
44 
11. 
44 
12. 
44 
13. 
44 
14 
44 
15. 
44 
16. 
44 
17., 
44 
18., 
44 
19 , 
44 
20., 
44 
21.. 
44 
22.. 
44 
23.. 
44 
24.. 
44 
25.. 
44 
26.. 
44 
27.. 
44 
28 . 
44 
29.. 
i4 
30.. 
Yield 
Total per month 
Total to date from last calving 
AAGGIE. 
IUKA, 
LIZZIE. 
A.M. 
P.M. 
A.M. 
P.M. 
A.M. 
P.M. 
18— 4 
17—10 
7— 8 
7— 1 
5- 4 
6—10 
19— 3 
15-12 
8—.. 
7—.. 
6— 6 
6— 2 
18- 2 
17— 7 
8- 2 
7— 4 
6- 8 
6— 8 
18— 
18-.. 
8- 4 
7—10 
6— 6 
7— 2 
18— 8 
18— 3 
8- 7 
7— 4 
7— 1 
9— 9 
17—12 
18— 5 
7— 9 
7— 5 
6- 3 
6—.. 
17-12 
18—.. 
8— 3 
8-.. 
6— 5 
6—11 
17-12 
18— 6 
7-12 
7— 5 
5—15 
6— 8 
18— 7 
17—12 
8—.. 
7— 8 
6- 6 
6— 2 
17— 7 
17—11 
8— 4 
7—10 
6— 6 
6-13 
17—14 
18— 7 
7— 9 
7-12 
5—11 
6—13 
18-.. 
18— 6 
7—11 
7— 6 
7—.. 
6- 1 
17—12 
17— 8 
7—14 
7— 2 
6— 3 
6—.. 
18— 8 
16—14 
7— 4 
7—10 
6— 2 
5-11 
18-10 
17-.. 
8— 2 
7— 9 
6— 9 
5-14 
17— 1 
18— 5 
8—.. 
7— 6 
6- 2 
5— 7 
18- 1 
18—14 
7— 9 
7— 9 
5— 1 
5—.. 
18—.. 
18-13 
7—11 
7—11 
5— 2 
5— 8 
18— 6 
18— 4 
7— 2 
7— 5 
4—14 
5— 2 
19- 1 
18—10 
6— 6 
6—15 
4—.. 
4— 
17—12 
19—.. 
6-13 
6—15 
4— 4 
4— 5 
18-13 
18— 8 
6-12 
6—13 
4— 1 
4— . 
19— 2 
19— 3 
7— 6 
7— 5 
3-13 
4— 2 
19— 4 
18-.. 
7— 2 
7— 7 
3—11 
4— 4 
19—.. 
15— 3 
7— 7 
6—10 
3—15 
3—14 
19— 6 
17— 9 
7— 8 
7-12 
4— 1 
4—.. 
18-14 
16— 5 
7— 8 
7— 6 
4— 7 
4— 3 
18— 2 
17—.. 
8— 4 
7— 5 
3—15 
3—15 
19— 5 
17—13 
8— 7 
7— 9 
3— 6 
4—.. 
17—15 
16— 8 
7— 9 
7—.. 
3— 7 
3—.. 
550— 1 
533— 4 
230— 1 
220— 6 
158— 8 
163— 4 
1,083— 5 
450- 
- 7 
321- 
-12 
7,484—13 
3,742— 8 
3,542- 
-10 
It will be noted that the yields of morning 
and evening milkings, are kept separate, and 
Although I had the best of dairy appliances— 
Cooley creamers, ice, pure sa'f, and plenty of 
well-water—used the greatest care in intelli¬ 
gently feeding the cows and making and 
packing the butter, it failed to keep satis¬ 
factorily. Why, I cannot tell unless the 
fault may be laid to the alkali in the water, 
and the differences in cellars, the Westerner’s 
cellar being generally inferior to those under 
the large old farm-houses of Massachusetts. A 
dairyman in the mountains seemed to have 
hit upon a solution of the difficulty. His 
deep cans were set in a running stream of 
soft water, and a grotto near-by, supplied him 
with ice and snow. Into square tin boxes 
were placed bricks of No. 1 butter, each brick 
wrapped in dairy cloth. The box was then 
filled with orine and seal d. 
When it was opened in the winter the but¬ 
ter was very fine; but every minute after the 
air struck it, it deteriorated and a small fami¬ 
ly could not use a 10 pound box of it before it 
was really rancid. Since the public—that 
portion of it that do not want to eat oleomar¬ 
garine—demand butter with the fresh, sweet 
taste natural to it, it matters little if we can¬ 
not suit ourselves in packing it. The dairy 
utensils of the present day make butter-mak¬ 
ing in the winter no more laborious than in 
the summer. If I must be out of milk in any 
part of the season, I should choose to be with¬ 
out it in May aud June; for in those months 
everybody who owns a cow sends a pat of 
butter to market, often of poor quality, 
which breaks the market and makes it impos¬ 
sible to get a living price for even the best. 
The establishment of creameries promised for 
a while to overcome that difficulty; but with 
us, when a constant supply of good butter had 
held the market steady, and as the summer 
advanced, prices began to advance also, the 
farmers became dissatisfied with the price 
paid them for cream, aud took the matter in¬ 
to their own bands, and made all the butter 
they could, and as they lacked the best con¬ 
veniences, of course, it was of poor quality, 
and the consequence was a broken market 
again. One who intends to make butter at a 
profit, must have his own especial customers, 
and supply them with gilt-edged butter the 
year round, at gilt-edged prices. 
The Western farmer works early and late 
during seed-time and harvest ; yet the com¬ 
parative leisure of his winter months might 
be turned to golden account if he would pro¬ 
vide for a winter dairy. When the farm was 
once fenced, his corn and wheat fields would 
yield him a second profit as a pasture, and 
how easy it would be to supply the best of 
feed to the milch cows from those enormous 
Alfalfa stacks. But instead of this, it is not 
uncommon to see farmers selling their hay 
and buying their butter, and even going with¬ 
out milk because no one chances to bring it to 
their doors. Sometimes one will make a start 
and look up the dairy business with a view to 
entering it; but the first stump is run against 
when he finds that an ice-house is a necessity. 
I have built a good ice-house with a 
capacity of 200 tons at a cost of $400. 
The sawdust had to be brought from 
the mountains and cost $40 per car-load. 
The ice-house is double-walled and battened 
and each wall is faced with tarred paper, the 
space between being left empty. To delay 
opening the ice-house as late as possible, I 
packed 30 wagon-loads of ice at the north side 
of the building. First some boards were put 
down to keep the ice from the ground; then 
the ice was laid as carefully as m the ice¬ 
house; joints were broken and cracks were 
filled with pounded ice. Over the top was 
spread sawdust about six inches deep; then 
the top and sides were thickly covered with 
straw and over the whole was built a rough 
shed of boards. When the last cake of ice 
was taken from there, about the first of June, 
it had not melted enough to lose the sharpness 
of its edges. We run no danger of a flood to 
come up and melt ice so put up, at the bot¬ 
tom, but we do have as warm, searching winds 
as any part of the United States. 
In a country where lumber and sawdust 
are cheap every farmer should have the com¬ 
fort of a good supply of ice, and that, too, at 
small cost. Before I could get sawdust I cov¬ 
ered the ice and kept it, with coal-dust ; but 
the former is more desirablo in every way, in 
cleanliness especially. The nice butter-color 
furnished dairy-men makes it possible to pro¬ 
duce as tine-looking butter when hay is fed, as 
when the milk comes from cows that run in a 
clover field : and when the cream is raised un¬ 
der ice-water, orpouied out of a separator, 
the dairy-man can be sure of gathering what 
the milk should yield, let the weather be hot 
or cold. s. E. H. 
Greeley, Colo. 
Give the Boys a Chance.— We often see 
farmers of 60 years who have raised families 
of from two to four boys, working the farm 
themselves. The boys have left, gone to the 
city, and are clerking or trying to build up 
some mercantile business for themselves. 
Why is this ? Something is wroug somewhere. 
Did you try to keep your boys farmers by en¬ 
couragement, or did you discourage them by 
hard work and drudgery ? I fear the latter 
is too often the cause of the trouble. We can’t 
expect success in any business in which inter¬ 
est is lac ing. “As the twig is bent so the 
tree is inclined.” In the boy we have the 
“twig;” let us try to so shape it that when it 
becomes a “tree” or man, he will be a model 
to his fellow beings, a pleasure to his family 
and an honor to his Maker. Encouragement 
is what is needed to get one interested. Dis¬ 
couragement while young generally means 
discouragement all through life. Farmers who 
work their boys hard for the sake of saving 
in hired help; who give them no interest in 
anything about the place; who keep them 
from school nine months in the 12 , are doing 
nothing to make much more than slaves out 
of them all their lives. On the other hand, 
farmers who give their boys a good education 
and a piece of land for their own use, a pair 
of steers, a breeding sow, chickens or some¬ 
thing of that sort, or who pay their boys for 
what work they do, are the men who are in¬ 
teresting them. We might go further and 
help them about their work; show them dif¬ 
ferent hints; get them ideas; talk with 
them more, get them to read over the agri¬ 
cultural papers and discuss the different sub¬ 
jects; get them interested in the market re¬ 
ports; give them their liberty as much as pos¬ 
sible; but impress upon them the necessity of 
finishing their work first. Encourage sports 
of all kinds and join them in the same; let 
them see that you are interested in them, aud 
they will become interested in you and your 
work. If we were more thoughtful in these 
matters, I think we would see more boys 
staying on the farm, and caring for father who 
has done all he could for tnem. I will admit 
that some of our best business men, doctors, 
lawyers, aud clergymen were once farmers’ 
sons, but our cities to-day are more than full, 
and the chances for young men there are not 
what they used to be. We can find many a 
man in the city to-day who wishes he had 
never left the farm, and many of them prob¬ 
ably would never have done so if they had 
been given a chance and encouraged. 
Darien, Conn. c. f. o. 
RURAL SPECIAL REPORTS. 
Illinois. 
Pleasant Valley, Jo Daviess County, 
July 22. The weather for the last month has, 
as a rule, been very hot and showery. As a 
consequence wheat and oats are rusted badly; 
but oats aud winter wheat are more than 
average crops. No thrashing has been done 
yet, but the yield will be good. Hardly a 
field of rye is to be seen. Spring wheat is 
little sown and hardly worth cutting. Hay¬ 
ing is slow work, but old hay as well as new 
is plenty and we don’t worry about it. Pota¬ 
toes promise to be abundaut and by the 
Fourth of July nearly every one had new 
potatoes which were ripe enough to be dry 
aud good. Corn is hurrying along to catch up 
what it lost in growth in the fore part of the 
season, aud it bids fair to make the loss good. 
We have had no floods out plenty of ram. 
Des Moines, Polk County, July 27.—By 
the latter part of July we are enabled to tell 
very nearly what our harvest will be. July 
has been favorable to the growth of all crops, 
and they seem to have made up to a large de¬ 
gree what they lost in growth by the wet, 
cool weather of May and J une. Corn will be 
a good average crop, but will not come up to 
the crop of last year. Some fields were badly 
damaged by weeds and grass, and cannot re¬ 
cover. The crop is not so well advanced as it 
was at this time last year. Our oat crop was 
very promising, but on July 19 we had a fear¬ 
ful rain aud wind storm which lodged it bad¬ 
ly, making it impossible to harvest many 
fields except with a mowing machine. 
The crop is badly damaged. Hay is about 
an average; but we have had very unfavora¬ 
ble weather for putting it up, as there has 
been much wet weather. Oats aud hay have 
been nearly all harvested. Early potatoes are 
a rather poor crop. They are in better de¬ 
mand than usual at this season and bring 35 
to 40 cents per bushel. The acreage under 
the late potato crop is less than usual, aud the 
crop is generally in poor condition. It got 
too badly in the weeds aud grass during our 
wet weather. I do not think we will have so 
many potutoes to throw away next spring as 
we had last. Vegetables are in abundance 
and the demand is unusually good. Early 
cabbages aud tomatoes are the only vegetables 
that are scarce. We will have a good crop of 
lato tomatoes and also of late cabbages. 
Sweet potatoes promise well. The blackberry 
harvest is light but the berries are of fine 
quality. Sweet corn crop is extra good. 
F. s. w. 
Nebraska. 
Weston, Saunders County, July 20,— 
