FAIR NO. 
§74 
Dairij Ifuskittim 
THE DAIRY—STATE OF THE INTEREST. 
PROFESSOR L. B. ARNOLD. 
The course of events in the dairy interest 
has been altogether unique during the current 
season. Heretofore no rural industry has 
been so unvarying and reliable in its results as 
the business ot making butter and cheese or 
producing milk. But its customary even tenor 
has now become disturbed, and it has sunk 
to a position it has never reached before. 
Fairly good butter is now (August 1st), selling 
in many localities for 10 cents and even as low 
as S cents, and cheese of a fair quality can be 
bought as low as 41 cents a pound at whole¬ 
sale. Finest qualities sell a little higher Very 
little, at any price now being paid, returns the 
farmer the cost of production. This state of 
things has been brought about by two principal 
causes. One of these is the very large crop of 
last year, which still lingers in the markets 
and blocks the way for the new crop. Large 
quantities of cheese, in particular, of last 
year’s make, are yet crowding the British 
markets, and New York city is still not clear 
of the old cheese. More lmtter and cheese 
were produced last year than ever before in 
the country in one year, and more than could 
be consumed iu the markets wc are accus¬ 
tomed to seud it to. 
The' other cause lies in the changed con¬ 
dition of Our principal consumers. The great 
bulk of our exported cheese is eaten by the 
laboring classes in the British Isles, and the 
financial embarrassment, not to say distress, 
under which they have labored for the past 
year, has prevented the usual consumption of 
American cheese. The large exportations of 
American meat have also affected the con¬ 
sumption of cheese abroad. Cheese is an ani¬ 
mal food which has the same nature as meat, 
and must compete with all classes of flesh- 
forming food, -whether flesh, fish, or fowl. The 
markets are too much crowded with such 
kinds of food to give any considerable relief 
the present season. But the blockade in dairy 
products cannot ba maintained forever, and 
circumstances are even now tending to its re¬ 
lief. The crop of butter and cheese for the 
year will fall below the consumption of the 
year. There will be no such surplus to carry 
over ns was left, last year. The production 
this year will be largely reduced. In central 
New York the yield will be nearly the same as 
usual, but iu ail other localities I hear rrorn, it 
is falling considerably short of an average. 
In districts which have been long and exclu¬ 
sively occupied with dairying, very little 
change in the number of cows kept has beeu, 
or is likely to be soon made. Dairymen there 
are not prepared to make a sudden change to 
any Other mode of farmiug. In other districts, 
as in Pennsylvania, in much of the West, and 
in Canada, dairying is but part of a system of 
mixed husbandry, and can be diminished 
without any shock to the business of the: farm. 
The cows which were turned oft last fall by 
those carrying on mixed farming, were, to a 
large, extent, not replaced last spring, and un¬ 
less prices improve considerably hereafter, a 
still greater reduction will bo likely to occur 
next spring, and so on till the supply is re¬ 
duced to the demand. 
Since prices for butter and cheese have been 
so low, milk has beeu turned to a considerable 
extent to other uses. Last spring a much 
greater number of calves was raised than 
usual, and rnilk was fed to them and to pigs so 
freely that, outside of the most exclusively dairy 
sections, the yield up to the first of June, did 
not exceed half of what it was last year, and 
the make for June and July will full short 15 
to 20 per cent. At the present date I learn 
from the cheese-makers, whom 1 am daily 
meeting, that some of their patrons are feed¬ 
ing a part, and some of them all of their new 
milk to their pigs, and tbiuk it equally profit¬ 
able and less troublesome than sending it to 
the cheese factories. I think they are quite 
right in this conclusion, and that it would be 
better for all concerned if more were utilized iu 
the same way. Iu 1875, when the price of 
pork was but little different from what it is 
now. Israel Boies found it profitable to pay 25 
cents ft hundred for sour milk to feed a large 
drove of hogs. This is as much as a good deal 
of new milk nets the farmer now. Professor 
E W. Stewart, of the National Live Stock 
Journal, found by feeding sour milk to thrifty 
calves and pigs, he could get a pound of live 
weight for every 15 to 16 pounds of milk fed. 
One of the German experiment stations found 
similar results, and Irora experiments with 
feeding new milk, made twice as much weight 
as from sour milk. With pigs at lour cents a 
pound for live weight, this would be equal to 
seven cents a pound for cheese, if we allow tw o 
cents a pound for drawing the milk and making 
and selling t heeheese. Selling cheese for 4J cents 
a pound is equal to 25 cents per 100 pounds to 
the producer for the new milk, and is just 
what an equal weight of sour milk would he 
worth to feed to pigs. 
Feeding good new milk to swine^seems a 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
good deal like using good corn for fuel, but it 
is pretty clear that whore the animals are 
thrifty, and especially where farmers have not 
plenty of cheaper food, a larger return can be 
realized from feeding than from making milk 
into poor butter or low-priced ehccsc, besides 
contributing something toward relieving an 
over-crowded market- That dairy products 
will not long remain in theii present depressed 
condition is evident enough, because the sup¬ 
ply will soon regulate itself to remunerative 
demand, and it is uot worth while for dairy¬ 
men to be so discouraged or frightened as 
to change their business too suddenly. 
From the diminished product up to this 
date, and the rapid shrinking of cows, and 
the promptness with which products have 
moved forward, leaving a comparatively small 
stock in producers’ hands, it is evident that 
dairy products, especially cheese, will not be 
abundant enough to keep prices down much 
longer. But the high prices of former days 
cannot be reasonably anticipated, because of 
the immense extent of cheap lands on which 
it is now well known that dairying can be 
successfuly prosecuted. But with fair quality, 
fair and steady prices can be safely counted 
on by those who have courage to endure a de¬ 
pression common to all industries. 
(Dc ijrri)smnii. 
THE TR UTH A BOUT IT. 
[The object of articles under this beading is 
not so much to deal with “ humbugs” as with 
the many unconscious errors that creep into 
the methods of daily country routine life,— 
Er»s.] _ 
THE VALUE OF A HERD RECORD. 
What is there in a pedigree ? This is a ques¬ 
tion upon which people are somewhat divided 
iu opinion. During some years past the 
making of Herd Books has seemed to have no 
end. Cattle, horses, sheep, pigs, and even 
poultry have had Herd Books or Records, and 
the pedigree business has been worn thread¬ 
bare. Last of all has come the secretary of the 
most aristocratic and high-toned of all the 
cattle breeders' associations, viz: the Jersey 
Cattle Club, and has rudely awakened sleeping 
suspicions by writing an article warning the 
public agaiust purchasing “ worthless brutes” 
which have the ear-marks of the Jersey Cattle 
Club Register upon them. And one ami all 
have asked themselves ‘’Can such things be?” 
What is a Herd Register if one cannot buy a 
good cow on the strength of it? 
Now we ought to kuow the truth of this. Is 
it a fact, that when we have a Jersey or any 
other auimal offered to us with the certificate 
of Herd-book record, we Lave any surety that 
we may be getting an animal superior in any 
degree to a common scrub ? And the truth of 
it Is we have no such security whatever. There 
arc good, bad and indifferent animals in the 
Herd Record just as there are out. of it. Pedi¬ 
gree is of no value whatever unless the ances¬ 
tors of an animal have beeu better than usual. 
The only value of a record of descent then is I hat 
we may ascertain from the record what the 
antecedents of a registered aniulal have been; 
and to derive any value from the record, a 
purchaser should know a good deal about the 
stock he is dealing in and the reputation of the 
owuers as well as of the animals, else he is 
buying iu the dark as much as the person 
referred to in history as having once bought a 
'• pig iu a poke.” This Doing true and beyond 
refutation, there is evidently something want¬ 
ing in the Herd Books to make them of any 
geucral value. 
This desideratum is a record of performance 
or merit. For instance, if we see in a Herd 
Book an authenticated record that Milkmaid’s 
Delight yielded 30 pounds of milk, and li 
pound of butter per day and that her dam 
and grunddaui did as well or better, and 
that her sire’s dam was also a good cow, we 
may then have good reason to believe that 
Milkmaid’s Delight’s calf will make a good 
cow; but to know merely that Delight. 3d 
was out of Delight 2d by Jersey Boy, gives no 
intimation whatever of what the calf may be. 
Are we then to abandon all faith in Herd 
records ? The writer has had a large expe¬ 
rience in this respect and a large acquaintance 
with Herd-book animals, and with thorough¬ 
bred herds, and he would say decidedly that 
the purchaser who puts confidence in them with¬ 
out accurate aud extensive knowledge to back 
up his faith, will be more likely to be deceived 
than otherwise. He runs a chalice,with the odds 
against him, equal to the large proportion of 
poor or ordinary cattle compared with the good 
ones. Probably it. will be five or ten to one that 
lie gets an ordinary now that will be no better 
tfiau a scrub bought at a rural vendue on the 
auctioneer's recommendation. It is hard to say 
this, but it is the truth ol it. How then shall a 
person proceed to make himself safe; for Herd- 
hook—that is pure-bred—cattle have a value 
above the common herd, il they are good? Let 
the purchaser beware! “ Caveat emptar ” is a 
legal maxim which means simply that; for 
in buying Herd-book animals, as one may 
easily get a ‘'worthless brute,” the buyer must 
use his judgment just as much as when buying 
common animals. Let him investigate and 
search the history of the parents of the ani¬ 
mals for a few generat ions back. 
A Breeder. 
The First Horticultural and Agricultural 
Authority in America. 
THE ACKNOWLEDGED HEAD OF THE RURAL PRESS. 
The present Free Seed Distribution is the most costly 
and valuable ever offered by any Journal 
in the World. 
THE MAJORITY OF THE SEEDS CANNOT BE PURCHASED OR 
PROCURED ELSEWHERE. 
THE ORIGINAL, INDEPENDENT, CONSCIENTIOUS 
Rural New-Yorker. 
Enthusiasm throughout the Country--10,000 Congratulatory Letters. 
Third Year of its Present Management, 31st Year of its Age. 
EXPERIMENT GROUNDS OE 82 ACRES OWNED BY THE RURAL NEW- 
YORKER AND WORKED IN THE INTERESTS OE ITS SUBSCRIBERS. 
Charles Downing : I am gladfor the public as well as for yourselves 
that the Rural has so much improved." 
Dr. E. Lewis Sturtevant, Editor ot the Scientific Farmer: “ The 
Rural New- } or her has the best list of contributors of any paper of its class in 
the country and is doing a noble work." 
For the Country, Village and City; for everybody that loves his home 
and desires so to elevate agriculture and horticulture that they shall he recog¬ 
nized as the noblest pursuits of men. 
For the market gardener, the florist and nurseryman, the fruit grower, 
the small fruit culturist. For Lhe largest farms, the smallest flower plots. 
For the herdsman, the dairyman, the apiarian, the scientist, everywhere. No 
sectional prejudices. 
Professor W. J, Beal, of the Michigan Agricultural College: "The 
Rural New- Yorker is now lhe best paper." 
Professor F. M. Shelton, of the Kansas Agricultural College: The 
Rural New- Yorker has more influence and is more quoted than all the rest put 
together." 
Pres. T. T. Lyon : “ The Rural is the best paper I see." 
The most vigorous and able combination of practical writers ever before 
collected together in the columns of any journal. ORIGINAL IL¬ 
LUSTRATIONS from life by our best artists, of fruits, architecture, 
farm helps, shrubs, trees, agricultural implements, etc. 
IT WILL HELP YOU TO MAKE MONEY AND TO 
SPEND IT JUDICIOUSLY. 
“ I cannot afford to do without it,” is the comment of hundreds of our 
subscribers. 
B. Pickman Mann, of Cambridge: “ For years I have taken the leading 
agricultural jou rnals and they all seem tame when compared with the Rural 
New- Yorker." 
SUBSCRIBE FOR IT AS ADMEASURE OF ECONOMY. 
C. M. A., Galen Co., Ohio, says : “ The Rural saved me $500 last year." 
D. H. H., Caldwell, Texas, says : “ The Rural has already saved me Sxoo, 
owing to my taking advantage of hints contained here and there in it." 
SUBSCRIBE NOW!! 
A $4.00 PAPER FOR $2.00 PER 
ANNUM. NO CLUB PRICE. 
We desire that all may have the opportunity of comparing it with other journals : its 
mechanical execution, its matter and illustrations : in proof of which specimen copies will for 
the present be sent free to all applicants. 
It will interest and instruct every member of the household, and it is the earnest desire 
of the management that it shall in every way prove worthy of the unqualified trust and respect 
of its readers. 
N. B.—Our Farm and Experimental Grounds of 82 acres are devoted to experiments 
of all kinds appertaining to plant life and the best agricultural and horticultural methods. 
New plants of all kinds adapted to the climate are tested and reported upon according to 
their merits. We cordially invite—indeed solicit—our subscribers to communicate ANY facts 
which they may deem of interest to the general reader. 
Address all communications RURAL iYL’lF- I ORKER, 
— - 7S Duane Street, Note York. 
