1901 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
767 
DA/R YARD FARM ROTES. 
The Breeds of Dairy Cattle. 
What Cow? —“What are the best 
breeds of dairy cattle? What stock will 
make the most profit? Would you ad¬ 
vise me to breed Jerseys, or Holsteins, 
or Ayrshires?” These are questions 
asked at institutes and in the press. No 
one can definitely answer them, and yet 
they will not down. If it is impossible 
to place one breed at the head, why 
come these questions? Butter fat deter¬ 
mines the value of milk; that is, its true 
value. People who have any thought 
upon the subject know it, and cream¬ 
eries quite generally credit the farmer 
upon that basis. Butter fat aiso deter¬ 
mines the cheese-making power of milk 
with equal certainty. Just why farmers 
in New York are so slow to accept it, I 
am not able to state. After a long ex¬ 
perience in testing milk, I am quite in 
the dark just why farmers should in 
cheese sections so persistently fight the 
only true measure of milk value. In 
the milk-selling districts the explana¬ 
tion is easy. Milk containing 3.4 to 
four per cent of fat, and about 12.5 per 
cent total solids is satisfactory, or, rath¬ 
er, a milk containing more solids will 
bring no more. The farmer, therefore, 
is justified in producing only a so- 
called average milk. Any test of cows 
bearing directly upon the fat content 
does not fully satisfy him. It may be 
unfortunate that such a condition ex¬ 
ists, but it does. The question resolves 
itself with these farmers to the great¬ 
est flow for least cost, provided always 
that the milk has an acceptable amount 
of solids. These people have no use for 
the Channel Islands cow, although she 
may as a breed produce butter fat 
cheaper than others; not only butter 
fat, but milk solids. I am inclined to 
think that the breeders of Holsteins, 
Ayrshires and Short-horns, have over¬ 
estimated the value of their skim-milk 
in instances where the rich milk pro¬ 
ducer has excelled them in cost of pro¬ 
ducing a pound of fat. 
Skim-Mjxk Valttes.—T he claim wa.s 
at once made that the extra skim-milk 
more than balanced the loss. Let xis see 
about it; 100 pounds of Holstein 3% per 
cent milk will give us remaining after 
• accounting for all losses about 95 
pounds of skim-milk. Assuming nine 
pounds of solids, not fat, to the 100 
pounds, this 95 pounds would contain 
8.64 pounds of solids. Vaiuing the skim- 
milk at 15 cents per 100 pounds, and 
figured upon a basis of actual solids 
contained, this would give us 14^ 
cents for the skim-milk resulting from 
100 pounds of milk, or for 8.64 solids, 
not fat, one pound of solids would there¬ 
fore be worth 1.64 cent. Let us turn 
this same valuation over to the Jersey 
milk, wiith five per cent fat. In order to 
obtain 3% pounds of fat from the lat¬ 
ter milk, 70 pounds only would be re¬ 
quired, leaving, say, 64 pounds skim- 
milk. The five per cent milk will con¬ 
tain net in solids, not fats, slightly more 
than the Holstein milk, about one 
pound to the 100 of milk. Figuring on 
the 64 pounds, we have 6.40 pounds of 
solids, not fat; at 1.64 cent per pound, 
we have a net value of 10.49 cents. The 
difference between 14.25 cents value of 
Holstein skim-milk and the 10.49 from 
Jersey skim-milk, gives a difference of 
3.76 cents, quite insignificant when com¬ 
pared to first and full valuation of 
milk, or where any material increase 
is found in producine fat in the low- 
grade milk. I do not think we are jus¬ 
tified in placing too much stress upon 
the skim-milk value of the large milk 
producers over the smaller and richer 
milkers. 
The Big Cows. —^There seems to me 
a place for the Holstein cow. Although 
my experience warrants the general 
conclusion that they are large consum¬ 
ers, they are at the same time very 
strong, hardy animals. Elspecially is 
this true of the young. The strong, ro¬ 
bust constitution gives them a place in 
our American dairying in a way not 
filled by any other breed, the Ayrshires 
most closely approximating. It is a 
principle in the breeding which I think 
has been pretty well established, that 
the top cross should always have plenty 
of vital force and energy; in other 
words, if a weakness nrevails, be sure 
that it does not appear in the sire. The 
Holstein, with its vigor, makes a valu¬ 
able purebred for crossing upon native 
and mixed breeds, such as we find scat¬ 
tered in every dairy section. In all sec¬ 
tions where milk is sold, or under any 
or all conditions where the skim-milk 
is not returned to the farm, the raising 
of the young is a problem not cheaply 
solved. So many writers and speakers 
repeatedly affirm: “Make butter; do 
not sell milk or make cheese.” Yes; 
that sounds well enough on paper; but, 
see here, people must have a half-pint 
of milk per day per capita, and if they 
would double the amount household 
economics would be better satisfied, di¬ 
gestion improved, and our dairy inter¬ 
ests advanced. 
More Cheese. —While we are not a 
cheese-consuming people, like the Eng¬ 
lish, with their 18 pounds per capita, or 
the French, with eight pounds, we still 
must have 250,000,000 pounds annually, 
or 3^4 pounds per capita, and when we 
come to produce only a fancy full cream 
product, cured at low temperatures, soft, 
silky, clean-flavored, and put up neatly, 
the Americans will double their present 
paltry consumption. In fact, we are in¬ 
creasing steadily our demand for special 
milk products, which does not permit 
the possibility of skim-milk return. 
From every indication our per capita 
consumption of butter will not materi¬ 
ally increase for a few years at least. 
We must expect the greatest Increase 
from the consumption of crude milk, 
cream, and special milk products, con¬ 
densed milk, soft cheeses, etc. If this 
statement is true, the larger Holsteins, 
Ayrshires, milking strains of Short¬ 
horns, and we may add Red Polls, if the 
breeders can produce the type shown in 
the Model Dairy at Buffalo, have a place 
in our dairy breeding economics, which 
the Channel Islands cows cannot fill; 
from the fact that the voung can be 
more easily reared upon skim-milk sub¬ 
stitutes. 
Young Stock. —To be sure new milk, 
fresh milk, can be given for four weeks, 
but most dairy farmers do not feel that 
they can raise calves upon such expen¬ 
sive foods. Let me say here, that a calf 
that is not worth two or three quarts of 
new milk daily for two weeks after birth 
is not worth raising, and upon these 
vigorous young things a daily ration 
as mentioned above, supplemented with 
whey when at hand, or a boiled mixture 
of oats, corn and linseed meal, in a pro¬ 
portion of 3—3—1, will make a growth. 
While not as satisfactoi-y as one would 
wish when milk is at hand, a growth 
will follow which will produce a me¬ 
dium-sized animal at two years, ready 
to take a place in the dairy. It may not 
be out of place here to say that most fail¬ 
ures in growing stock come from an oc¬ 
casional period of fasting or check in 
growth. The satisfactory young animal, 
as produced upon our business dairy 
farms, is the one that does not stop 
growing until maturity is reached, 
which is usually not much before five 
years. In my experience, animals that 
have grown I’apidly, and then fixjm a 
lack of proper food have halted in their 
development, are not as profitable as 
those more slowly grown, but evenly 
and uniformly developed from birth. 
H. B. COOK. 
Nova Scotia Hens.— I feed my hens 
and pullets mostly on grain—oats In the 
morning and buckwheat at night. I only 
feed twice a day, morning and night, with 
scraps from the table at noon; give them 
milk and buttermilk when I can—with 
plenty of oyster shells ground; fresh meat 
twice a week. w. r. n. 
Shbbp prospects on Spring lambs never 
were brighter with me. We have about 40 
half-blood Tunis lambs now, and prospects 
point to many more'soon. I had two half- 
blood twin lambs that I showed at the 
Pan-American with the Tunis flock; they 
drew well. At the “Streets of Cairo” at 
the Exposition they have a sacred or fat- 
tail sheep and she is almost like the one 
I have. c. axlis. 
An Honest Hen Man.— A reader In Illi¬ 
nois asked to give his experience with 
hens writes as follows: “My experience 
handling old hens and pullets would be of 
no value to the readers of The R. N.-T. 
Mine are cared for on the hit-and-miss 
plan; If they do well it’s a hit. From what 
I am about to relate you will see that I 
am constrained to be truthful in this mat¬ 
ter. Away back In the sixties a contribu¬ 
tor of The R. N.-Y., who lived in this 
town, wrote such fascinating descriptions 
of how to manage a farm that the editor, 
who w'as passlpg through, concluded to 
stop and visit his place. The first thing 
he saw was a wagon that closed the open¬ 
ing where the gate should be. In pursu¬ 
ing his investigations he found that the 
mules had kicked out the back of the barn, 
and that their hind feet were on a manure 
pile higher than their heads. This story 
is still going the rounds, and warns one not 
to pass off fiction for truth.” 
When you write advertisers mention The 
R. N.-Y. and you will get a quick reply and 
“a square deal.” See our guarantee 8th page. 
^‘The Separator” 
I lathe title of a paper oootaliuo]; an expert’s 
1 reaaona and oplolone on the different kinds ot 
■airy separators. It is well worth reading? 
tnd no one should buy anv oream separator 
I liefore seeing this* We send It free to any ap* 
plicant, together with Catalogue No. 153. 
I Sharpies Co., P, M. Sharpies, 
Chicago, III. West Chester, Pa 
KETT 
_ TTHE LEADINGTk 
CREAM SEPARATOR 
r'L. CATAI_OC3UE 'RReE 
U.5.6UTTER EXTRACTOR CO..BLOOMFIELD.N J 
WE.’SIERN OrFtCE FISHER BLOG CHICAGO. 
WORK OF THE 
DE LAVAL MACHINES 
— AT THE — 
BUFFALO EXPOSITION. 
The award of the Gold Medal to the De Laval Cream Separators 
(the highest and only award of its kind) at the Buffalo Exposition, 
was well supported by the magnificent work of the De Laval machine 
used in the Model Dairy of the Exposition, which made a record in 
practical work, under ordinary every-day use conditions, in every 
way unapproachable by any other than an improved “Alpha-Disc” 
De Laval machine. 
PAN-AMERICAN EXPOSITION, 1901. 
[copy] Buffalo, N. Y., Oct. 21st, 1901. 
The De Laval Separator Co. , 
74 Cortlandt St., New York. 
Gentlemen: 
The work of the De Laval Centrifugal Cream Separator, Dairy 
Turbine size, guaranteed capacity 1,000 pounds per hour, used by us 
in the Model Dairy at the Pan-American Exposition, Buffalo, N. Y., 
brought out the following points; 
First: The machine has been run from August 9th, 1901, to 
September 28th by the buttermaker and his assistant, and had no 
special attention given it by any expert of the Company. 
Second: The official tests were made by two of the best experts in 
Babcock testing, and for the whole time, or 71 consecutive tests, shows 
a loss of .0161 of one per cent, of butter-fat. 
Third: It was run at its full guaranteed capacity of 1,000 pounds 
per hour, at times exceeding that amount, but at no time was the 
feed reduced to make a skimming record. 
Fourth: The amount of power used was very small. 
Fifth: It did what you claimed for it in every particular. 
Edward Van Alstyne, Supt. 
De Witt Goodrich, ) t s j. 
-r Cl ’ \ In charge of tests. 
Jas. Stonehouse, ) ^ •' 
Jno. a. Ennis, Buttermaker. 
Elmer C. Welden, Asst. Buttermaker. 
OTHER GREAT EXPOSITIONS. 
The supremacy of the De Laval machines at Buffalo is a contin¬ 
uation of their triumphant record at all previous great expositions. 
At the World’s Fair, Chicago, in 1898, they received the Gold and 
only medal awarded by the regular jury of awards and were the only 
separators used in the Model Dairy. At Antwerp in 1894 and at 
Brussels in 1897 they received the Grand Prizes or highest awards. 
At Omaha in 1898 they received the Gold Medal, and again at Paris 
in 1900 the Grand Prize or highest award. 
THE DE LAVAL SEPARATOR CO. 
Uandolph & Canal Sts., 
CHICAGO 
1102 Arch Street. 
rHlLAHELPHlA 
lOS & 105 Mission Street. 
SAN FKANCI8C0. 
General Offices: 
74 CORTLANDT STREET. 
NEW YORK. 
327 Commissioners Street 
MONTREAL. 
75 & 77 York Street. 
TORONTO. 
248 lloDermott Avenue, 
WINNIPEG. 
