56o 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
AUG. 3o 
FAT MILK, FAT FARM, FAT POCKET-BOOK. 
Big Money in Bottled Milk. 
The Rural has frequently referred to the great 
changes In the retail milk business, brought about by the 
introduction of glass bottles in the place of the old time 
tin cans. There is little profit nowadays in old methods 
of milk selling. Money comes only to those who study 
the wants of their customers and are willing to adopt the 
methods that will insure the most perfect cleanliness in 
the product and a prompt delivery. In every large town 
or city there are people who are glad to pay for cleanli¬ 
ness and efficient service. The man who takes advantage 
of this willingness to pay by supplying what is wanted 
is the man who makes money in the milk business. 
. On page 422 The Rural referred to the businesss done at 
the Fairfield Dairy, which supplies the aristocratic subur¬ 
ban town of Montclair, New Jersey, with milk and cream. 
This dairy is admirably managed and has now an envi¬ 
able reputation for the value of its products. In fact, it 
may be regarded as one of the most successful milk dairies 
in the country. Some weeks ago a representative of The 
Rural visited the dairy, accompanied by a photographer. 
The pictures shown in this issue are engraved from photo¬ 
graphs taken during that visit. It is proposed to try to 
tell our readers how the owner of this dairy farm has been 
able to grow fat in mind, temper and pocket-book, while 
many of those about him have been steadily growing lean. 
History of a Remarkable Business. 
Mr. S. Francisco, the owner of the farm, is a natural 
dairyman if ever there was one. He is full of the subject; 
there is no detail of the business that he has not carefully 
skill.” Such was the beginning of this milk business. Mr. 
Francisco asserts that his success is largely due to the 
fact that he has stuck to this plan through thick and 
thin, through “good luck ” and “ bad luck.” Let us now 
see what we can learn about the making of cows, fodder, 
farm and reputation. 
The Making of a Dairy Cow. 
The original herd contained 12 cows and eight heifers. 
One of these old cows is shown at the center of Figure 225. 
She is now 17 years old, and among her descendants are to 
be found some of the best animals in the present herd. In 
fact, heifer calves of this cow’s “ strain ” are in good de¬ 
mand, at high figures. This old cow is of no particular 
breed—“ ordinary stock ” just describes her—but her per¬ 
formance at the pail is enough to put to shame many a 
“purebred” animal. With these “ordinary” cows the 
dairy was started. Mr. Francisco spent a good deal of 
time in traveling about the country looking at other herds. 
He wanted to see for himself what other men were doing. 
On one of his earlier trips he visited a herd of excellent 
Holstein cattle. They pleased him greatly, as they were 
large, strong, hardy animals, giving an enormous yield of 
milk. On the recommendation of a friend who knew the 
breed thoroughly, he bought a Holstein bull and bred him 
to his common cows, and saved the most promising heifer 
calves. The result was a herd of large, strong cows, giving 
a good yield of milk, But while there was plenty of this 
milk, its quality was not considered up to the standard. 
“ The richest milk possible,” was the dairy motto, and the 
Holstein grades were not discarded, but called upon to 
help make the perfect dairy cow. An excellent Jersey 
hardy and potent. They have given his cows size and con¬ 
stitution, large udders and the ability to eat wi ll. The 
Holstein blood has been of good service in this respect. 
Since the Holstein bulls were discontinued the calves have 
decreased in size, and the later heifers and cows are 
smaller than their ancestors. When an increase of size 
seems needed. Mr. Francisco will use an Ayrshire bull, 
thus producing a cow of good size and vigor with which 
Jersey bulls will be again used. In-breeding is strictly 
avoided. A bull is never bred to its own daughter. A 
heifer from an inferior cow is neverkept and a bull is never 
used that cannot show ancestors with butter records. 
Thus we have the model fat-milk cow. She is a Jersey, yet 
she has all the necessary qualities of size, strength, health, 
udder and appetite of the Holstein. Take the Jersey and 
cut away everything that does not help make butter. 
Take the Holstein and cut away everything that tends to 
make beef. Mix the two and you have the cow that makes 
a pailful of fat milk. 
Keeping the Cow’s Mouth Busy. 
Not with bawling for her food, but with eating that 
food. Not an ounce of grain is grown on the farm. Grass, 
corn-stalks and turnips—that is all. “The West can grow 
the grain—give me the fodder.” The grasses used are 
Timothy, clover and Red Top. Rye, oats and wheat are 
sometimes sowed, but are never allowed to mat ure grain ; 
being cut for hay or for soiling crops. The crop of grass 
in the meadows is something absolutely enormous. In the 
field shown at Figure 226, the yield will be at least three 
tons per acre. Not an ounce of chemical fertilizer is ever 
used. The rich manure from the stables is hauled directly 
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CATTLE AT FAIRFIELD DAIRY. “BONFIRE,” OLD 
THOROUGHBRED JERSEYS. 
MOWING FIELD. Fig. 225. 
HERD MOTHER 
studied out. Who ever heard of a successful business man 
who did ne t have to dig down to the very base of his work 
and build his business on a square and firm foundation ? 
If Mr. Francisco learned of any man in the country who 
had put in practice a method that would add anything 
to the value or profit of bottled milk, there would be no 
rest until that method was investigated. That is the 
spirit of the place—“ anything that will make our milk 
better!” 
Mr. F. started in the milk business 12 years ago. At 
that time he sold 25 quarts a day out of an ordinary can. 
Now he sells 500 quarts a day, almost all of it put up in 
quart bottles. Before he began selling milk he made 
butter which he sold in Newark and other large cities. His 
farm is six miles from Montclair. It was generally be¬ 
lieved by his neighbors that there was no use trying 
to haul milk for a retail trade more than four miles. But 
Mr. F. reasoned that in carrying his butter to market and 
hauling home feed and manure, as he was compelled to 
do, he traveled more miles than he would on a milk route. 
If hecouldonly keep stock enough, he could make all his 
manure at home and buy his grain in car-load lots at a 
saving of money and labor. In order to do this it was 
evident that he must realize more money per cow than 
other farmers were making. His plan was simple enough: 
“Let the West grow all my grain,” he said, “I will 
devote all my energies to growing hay and fodder and noth¬ 
ing else. I will find the cow that makes the most good 
milk if I have to combine a dozen breeds to get her. I 
will study how to prepare this milk so that people will 
believe in its purity, and I will have faith in the idea that 
people can be found to pay me the value of my care and 
bull was obtained and used on the Holstein grades. The 
result is a cow that seems unsurpassed in her ability to 
turn an abundance of good food into milk and cream. In 
her veins she has the blood of the scrub, the Holstein and 
the Jersey, making good use of all three. A number of 
grade bulls have been used, and will be used in the future. 
Mr. Francisco has now in his barn a young bull that is a 
direct descendant of the old cow shown in the center of our 
picture. This bull will be used in the herd because he is a 
large, sturdy animal, that has evidently inherited the good 
points of the old “herd mother.” Many breeders may 
wonder why this grade bull is used in a herd which con¬ 
tains an animal like that shown at the left of the picture. 
This is Bonfire, a grandson of Eurotas and Mary Anne of 
St. Lambert. But Mr. Francisco knows what he is 
about. He has watched the records of his herd for years 
and knows which “ strains ” have brought him the most 
milk. His methods of breeding are original, but they are, 
none the less, based upon observation and study. Bonfire 
was bought because his pedigree show ed a surprising num¬ 
ber of animals that had made good butter records. In 
like manner it is known that the grade bull spoken of 
above had a mother, a grandmother, a great grandmother, 
and numerous other relatives that excelled at the pail. 
He Is about as sure to transmit butter qualities to his 
daughters as is the “ purebred ” animal, besides being 
larger and hardier. Mr. Fi'ancisco says he has learned the 
following lessons from his breeding: 
The best dairy cow for his business is the Jersey grade, 
but the Jersey blood is not all-important. The cow must 
be larger and stronger and a better eater than the thor¬ 
oughbred J ersey. Holstein cattle are wonderfully tough, 
to the meadows and spread with a Kemp manure spreader. 
When asked how much he used, Mr. Francisco said : 
“All we can get.” After mowing, the cattle are turned 
into the meadows to graze. Mr. F. wants his grass cut in 
June. “ A hay field contains more butter in June than in 
any other month.” The meadows are not re-seeded as 
long as they produce good crops of grass. When they be¬ 
come “sod-bound,” or fail for any other reason, they are 
plowed up, heavily manured, and planted to corn or 
turnips. Seeding is always done with turnips, except in 
some cases, when a crop of grain is grown for soiling or 
hay. The utmost care is exercised in plowing. If the soil 
becomes hard or crusty after plowing and harrowing, it 
is at once w r orked again, and the seed is never put in the 
ground until the conditions are perfect. The turnip ground 
this year was plowed Jive times before the seed was sown, 
because after the first plowings rain fell and hardened the 
surface. The result is always sure—2,000 to 3,000 bushels 
of turnips to the acre, and a perfect seeding to grass. 
Raising grass, corn stalks and turnips is absolutely all the 
“ farming ” that is done on the place. Mr. Francisco even 
buys his potatoes and other vegetables. 
Firing Dynamite Under “ Settled Farm-Facts.” 
That is just exactly what Mr. Francisco is doing with his 
corn culture. In the first place, he puts on manure 
enough to kill an ordinary crop. This is worked carefully 
into the ground, frequently plowing five times. The seed, 
“ Southern White ” is thickly sown in drills with a corn 
planter. No effort is made to thin this corn out. The 
stalks grow in a perfect mass, hardly an inch apart. It is 
a magnificent sight. The writer never saw anything like 
