1905. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
839 
DAIRY BREEDS OF CATTLE . 
The Varied Virtues of the Milk Makers. 
The three typical breeds of dairy cattle are pictured 
on this page. The Ayrshires and Holsteins are repre¬ 
sented by prize winners at the St. Louis Exposition, the 
Jerseys by a good working specimen of a dairy cow. 
As a matter of fact, all dairy cows 
have very much of the same type or 
general shape. Judges of one breed 
have little trouble in picking the 
good points of the others. A good 
dairy cow of any breed will have a 
large stomach, indicating great ca¬ 
pacity for food, a general “wedge 
shape,’’ large udder and prominent 
milk veins, slim neck and tail; in 
general, a good development of the 
organs essential for milk and butter 
production. We may see from the 
pictures that good cows of all three 
breeds are not unlike in general 
shape. 
1 he chief difference in the three 
breeds therefore lies in habits and 
capacity. When a man prefers Jer¬ 
sey cattle he is a Jersey man, that 
is, the nervous habits of the Jersey 
fit best into his way of handling cat¬ 
tle and the conditions of his farm. 
1 hus it is easy to see that there is 
a place for all three breeds, and that 
each one might be ‘‘best’’ on certain 
farms. These distinct habits are 
hereditary, and it is wise to keep the 
breeds distinct. Climate and meth¬ 
ods of handling will sometimes 
change the appearance of cattle with¬ 
out changing their habits. For in¬ 
stance. about 25 years ago Jersey 
cattle were brought from the Island 
of Jersey to the Gulf States, while, 
at the same time, animals of much 
the same breeding were brought to 
the North. To-day the descendants 
of the southern cattle, reared for gen¬ 
erations in the South, are quite dif¬ 
ferent in appearance from those 
which have been bred and reared in 
the North. In spite of this difference 
in appearance all are Jerseys, that is, 
all have habits of the Jersey breeds. 
1 he Ayrshires were bred for years 
in Scotland under conditions which 
made them tough, hardy and strong. 
For example, the small teats of the 
Ayrshires are probably the result of 
long generations of milking by 
women. It is said that in Scotland 
the women milk with the thumb and 
finger, which developed the small 
teat. 1 he Ayrshires, by reason of 
their habits, are very useful in rough 
pasture land where an active, patient 
cow is needed. 1 hey are of good 
shape, and the steers and old cows 
give a good carcass. The Holsteins 
have the character which one would 
expect from their history. They 
come from the low, fiat lands in and 
near Holland, where bulky food is 
plentiful and close at hand. The re¬ 
sult is a large, roomy cow, good- 
natured and strong, capable of hand¬ 
ling a large amount of bulky fodder. 
In a mixed herd most men prefer to 
milk Holsteins because they have 
large, well-developed teats, and are 
good-r.atured. The Jerseys are quick, 
nervous animals, as a rule smaller 
than the other breeds, giving richer 
milk and consuming less food. As 
we have said, when a man argues in 
favor of one or another of these 
dairy breeds, it is because his own 
habits and the crops from his farm 
or his customers fit in best with the 
habits of his cattle. There are 
farmers who firmly believe that it 
pays them best to keep Holstein 
cattle, because in order to obtain 
amount of butter fat they handle 
other is very largely a question of food. Where all 
hay and grain must be bought a Jersey would be likely 
to prove more economical than a Holstein, while in a 
section where cheap hay is abundant there would be 
little choice. All of these animals are good workers, and 
the dairyman in deciding on a breed must consider the 
line of dairy work best adapted to his conditions. 
AYRSHIRES, PRIZE WINNERS AT ST. LOUIS. Fig. 361. 
PRIZE-WINNING HOLSTEINS AT ST. LOUIS. Fig. 362. 
more skim-milk than if they kept Jerseys. They like to 
feed the skim-milk to hogs or poultry, and it makes a 
cheap food when large crops of such bulky food as 
clover or Alfalfa can be fed. On the other hand, other 
farmers prefer Jersey cattle because they want a cer¬ 
tain amount of butter fat with the lowest quantity of 
skim-milk to handle. 1 he question whether one breed 
will produce a cheaper pound of butter fat than an- 
A BUSINESS JERSEY FOR A PRACTICAL DAIRY. Fig. 363. 
EVOLUTION OF THE HAND SEPARATOR. 
Farmers in the dairy section, including northern Ver¬ 
mont and the lower part of Quebec Province, have par¬ 
ticular reason for being thankful for hand separators. 
In this section milk or some of its products is nearly 
the only product except maple sugar that brings in cash. 
The soil is good natural grass land; in an average sea¬ 
son corn will ripen fairly well for the silo, and oats 
and peas make a good growth. Farther south, near 
the large towns, others crops are grown, but even here 
the roughage of the farm is saved for the cows. For 
example, at Waterbury, a corn canning factory makes 
a good market for sweet corn. One of our readers 
gives this brief account of the way corn is handled: 
The refuse from the canning factory 
is hauled back by the farmers when 
they draw the corn. Some feed it to 
their stock, others put it in silos. It 
makes very good silage, but a load 
should be put in the silo every day, for 
it heats and spoils quickly, I think a 
ton of these cobs and husks is about 
equal in value to a ton of the green 
fodder. The company pays $10 a ton 
for the corn delivered at factory, cobs 
and husks back. I understand that 
they pay from $12 to $14 per ton for 
corn in Maine, and I think this com¬ 
pany could afford to do the same. It is 
a difficult crop to start, as the seed is 
often poor. I have raised some for two 
years, but think where a farmer has a 
silo that some larger variety like Pride 
of the North, pays better. I raised 30 
tons of green fodder per acre of this 
corn. The average crop of sweet corn 
around here is about three tons of ears. 
L. M. G. 
Thus all farm crops are secondary 
to the production of milk, and it is 
safe to say that if it were not for 
the hand separator dairying could 
not now be carried on to advantage 
on many farms. No wonder the U. 
S. Separator is now considered 
about as essential as the cooking 
stove. Vermont is the home section 
for the U. S. Separator, and it is a 
prophet well honored in its own 
country. Formerly in this section 
private dairying meant double work. 
The milk was “set” in pans, crocks 
or in “creamers,” requiring a multi¬ 
tude of pails, pans and other vessels 
which must be washed daily. It was 
impossibly to obtain all the cream, 
and it was not uniform in ripening. 
The skim-milk was often sour, and 
was handled three times at least. 
The introduction of the hand sepa¬ 
rator has changed_the entire busi¬ 
ness. When milking begins the sep¬ 
arator is started, and the warm milk 
can be run through it, the pails be¬ 
ing strained directly into the tank. 
The cream runs out at one tube and 
the warm skim-milk at another.; the 
latter can be fed at once. Instead 
of the square rods of tin or earthen¬ 
ware which were to be washed un¬ 
der the old system, now the milk 
pails, separator and a few cans 
require cleaning. In some cases a 
steam engine was kept for power in 
order to supply steam for cleaning 
utensils. Now the steam being no 
longer needed, a small gasoline en¬ 
gine does the work. The separator 
skims closer than could be done with 
the old system. As the cream is 
taken out of the milk while sweet it 
can be ripened as needed. 
'Ibis section is full of evidence 
showing what a blessing the intro¬ 
duction of hand separators has 
proved. 1 he Winters are long and 
hard. During the worst of the 
storms travel is almost impossible. 
Those who patronize creameries 
formerly hauled the entire milk to 
the creamery. During the worst 
storms this was difficult, if not im¬ 
possible. Now the cream is sepa¬ 
rated at home, and either sent to the 
creamery or delivered to the cream 
gatherer. When the whole milk was 
delivered, skim-milk was hauled 
back to the farm, often sour and in 
bad condition. It is claimed by 
many that tuberculosis has been 
spread from one herd to another by 
mixing the milk from a number of 
herds and using this mixed milk 
for feeding. No one questions the 
great advantages of the hand separation where butter is 
made at home. The only objection heard against it was 
that the work of separating must be done at once after 
milking, while with pans or creamers the skimming 
might be left to a more convenient time. Where cream 
is hauled to the factory the only fair objection made is 
that some farmers are not careful enough with their 
cans, and thus send dirty or poor quality cream. 
