1908. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
83© 
Hope Farm Notes 
Early in October I spent several days at 
the farm of F. D. Squiers of Jefferson Co., 
N. Y. By the map you will see that this 
county butts up far to the north—close to 
the St. Lawrence River. It is a dairy and 
cheese country, and I was greatly interested 
in comparing the habits and methods with 
those of our own section. In our country 
the valleys are narrow, with steep hills ris¬ 
ing abruptly. In Jefferson Co. the valleys 
are broad, with fine level fields and hills 
that rise with a gentle slope. I wish I had 
a few of those rich level fields at Hope 
Farm. Every farm carries a herd of cattle. 
It was a pleasant sight on Saturday even¬ 
ing to stand on the hill at the back of Mr. 
Squier's farm, look across the valley and 
see half a dozen herds slowly making their 
way to the barn. There is a fair amount 
of wood still left in this country. Most of 
it stands at the tops of the hills, and near¬ 
ly every farm has several great trees that 
have come down from the original forest. 
Mr. Squiers showed me one great maple 
still standing where it was named in a deed 
made in 1806! I missed the orchards of 
apple and peach which our country is de¬ 
veloping. Along the lake and by the river 
I understand apples do fairly well, but 
where I visited a good apple tree appears 
to be something of a curiosity. 
Readers will remember Mr. Squiers in 
his connection with the famous Jersey cat¬ 
tle case. The grade heifers which were 
afterward sold as purebred stock were 
grown here. The so-called “purebreds” 
which were exchanged for them have now 
passed off the scene. The last one was sold 
for the price of a fresh cow ! Their names 
are still printed over the stanchions, and 
two scrubby little heifers seem to confess 
under protest that they carry some of the 
doubtful blood of the famous “Zola of As¬ 
toria.” It is a fact that when I went out 
to look at the young stock these two heifers 
were the only ones that would not look me 
in the eye! I couldn’t find the heart to 
blame them. 
The Money Crop. —A stranger in our 
country during the money-making season 
would notice the long procession of market 
wagons crawling along our roads. From 
noon until midnight they go—lanterns 
swinging from the axles after dark—loaded 
with sweet corn, tomatoes, fruit or other 
produce—headed for Paterson, where they 
are to go on the street market. Past Mr. 
Squiers’ farm through the early forenoon 
went a smaller procession of farm wagons 
each carrying one or more great tin cans. 
They were delivering milk to the cheese 
factory. The foundation of life and busi¬ 
ness and prosperity in this region rests 
on the cow’s back. The great problem of 
living here is to deliver the pasture grass 
in Summer and the hay and silage during 
Winter in the form of milk. Now I sup¬ 
pose that out of the millions who eat 
cheese only a small proportion know or 
care where it comes from or how it is 
made. The man in the city who eats a 
cheese sandwich does not realize that he is 
eating grass and com from Jefferson Co. 
which the cows and the cheese maker have 
prepared for him. One by one the wagons 
drove up to the cheese factory door, and 
the cans were lifted out and weighed. Then 
the milk was poured into a large vat. The 
price paid now is about $1.25 per 100 
pounds. 
When we went into the cheese factory 
we found a butter room where a great mass 
of fine butter was being moulded into prints. 
I have been in western factories where the 
milk was boldly skimmed—the cream 
shipped or made into butter and the skim- 
milk made into cheese. Nothing of that 
sort was done here. The whole milk was 
made into cheese, and then the warm whey 
run through a separator which took out 
the butter fat not taken up by the curd. 
This butter represented what was formerly 
lost in the whey. The vat was full of 
milk delivered that morning. There was 
a yellowish film of cream on top, and the 
rennet had been added. The cheese maker 
told us that in about 20 minutes the curd 
would separate, and so it proved, for in 
about half an hour we found him working 
over the mass with a wooden rake. Every 
pull of the rake brought up chunks or flakes 
of yellow curd. The whey separated from 
the curd in a brownish thick liquor. A 
tin bucket with a fine wire screen at the 
bottom was put in at one end of the vat 
and a rubber pipe placed inside of it. Then 
the whey was pumped through this pipe 
into a tank over the cream separator. As 
the whey passed through the screen before 
it entered the pipe the curd was kept out 
and a cloth was tied over the pipe which let 
the whey into the separator so as to strain 
it again. A very small thread of cream ran 
from the separator, yet the total was enough 
to make a large amount of hutter of fine 
quality. In former years this butter fat 
was lost at the smaller factories. I expect 
to see next some simple process of saving 
the milk sugar. 
Dairying.- —The majority of the farmers 
take their milk to the cheese factory, while 
others, like Mr. Squiers, make butter at 
home and feed the skim-millc to hogs. The 
income on most of the farms comes from 
milk and stock, hay and potatoes. The 
plan of farming is to have enough good 
pasture to run the cows during the Summer 
—helping out with green corn or millet if 
needed. This is a wonderful corn country, 
and practically every farm has a silo. 
Enough corn is grown to fill the silos and 
usually some for husking. Oats and barley 
are used with grass and clover seeding, but 
seldom if ever sold—the oats being fed to 
horses and barley ground for feed. A good 
share of the hay is clover, which is fed on 
the farm—the pure Timothy being sold. 
Mr. Squiers seeds Alsike clover entirely. On 
the average these farms support one cow 
to about five or six acres, and the average 
incomo from a cow will be $60 to $70. A 
poor cow will eat as much silage and hay 
and take as much pasture room as a good 
one and require just as much muscle to 
milk her. Naturally these dairy farmers 
want better cows. They believe in the 
theory of pure blood, for it stands to reason 
that an animal bred for generations from 
selected ancestors ought to be a surer breed¬ 
er than one bred at random. That is one 
reason why the farmers all through that 
section were so much interested in that cat¬ 
tle case. The so-called “purebred” stock 
proved inferior in earning capacity to good 
Jefferson Co. grades. Mr. Squiers came near 
spoiling his herd by bringing in “pure” 
blood. A farmer in that section bought a 
young bull out of a herd of purebred stock 
—the calf having been discarded for breed¬ 
ing purposes. lie proved to be a fine ani¬ 
mal, and the farmer tried to have him reg¬ 
istered. The breeder refused to deliver the 
papers unless the farmer would pay more 
money for the bull. The feeling over this 
cattle case in the dairy district is much the 
same as it would be if efforts were made to 
pass counterfeit money, tamper with weights 
and measures, or reduce the standard of 
values. It is hard to realize what a figure 
this case cuts until you get out among 
farmers whose profit depends upon the dif¬ 
ference between a poor cow and a good one. 
Butter at Home. —Mr. Squiers does not 
take milk to the factory. I would like to 
have Mr. T. J. Norton spend a day on 
Squiers’ farm and see how a Jefferson Co. 
farmer operates, what he has to eat, what 
he does for his children and learn what 
farmers think of ill-considered advice. A 
good farmer, with his work well in hand, 
has reason to be proud of his work when 
the frost is killing the leaves. The great 
barn was stuffed with hay. the silos held 
their 400 tons of silage, the cat bin was 
full and cellar stuffed with potatoes. The 
cows were in the pasture ready and willing 
to empty the silos and the hay mows and 
turn the contents into money. It snrely 
looks as if a dairyman in Jefferson Co. has 
a surer thing than a gardener or fruit 
grower with us. He has an income every 
day and can figure it in advance. We 
must crowd our income into a few months 
and find life a constant struggle with 
drought, frost, insects, rot and blight. 
The first thing I saw in Mr. Squiers’ 
barnyard was a gasoline engine mounted 
on trucks. It was coughing away at its 
job of turning a feed grinder which stood 
just inside the barn. They were grinding 
barley for hog feed. This grain with skim- 
milk Is great stuff for growing hogs. Squiers 
would no more think of buying ready mixed 
feed than he would of buying “pure” stock 
until he knew the papers fit. A feed grind¬ 
er is a great help on any farm where 
ground feed is needed. It is all right to 
talk about the character of the feed dealer 
and mixer, but when you buy the whole 
grain and grind it in your own mill you 
know what you are doing. One set of 
plates on this grinder will take care of 500 
bushels of grain. This same gasoline en¬ 
gine ran the cutter and blower to fill the 
silo and will saw wood or do any work 
that requires a turning wheel. 
As the sun crawled over to the west the 
most important work on a dairy farm began. 
The stable had been swept and was clean 
enough to serve a farmer’s dinner to Mr. 
Norton. Each cow was to have about half 
a bushel of silage, and this had been put 
in the mangers. The hired man went to 
call home the cows, while Squiers took care 
of the pigs. There were 14 fine Berkshire 
shotes running in a yard surrounded by a 
rail fence. At home our pigs run in an 
orchard of high-headed trees, but that 
would be a great luxury for a Jefferson 
Co. pig. Squiers took two baskets of ground 
barley and poured the grain into a long 
trough. Then he took two large pails of 
skim-milk and poured this over the grain. 
The pigs were not so hungry that they came 
fighting and squealing for their supper. 
There is no profit in a squealing hog. These 
Berkshires had been eating ear corn through 
the day. They acted as if supper was a 
matter of business and not a life or death 
struggle. Mr. Souiers claims that a good 
Berkshire sow will earn as much money as 
a good dairy cow, but the number which 
he could keep at a good profit will depend 
upon the amount of skim-milk from the 
dairy. 
There is no dog on Squiers’ farm to 
bring the cows home. The hired man went 
out beyond the gate and called to the cattle. 
They were off on the hill among the stumps 
of what was once the old sugar grove. One 
by one the cows lifted their heads and 
looked at the barn. Then the fat old gray 
started and the rest fell in behind, walk¬ 
ing slowly in a long line. It was as if 
some one had stopped out announced : 
“Ladies—silage is served at the barn !” 
They made their way across the field, up 
the lane around the barn and inside, each 
one taking her usual place. Most of them 
were dry or nearly so; in fact Mr. Squiers 
says he is getting less milk just now than 
at'any time of the year. He plans to have 
most milk in Winter. That is why the 
silos and the hay mows are stuffed. Farm¬ 
ers who patronize the cheese factories re¬ 
verse this plan and try to obtain most of 
their milk in Summer. Their cows are dry 
or nearly so in Winter at the season when 
Squiers plans to have most milk. The ex¬ 
treme cases are where farmers keep cows 
on pasture and hay or cornstalks. This is 
the cheapest sort of dairying, for the cows 
eat the pasture grass and are wintered 
mostly on hay. Air. Squires feeds very lit¬ 
tle grain—last year he says he bought only 
about one ton of middlings while carrying 
over 40 head of stock. Corn silage with 
plenty of good ears in it and Alsike clover 
hay is the Winter ration. 
As fast as a pail was milked full it was 
carried to a spring balance near the dairy 
room and weighed, the weight being marked 
on a slate. Records are kept of each day’s 
milking and during the season milk from 
individual cows is weighed and also tested 
from time to time so as to detect the “rob¬ 
ber cows” if there are any. There is no 
other way to do this. The dairy room is 
in one corner of the barn, and “Keep the 
door shut” is the order. After weighing 
his milk the milker mounts three steps and 
pours through an opening in the partition 
into strainer which fits in the top of the 
milk can. H . w. c. 
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