1872 .] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
91 
milch-cows kept exclusively for the purpose of 
making butter and to supply the wants of a 
large family with milk, etc. I have never kept 
more than three or four cows at a time, hut have 
fed them in various other ways, though not to 
so good satisfaction. The way I have described 
may not be the best—indeed, I do not think it is, 
for, as I have occasionally made some change, 
which has been to advantage, so I trust I shall 
continue to make improvements in the manner 
of feeding. I have never tried the steaming 
process, but sometimes I think I will.” 
This gentleman has also a Jersey heifer that 
has recently dropped her first calf. Of her he 
says: “She is giving between eight and nine 
quarts of milk and making over one pound of 
butter per day, and her flow of milk is on the 
increase. I will tell you how I have fed her. 
For two or three days after calving, on air chiefly , 
with a very little hay, bran, and water. The 
hay and bran have been gradually increased, 
with a few roots, until now (ten days after calv¬ 
ing) she has all the good hay she will eat, a peck 
of beets in the morning, and five quarts of 
coarse shorts in the evening, with all the water 
she wants to drink, and nothing else, except a 
little salt for seasoning. If I had a hundred 
heifers, I should treat them all in a similar man¬ 
ner, until I learned a better waj'.” 
So much for feeding. The lesson taught is one 
of which all good farmers will recognize the 
importance, namely: while avoiding concen¬ 
trated food, to give as much variety as possible, 
studying the cow’s appetite, and doing every¬ 
thing to induce her to eat the largest possible 
quantity. The reason for this is, that all profit 
in feeding, whether for flesh or for milk, comes 
from the excess of the food consumed over 
what is necessary to keep the animal in a healthy 
condition. 
Concerning the making of butter, Mr. Perry 
says: “We set the milk in old-fashioned tin- 
pans, in the usual manner, and skim every day; 
or, in other words, let it stand twenty-four 
hours. We keep the cream in the cellar, which 
is well ventilated, and stir it thoroughly every 
time more cream is added. A few hours before 
churning we bring up the cream and place it 
where the temperature is considerably warmer. 
We churn twice a week as regularly as we con¬ 
veniently can. The time required is, on an aver¬ 
age, about ten minutes, occasionally fifteen, and 
sometimes less than five or even three minutes. 
Tim butter is immediately taken from the churn, 
worked over with a wooden paddle till most of 
the buttermilk is out. Salt is then worked in with 
the paddle, a little at a time, to the amount of just 
one ounce to the pound, which we have found, 
by experience, is the quantity which best suits 
our customers generally. After the mixing and 
salting process is over, the butter is put away 
for twenty-four hours, in the cellar in hot 
weather, and in the closet in winter, when it is 
again, the second and last time, worked over 
thoroughly with the paddle; but never, on any 
account, in warm weather with the hands; my 
wife considers that operation a mistake, fatal 
beyond redemption, as the natural heat of the 
hands is sufficient to melt some portion of the 
butter, and thus destroy its fine grain, delicate 
flavor and aroma.” 
My observation leads me to believe, that the 
force of this last opinion depends very much on 
the temperature of the hands, which is different 
in different persons. One of the best butter- 
makers I have had, worked the butter by hand 
in the warmest weather, without the least bad 
result. A good two-handled white-oak paddle 
is, however, quite as effective as the hands, and 
so far as I have yet discovered, it is the best but¬ 
ter-working machine. The notion that it is un¬ 
tidy to work butter with the hands, does not 
count for much. Any dairy woman who would 
not make her hands scrupulously clean for this 
duty, would not be fit to touch butter with a 
ten-foot pole. Unless she is a cleanly creature 
at heart , she has no business near the dairy. 
A sensible farmer in Vermont writes: “You 
give some very good reasons why ‘ gilt-edged 
butter’ is sold fora gilt-edged price, but you 
give the great reason only by allusion—that 
your man advertises ‘Ogden Farm’ butter. 
That I regard as being the true reason for sell¬ 
ing ‘gilt-edged’ anything. Tiie great secret is 
first, to establish a reputation, and second, to 
keep it good. How often have I heard men say, 
‘That sheep, if such and such a man owned it, 
would sell for $500.’ That is, if such a man 
had such a sheep, and knew that it would prove 
just what he represented it to be, and if his 
customer knew that he could depend on him, 
he would sell it. But on the other hand, if he 
did not know the sheep to be exactly what he 
should be (although no living man could tell by 
its looks) he would sooner take its pelt and bury 
the carcass in a dunghill, than to sell it and 
risk his reputation.” 
There is no doubt that every breeder, every 
nurseryman, and every seedsman who has made 
a permanent success, has adhered to this policy. 
Whether the motive be honesty or self-interest, 
the result is the same. A good reputation is 
established and one sale breeds another. There 
is nothing more sensitive than the reputation of 
one whose customers are scattered all over the 
country, and who have no other means of judg¬ 
ing him than by the degree to which his goods 
conform to his recommendation of them. The 
drawback is, that in selling an animal, a plant, 
or a seed, success depends very much on the 
treatment that is given it by the purchaser. Suf¬ 
ficient allowance is not always made for this, 
and whoever embarks in the business, however 
honest he may be, must expect to be considered 
a swindler by those who ignorantly maltreat 
that which they buy at a high price. 
It is true that there are more buyers of good 
butter than the market can supply, but not so 
very many more as yet. Not one person in five 
thousand ever saw what I consider really good 
butter, or would consider it good if he did see 
it. Oleaginous salt is not the article—though it 
is good enough for those who like it. 
Of home topics to write about, I have really 
none. The engine goes regularly, twice a week, 
the fodder is cut and moistened and steamed, 
and the little burr-stone mill grinds all our meal; 
the windmill runs almost incessantly, and keeps 
up a good supply of water in the barn and in 
the milk-tank, and Hiuderk, who has grown to 
be seventeen years old, takes entire charge of 
the whole machinery like a little man, as he is. 
But all this has been told before, and as our dic¬ 
tatorial editor cautions me not to write when I 
have nothing to say, and actually forbids me 
ever to “ preach,” I will stop here, only saying, 
in response to numerous inquiries, that my 
ice-house, of which I hoped so much, has proved, 
as I used it, a dead failure, the ice lasting only 
until the latter part of July. If I could have 
procured sawdust to pack with, the result would 
probably have been better, but I used salt-liay, 
with the above effect. I find, too, that it cost 
me as much to fill it as to buy what I need of a 
dealer near by—so my ice-house will be turned 
into a storehouse. 
An Egg Farm. 
BY II. II. btoddaki). — Eleventh Article. 
In keeping poultry on a large scale, there is 
no one thing more important, or more difficult 
to manage, than the chicken department. A 
failure in the yearly supply of pullets, with 
which to recruit the stock of layers, would be 
fatal to the whole plan. It is quite an easy 
matter to raise nearly every chick of a hardy 
breed, when there are but a few upon an exten¬ 
sive range, but it is the reverse when we are 
desirous of rearing several hundreds upon an 
acre, and there is, practically, no insect forage 
at all. If there arc persons who consider the 
occupation of a poulterer as “ small potatoes,” 
believing that it needs less thought and skill 
than to manage a cotton-mill, or mercantile 
establishment, or horses and cattle even, let 
them try once to raise chickens by the thousand, 
without losing money, and find the need of 
keeping their wits as sharp as in more preten¬ 
tious kinds of business. Yet, all difficulties 
may be surmounted by thorough management. 
To have strong chickens it is necessary in the 
first place to avoid, in the main, breeding akin, 
and to keep the breeding stock in a condition 
as near to normal as possible, securing for them 
sun, air, and exercise, and avoiding a pamper¬ 
ing diet. The greater the number of eggs pro¬ 
duced by a fowl, the less vitality there will be in 
each, therefore the first only of a laying should 
be set. Early chickens are the most certain to 
live, and this is because force is stored up in 
the parent before laying commences, sufficient 
to endow the first eggs or chickens with plenty 
of vigor, while later the abnormal or artificial 
prolificness impairs the eggs. In spite of the 
uncongenial weather, March-hatched chickens 
are stronger than those produced in April, and 
the latter in turn are reared with greater ease 
than those hatched in May. But after attending 
to the above considerations, the chickens being 
hatched and assigned quarters, their lives then 
depend chiefly upon their diet. Of course, they 
must be kept clean, dry, free from vermin, and 
protected from other enemies, quadruped and 
biped, and be allowed space for exercise in the 
sun and open air; but all these things will not 
suffice, unless animal food is artificially provided 
as a substitute for the insects they would obtain 
if there were but few chickens on the premises. 
Butchers’ meat, such as calves’ and sheep’s 
plucks, are even better than insects, provided 
they are fed plentifully, yet only a very little at 
a time, and care is taken to alternate with grain 
and green vegetable food. Chandlers’ greaves 
may be used for chickens if very nice and sweet 
—the article varies much in quality. They are 
very cheap feed, cheaper than the fresh bits 
from the butcher, but not as good for chickens 
as the latter. There must be constant vigilance 
in supplying animal food regularly and system¬ 
atically. The young of birds in a wild state are 
given an animal diet, even in cases when, as 
they reach maturity, they live upon seeds. The 
young of our domestic birds can not thrive upon 
grain and vegetables alone, no matter how nicely 
prepared, because such things can not be 
digested and assimilated fast enough by them, 
to meet the great demands for nourishment 
caused by their rapid growth. Nature has 
provided that the young of all birds shall ma¬ 
ture and become fledged with wonderful rapid¬ 
ity, in order that the period of their helplessness, 
when they are liable to be preyed upon by num¬ 
erous enemies, shall be short. The formation 
of the coat of leathers which succeeds the downy 
covering with which they emerge from the shell, 
