1872 .] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
379 
the fresh state, lai^e quantities are dried and 
sent to market. The hams properly cured can 
hardly he distinguished from beef hams. At 
Grinnell there are two large turf houses built 
for drying buffalo meat. There is so little mois¬ 
ture in the atmosphere, that the meat keeps for 
several days, even in summer, and much less 
salt is needed than "would be necessary at the 
East. "We saw and tasted the sun-dried article 
at Buffalo. It "was cut in thin slices, strung on 
small wands, and hung upon poles to cure. It 
is no doubt a wholesome and nutritious diet for 
hunters and Indians, but the civilized world, we 
apprehend, loses little in the entire absence of 
these flitches from its larder. The buffalo does 
good service upon the frontier in furnishing the 
settler with meat?until he can raise domestic ani¬ 
mals for himself. And it is for this reason mainly 
that we putin a plea for. his prolonged existence. 
We have no sentimental admiration for the 
beast, no faith in his adaptation to civilized 
wants, or in the superiority of his robes to good 
woolen blankets, no craving for his flesh in 
comparison with good Shorthorn steaks. We 
have no confidence iu the efforts made to cross 
him with our domestic animals, and believe the 
hybrids will be decidedly inferior to the breeds 
we already have, whether we breed for milk, 
butter, cheese, beef, or working cattle. We 
have no doubt that the buffalo, and the nomadic 
tribes that chase him over the plains, are 
doomed, but we need take no special pains to 
hasten .the decree of Providence. 
Our pioneers want meat in the first few years 
of their settlement, and there is no good reason 
why the idlers and the rich men from our East¬ 
ern cities should take it from their mouths. 
There should be a close time for the buffalo as 
there is for the deer and other large game—six 
months at least, including the breeding time— 
in which it shall not be lawful to kill them in 
any part of our territory. Our sporting clubs 
in the East could not do a better thing than to 
memorialize Congress upon this subject the 
coming session and secure the necessary legis¬ 
lation. As the general government has military 
stations as well as civil officers all through the 
buffalo country, it would be easy to enforce 
such game laws as are needed. 
Winter Grazing. —We took a good deal of 
pains to ascertain the facts about the destruction 
of cattle in this region the past winter. It is 
admitted by all the drovers to have been a win¬ 
ter of unusual severity, and the losses have been 
above the average. The best evidence that 
these losses were greatly exaggerated in the re¬ 
ports made to the papers is the fact that the 
popular frith in the profit of keeping herds is 
not at all shaken. The fact is that the business 
of grazing was never more prosperous. The 
old herdsmen are steadily enlarging their herds, 
and new men are investing their money in 
Texas and other stock as if nothing had hap¬ 
pened. Over 45,000 head of cattle, in herds of 
from 2,000 to 6,000, had arrived at Ellsworth as 
early as the first week in June. The herds are 
numerous near the railroad, and are said to be 
still more abundant in the river valleys a few 
miles back, where the grazing is better. In 
conversation with a gentleman yesterday, who 
had wintered his herd near the foot of Long’s 
Peak, he admitted a loss of only three per 
cent. Iu Southern Colorado, where little 
snow fell, the cattle grew fat and the loss 
was insignificant. In Northern Colorado, where 
the snow fell in November, the loss was large, 
in some cases reaching three fourths of the 
herd. The loss also among sheep was very 
great. But the great fact remains, notwith¬ 
standing these reverses, that the graziers are 
fully persuaded that they have the best sheep 
and cattle country in the world. The grass, 
though short, is exceedingly nutritious. The 
rains fall in the spring, the grass grows rapidly, 
and in the summer is cured upon the stalk. 
There are no rains to dissipate its juices. Peo¬ 
ple were so accustomed to see their cattle go 
through the winter without fodder, that no pro¬ 
vision was made for them last winter, and thou¬ 
sands perished. The calamity will lead the 
thrifty cattle-men to select good shelter for their 
stock, and to lay in hay for the future. That 
the lesson has been heeded, is evident from the 
mowing machines we saw at work on the jour¬ 
ney hither. There is an unusual demand for 
hay in the territory. If the climate is undergo¬ 
ing a change, and more rain is to fall in the 
summer, it is not improbable that more snow 
will fall in winter, and the difficulty of winter 
grazing be increased. The cattle-men that we 
saw are not at all despondent. A very large 
capital is invested in the business, and it pays 
as well as any other pursuit in a territory where 
the average price of money is two per cent a 
mouth. W. C. 
How Milk Gets Spoiled. 
Mr. Willard, in his Ohio address, gives much 
weight to certain causes which effect a deterior¬ 
ation in the quality of milk—especially the 
presence of dirt and dust in the pail; the inhal¬ 
ing of foul odors by the cows, at pasture and 
elsewhere; and the drinking of putrid water. 
Instances are cited, in which putrifving flesh 
(as of dead animals) has communicated a 
taint to the milk in the bag, b} r simply tainting 
the air breathed by the cow. Milk in the vat of 
a cheese factory during the heating of the curds 
gave off a smell like that of stagnant water. 
It was found that one of the patrons had allowed 
his cows to pass through a narrow slough, the 
mud of which adhered to their udders. Particles 
of dust thus got into the pail at milking, and 
thus introduced fungi from the slough, which 
multiplied in the milk, and spoiled the whole 
of it—giving it the odor of the foul water. 
Prof. Law, of Cornell University, finding the 
cream on his milk to be ropy, examined it with a 
microscope, and found it infested with living- 
organisms. On investigation he found that the 
herd from which his supply came, drank the 
water of “ a stagnant pool, located in a muddy 
swale.” The microscope developed organisms 
in this water of the same sort with those found 
in the milk. The same were also detected on a 
microscopic examination of the blood of the 
cows. That the cows were in a diseased con¬ 
dition was shown by the thermometer test—they 
being hot and feverish. A little of the same 
filthy water was introduced into milk which 
proper tests had shown to be pure, and in due 
time “ the same filthy organisms multiplied and 
took possession of it in vast numbers, producing 
the same character of milk as that first noticed.” 
This investigation, made by a careful observer, 
proves conclusively that the germs of disease and 
of a milk-spoiling ferment can be introduced 
into the blood and into the udder, by simply 
allowing the cov r to drink unsuitable water. It 
holds out the plainest possible practical lesson 
to the dairyman, and if he disregards it, and so 
misses his opportunity for making good cheese 
and butter, be has only himself to thank. It 
show’s that the cleanliness of a dairy farm 
must be radical, thorough, and all-pervading. 
No filthy mud should be allowed to dry into a 
dust that may foul the pail; no foul odors should 
taint the undrawn milk; and the drinking water 
should be free of the “ little leaven that leav- 
eneth the whole lump ”—cow, milk, and all. 
Churning Whole Milk. 
Mr. Peter Mulks, of Slaterville, N. Y., in a 
communication to the Buffalo Live-Stock Jour¬ 
nal, states that for twenty years or more he has 
churned all his milk. He thinks that, while it 
is possible to make fair butter by churning the 
cream alone, it is impossible to make strictly 
fine butter in this W’ay. What he understands 
by “ strictly fine” butter, w’e do not know—per¬ 
haps something better than we have any knowl¬ 
edge of, but it is certain that the Ogden Farm 
butter, which sells for 90c. per pound, Darling¬ 
ton’s (Philadelphia), which sells for $1.00, and 
Mr. Sargent’s, which sells for $1.15 (wholesale), 
are all very good, indeed. In fact, they are 
much better than most of the world knows 
anything about, and they are all made by churn¬ 
ing the cream alone. 
Mr. Mulks’s argument is as follows: 1. The 
impurities of the air in the milk-room are ab¬ 
sorbed entirely by the cream (this being on the 
surface), and if onty this is put in the churn, 
these impurities are much more concentrated 
and affect the butter much more than if the 
whole of the milk is present to extract its pro¬ 
portion of them. 2. When onty the cream is 
churned, the amount of buttermilk is so small, 
that the butter is more constantly acted upon 
by the dashers, and is made salvey and has its 
grain broken, while in churning the whole of 
the milk the butter is less in proportion, and it 
retreats out of the way, and does not get mashed 
fine, salved, and made greasy, as iu churning 
the cream alone. 
The following answ’ers to these arguments 
naturally suggest themselves: 1. No well-reg- 
ulaled milk-room has any impure odors in it; 
and if it had it is not likely that they will con¬ 
fine themselves to the cream. They will prob¬ 
ably permeate the entire contents of the vessel, 
cream and milk alike. 2. Practically, if the 
temperature of the churn is not higher than 
62°, the 'butter will be hard enough for its 
“grain” to withstand not only the beating of 
the dasher, but also the subsequent much more 
trying manipulation of the working-table, while 
the latter would be equally necessary after the 
gathering of the "whole milk-churning. 
However, we are not inclined to gainsay the 
statements of one who has (after a trial of 
both systems) decided that whole-milk churning 
is the best, and has practiced it successfully for 
twenty years. 
The general opinion, unfavorable to the wliole- 
milk process, has, we fancy, been based on trials 
with new milk. Mr. Mulks allows his milk to 
stand, not only until the cream rises and becomes 
concentrated, but until it has turned loppered. 
It is a very good evidence of his success that he 
gets from 15 to 20 cents above the regular mar¬ 
ket price. Let us try it. 
-- C -#-o-- 
The Fall Treatment of Grass Lands. 
“ Old fog,” as farmers call the fall growth of 
grass left to stand on the land during the winter, 
is wrongly charged with an injury to the land; 
and the mistaken notion that it does harm is 
made an argument in favor of the feeding off of 
the after-growth. Nothing could be more in¬ 
jurious to the condition of mowing lauds than 
this custom. 
