1849. 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
91 
through the summer; the ground so hard in the field 
that it was almost impossible to plow it, but the part 
that was subsoiled, plowed at least one-third, if not 
one-half easier than the other. A Practical Far¬ 
mer. Westchester Co., N. Y., Jan. 27, 1849. 
Cheese-Making in Virginia. 
Eds. Cultivator—-I fear that a direct answer to 
the inquiries of your letter of the 6th inst., may place 
me in the false and unenviable position of “ the scholar 
attempting to play the teacher.’’ Allow me, therefore, 
to give a portion of the history, with such an u ac¬ 
count ” of my dairy as your inquiries propose to elicit. 
In the year 1846, several gentlemen of the county 
adjoining this in which I live, and Mr. Jno. C. Under¬ 
wood, of Herkimer county, in your state, determined 
to establish (each.) a dairy farm in this district of 
country. We began to purchase cows in the winter of 
1847, and aided by the kind exertions of Mr. Under¬ 
wood, we supplied ourselves with dairymen and uten¬ 
sils, from New-York, and commenced business the 
following spring. 
I was, fortunately, enabled by the kindness of Mr. 
Underwood, and the recommendation of Mr. A. L. 
Fish, of Herkimer, to secure the assistance of Mr. H. 
M. Mattison, of Herkimer, and to his energy, patience, 
and knowledge of his business, whatever credit for suc¬ 
cess we may be emitted to, is altogether to be attri¬ 
buted. 
In the winter of ’47, -we purchased our cows. Mine 
averaged me $11.48. I made my first cheese April 
20th,—twenty-one pounds—from 9 cows. The spring 
was cold and dry, the grass backward, the cows, 
picked up wherever we could procure them, calved 
irregularly—many very late—-and of course, in so ir¬ 
regular a dairy I cannot calculate the average yield, 
as calculated in old established dairy countries. I give 
mine as yielded by the cows at the pail, believing that 
your object is, not to contrast the yield of Virginia 
dairies with the yield in New-York or New-England, 
but to draw forth facts which may enable northern 
men to form an opinion upon the relative advantages 
offered by the north, and so far south, for dairying in¬ 
terests. 
On the 15th of May we milked 21 cows, and made 
53 pounds of cheese—-feeding 2 bushels of shorts. On 
the 15th June milked 40 cows, made 108 lbs.,—fed 
three bushels of shorts. July 15th, 52 cows, 123 lbs., 
fed three bushels shorts. Aug. 15th, 58 cows, 150 
lbs., fed four bushels shorts. The drouth,'or rather its 
effects, were felt until this time, after which the pas¬ 
turage continued fine through the, season. Sept. 15th, 
51 cows, 139 lbs. Oct. 23d, 118 lbs., and commenced 
making butter. Nov. 15th, 43 cows, 87 lbs. of cheese. 
Dec. 30th, 34 cows, 34 lbs. of cheese ; and by the 1st 
January, we had made 25,244 |bs. weight from the 
press. „ 
My cows averaged me in price, when bought, $11.48. 
I fatted on grass, after the 1st September, and sold in 
November, fifteen, at an average price of $20. We 
milked out of doors until about the first of November, 
when we got into our stable. The cheese-house we 
began to use in July. My cheese-house is 60 feet long 
by 26 feet wide. Water is conveyed to it in pipes 
under ground. The stable is 104 feet by 36 feet, with 
stanchions for 63 cows. The cows stand in the centre, 
with their tails towards each other. The space be¬ 
tween the rows of stanchions is 16 feet. The side 
alleys 10 feet each. There is a cellar 24 feet by 36, 
under the barn, for manure, which is delivered from 
the stable through trap doors in the floor. 
Through the year 1848 we kept 63 cows, and made 
34,000 lbs. of cheese. I cannot lay my hands on my 
dairyman’s butter account for either year. We fed 
whey with the shorts, keeping but few hogs. But we 
raised 25 calves the first, and thirty the second year. 
The cows had a range of nearly 400 acres of pasture, 
with abundance of water. 
I established a second dairy last year, and shall es¬ 
tablish a third the coming spring. The second has 40 
cows, the third will have 63. The number of dairies 
in the adjoining county has been increased from three 
to six, and there is a great deal of land well adapted 
to the purpose. My neighbor, Lt. Col. Randolph, now 
offers for sale a farm of 316 acres, for $5,000, with a 
grist mill, and a meadow of 40 acres, about one mile 
from the village. 
Our dairymen are all from New-York. We use the 
dairy stove, (having been unable to procure a steamer,) 
and I believe the only variance from the New-York 
practice in making cheese, is to scald and salt rather 
higher, which we think is rendered necessary by the 
length of our summers. Rob’t M. Marshall. Hap¬ 
py Creek, Va., Jan. 19, 1849. 
P. S.—Our cows are considered by the northern 
dairymen who have seen them, as fairly averaging, in 
point of size and appearance, with the dairies of the 
north. R. M. M. 
Warm Barns. 
Eds. Cultivator —So much has been said upon the 
necessity of keeping cattle warm in winter, that it 
might be supposed every farmer would have his barn 
warm and comfortable; but as we call upon neighbor¬ 
ing farmers, we find many of their barns quite open, 
exposing their cattle to the wind and drifting snow. 
Many, doubtless, do not know how much more it costs 
to winter cattle in a cold barn than in a warm one, 
and that, at best, they * cannot be made to thrive so 
well upon the same quality of food. The animal body 
acts as a furnace which must be supplied with fuel, and 
the greater the exposure to cold, the more fuel there 
must be to keep up the heat. 
Capt. Parry, when wintering in the frigid regions, 
found his men lost their appetite for light food, and ate 
clear butter and grease, with a keen relish, and with¬ 
out the slightest inconvenience, and that their health 
and comfort required these articles of food in propor¬ 
tion as they were exposed to the rigor of the climate. 
Warmly clad travellers have found, to their great sur¬ 
prise, that the men in some of the northern tribes, who 
wear little clothing, will consume daily ten pounds of 
flesh, besides eating as freely of tallow candles as we 
do of apples. So it appears, that shelter and clothing, 
to a certain extent, answer the purpose of food. If we 
apply this principle to the wintering of stock, it is ob¬ 
vious a great saving may be made in hay. The cattle 
in the barn are so many furnaces that must be kept 
heated. If the surrounding medium is cold, there must 
be more fuel, or the cattle’s flesh will be consumed to 
keep up the heat. The farmer, then, who has 20 tons 
of hay in a cold barn, may save at least one tenth of 
it, by expending a small sum in making his stables 
warm ; and this saving he may make every year he 
fills his barn, besides having his cattle in a much bet¬ 
ter condition in the spring. 
Farmers frequently buy hay in backward springs, 
paying high prices, when, if they had expended one- 
half of the money paid for the hay in fixing up their 
stables, they would have saved buying any hay, be¬ 
sides having their stables warm for future use. So the 
objection farmers sometimes make to repairing their 
barns,—that they are poor and in debt,—is the very 
reason why they should repair them. If they are pay¬ 
ing six per cent. interest on their stock, they can ill 
afford to lose twice as much more in keeping it. Cold 
