1874 .] 
51 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
dance of winter forage, was nearly all of it 
dwarfed, the early season being too cold for 
strong growth, and the dry weather cutting 
short all that was not well started—so that the 
store left for winter use was almost nothing. 
In short, the drouth had evidently been much 
the most severe we have ever had, and any far¬ 
mer will know what that means. 
At the same time, I had decided that I 
should buy no more hay—that part of the im¬ 
provement of the farm is, I am glad to say, fin¬ 
ished, and the land is now able to make a good 
stock of manure for itself—and the crop of the 
year had been good enough to allow me to 
stick to the decision. My Illinois herd would 
take away about twenty-five head of Jerseys, 
and I could make good arrangements for the 
winter for all the calves, dry cows, and colts 
on a farm near by where I have plenty of hay. 
So we went into winter quarters with only 
eighteen head of horned cattle and the work¬ 
ing mules. With this small stock, and with 
the hay all of the best quality and early cut, 
the steaming apparatus is laid by for this season, 
and we are pulling through the winter very 
comfortably after all. 
I am not insensible to the pleasure and ad¬ 
vantage of writing this series of papers ; but I 
sometimes feel the annoyance of it, and wish 
that less publicity need be given to my farming. 
Of course, visitors are always welcome, and it 
is to be expected that those of them who write 
for the papers will print the result of their ob¬ 
servations. It would be sometimes pleasanter 
if they did not. One well-disposed writer from 
Pennsylvania came in the very height of the 
drouth. He spoke no German, and my people 
speak little English. He went away and wrote 
nis impressions—and evidently with a disposi¬ 
tion to say as much for Ogden Farm and as 
little against it as he possibly could. Yet this 
is the impression he gives: 
The Jerseys are all right; when compared 
with many in Pennsylvania the farm suffers by 
comparison (of course it does, most of the 
farms of this country do); one field was said 
to have cut four tons per acre, he would have 
guessed one ton (it cut four tons in 1872 in 
the whole season, in 1873 not much over two 
and a half, owing to the drouth); the drains 
were not running, the windmill well was dry, 
we have to drive miles to water, and would 
find the salt sea nearer; underdraining seems 
not to prevent drouth; we were, in spite of all 
this, making an average of 6| lbs. of butter per 
week from each cow (not true, for we are buy¬ 
ing considerable of milk in addition to our 
own); the cows average 10 quarts a day (at 
that season it was not over 7); to make a pound 
of butter requires over 10£ quarts of milk (of 
our own milk at that season it took 7 to 8 qts.); 
the pool for the deep cans is supplied from a 
spring at the bottom of a well, 75 feet deep, 
close by, and the water is drawn and put into 
it by hand, which takes a man six hours a day 
(this is only during a rare drouth like this, and 
even then only a few buckets of water are put 
in each day to keep up the quantity, and ice is 
used to keep it cool and fresh); the pool does 
not contain running water, as we supposed, 
“ but is simply an open cistern ” (it is supplied 
with fresh water by every wind that blows, 
except in times of such drouth); and so on, 
pretty Dearly to the end of the chapter. The re¬ 
port is friendly and on the whole complin . 
tary, but the real facts of the case at OgcVr 
Farm are about as incorrectly stated as they 
could have been by an intelligent man with 
every desire and disposition to state them cor¬ 
rectly. I can only hope that my ignorance of 
Dutch and Wonter Sluis’s imperfect English 
did not so much interfere with my impressions 
of the Bermster in Holland. 
Recently, in feeding our cows, we came upon 
a part of the mow where we had put away 
several tons of clover from a newly-seeded 
meadow. We have now fed this exclusively 
for two weeks, and although the hay fed be¬ 
fore it was very good (mostly red-top) the milk 
of the whole herd has increased fully sixteen 
per cent. Comment is unnecessary. 
Gen. Tilton, the director of the national 
Soldier’s Home near Augusta, Maine, has re¬ 
cently published some statistics of the dairy of 
that institution which are instructive. He has 
since sent me the weights of the animals in 
question, and the whole statement of the case 
is as follows: 
Milk fob the Year Ending Oct. 23, 1S73. 
Breed. 
| Number. 
Weight cf each an¬ 
imal Dec. 17, 1873. 
■35 v | 
| Period of weigh- 
| ing. in days. 
Number of days 
in milk. 
Whole product in 
•pounds. 
Average per day 
during the whole 
period. 
Average per day 
while in milk. 
Per cent of cream 
in milk. 
Holsteins.... 
i 
1230 
6 
335 
285 
4123 
19.51 
25.00 
13.33 
4 * 
2 
1221 
4 
4 * 
365 
GS15 
18.67 
18.67 
11.66 
Grades. 
3 
1110 
6 
44 
283 
5570 
15.20 
19.68 
8.33 
44 
4 
12C0 
5 
44 
305 
4979 
13.64 
10.12 
15.00 
5 
1002 
10 
44 
275 
4G8G 
12.84 
17.00 
13.33 
44 
6 
9S0 
10 
44 
305 
4306 
*11.90 
11.90 
13.33 
44 
7 
905 
6 
44 
3C5 
4281 
11.73 
14.03 
16.66 
44 
8 
1208 
8 
44 
201 
4319 
11.83 
16.54 
11.66 
44 
9 
9S0 
3 
44 
295 
2845 
7.80 
9 64 
11.66 
44 
10 
1150 
7 
1S3 
123 
2432 
13.29 
19.77 
13 33 
44 
11 
1127 
8 
4 * 
123 
2179 
11.90 
17.71 
15.00 
44 
12 
952 
T 
44 
123 
2082 
10.83 
10.90 
15.00 
Jerseys. 
13 
S71 
3 
365 
302 4205 
11.52 
13.90 
18.33 
14 
826 
4 
* 4 
334 
4024 
11.02 
12.04 
IS. 33 
44 
15 
979 
9 
44 
305 
4004 
11.97 
13.12 
21.06 
44 
16 
1007 
8 
44 
320 
3788 
10.21 
11.65 
33.33 
44 
17 
958 
9 
44 
3JU 
3791 
10.38 
12.27 
15.00 
it 
18 
1012 
7 
44 
3C5 
3G54 
10.00 
10.00 
23.33 
44 
19 
830 
4 
251 
1GG 
2905 
11.54 
17.50 
23.33 
20 
693 
2 
72 
72 
1162 
10.13 
10.13 
20.00 
Breed. 
1 
.g 
Average of whole 
product in lbs. 
Average per day in 
pounds. 
l| 
'e.g 
$ 
» . 
Average loss by being 
dry. per cent. 
Average quarts per 
year of 2.15 pounds 
per quart. 
Per cent of cream. 
Average cream per 
year , in quarts. 
Holsteins. 
325 
0909 
19.09 
21.83 
12.50 
3211 
12.50 
405 
Grades. 
298 
4435 
12.11 
15.93 
24.00 
2002 
13.33 
275 
Jerseys. 
322 
3901 
11.60 
13.32 
13.60 
1814 
21.67 
393 
Discarding fractions, the average weight of 
the three classes was: Holsteins, 1,225 lbs.; 
Grades (natives?), 1,067 lbs.; Jerseys, 001 lbs. 
“ The grades,” says Gen.Tilton, “ are the best 
of their class, having been selected with special 
view to their milking qualities. The cows 
were in no case overfed. They have had little 
or'no feed except hay in winter, while in sum¬ 
mer they have had poor pasture, supplemented 
with green-corn fodder at night.” 
The proportion of milk (average per day for 
the whole year) as compared with the average 
weight of the cows of each class was: 
Holsteins, l 4 Vioo P er cent of live weight. 
Grades, “ » 
Jerseys, 1 58 / 100 “ “ “ “ “ 
The proportion of cream may be best stated 
as follows: 
Of Holsteins, it took 3*/ lw lbs. live weight to produce 
one quart. 
Cf Grades, it took S® 8 /,lbs. live weight to produce 
one quart. •. _ 
Of Jerseys, it took 2”/, 00 lbs. live weight to produce 
one quart 
The foregoing tables and calculations may 
be with advantage considered in several differ¬ 
ent lights, but there is one that is especially 
important to butter makers: 
If an animal (other things being equal) con¬ 
sumes food in proportion to its weight, then, in 
order to make as much cream from the other 
breeds as can be made by a Jersey consuming 
2,000 lbs. of hay,we must feed a Holstein 2,649 
lbs., or a Grade (of the kind and quality used 
by Gen. Tilton) 3,402 lbs. Of course, the sur¬ 
plus would not be all wasted, the Holstein 
would make more skimmed milk (containing 
caseine), and the Grade would probably gain 
flesh, while the Jersey would keep thin. Still, 
when butter is the object, and no equally pro¬ 
fitable use can be made of skimmed milk or 
flesh, the profit lies heavily on the side of the 
Jersey. I believe that a quart of Jersey cream 
will make more butter than a quart of cream 
from either of the other breeds, but this is only 
a matter of opinion, not of positive knowledge. 
"Whether cows do consume food proportioned 
to their live weight is a question which it is to 
be desired that some one would settle by care¬ 
ful experiment. Probably a thin animal would 
eat more in proportion than a fat one, but the 
weights and ages of Gen.Tilton’s Jerseys show 
that they were not thin. When I saw his herd, 
two years ago, they were in excellent condition 
of flesh. 
Mr. H. B. Gunler, of De Kalb, Illinois, has 
asked for an opinion on this question. He 
puts it thus: “ If one of two cows of equal 
weight will produce 25 to 30 per cent more 
butter (or milk of the same quality) must she not 
require more food, or are her digestive organs 
enough better to make that difference ? I should 
think that after allowing an equal amount for 
the support of each cow’s system they must re¬ 
quire food in proportion to milk or butter pro¬ 
duced unless one has more of a tendency to 
put on fat than the other.” 
This question covers a good deal of ground, 
and I have found nothing in my reading that 
enables me to answer it very definitely, nor 
have I ever been so situated as to experiment 
with sufficient care and to sufficient extent to 
decide it. At the same time, one would think 
that a matter of such vital importance should 
have been elucidated before this time. Gen. 
Tilton’s experiment throws much light on it, 
but does not go far enough. The experiment 
should be made with animals of about the same 
age, of the same breed, in the same condition 
as to pregnancy, and in the same state of 
health. They should be weighed every day, 
and note should be made of their daily condi¬ 
tion ; their milk should be weighed at each 
milking, the milk of each should be creamed 
separately, and the amount of butter the cream 
of each makes should be noted; the food of 
each should be carefully weighed; it would 
add to the value of the experiment if the cows 
were divided into two or more lots and fed dif¬ 
ferently (alternating the food of different lots 
from time to time); and, still further, if special 
additions of grain, etc., be made to the food. 
In the absence of such definite experiments 
it is impossible to answer Mr. Gunler’s question 
with precision. The opinion I should give 
would be an opinion only, but it would be that 
the better producer of the two cows would not 
only eat more food, but would also convert 
more of what she did cat into the products of 
theud lcr, If they consumed like quantities 
