«8tJ 
August 30, 
|THE KURAb NEW-YORKER 
be kept upon the rape continuously this 
new growth will not be permitted. 
h. c. & it. i?. harpending. 
Yates County, N. Y. 
THE “OVERRUN” ON BUTTER. 
I have six cows and have made my 
own butter for several years, but owing 
to a number of reasons thought of send¬ 
ing the cream to a creamery, so recently 
I went to a branch of a large creamery 
company. This company buys butter 
fat by the Babcock test conducted by 
themselves. While in their office I saw 
one of the daily record sheets they send 
to their main office; 835 pounds butter 
fat put in churn and 1.041 pounds butter 
taken out, being a trifle over 25 per cent 
overrun calculated on the butter-fat 
basis, or a trifle less than 20 per cent 
on the butter as a base. I was under 
the impression that an overrun of 16 per 
cent was all the law’ allows. If this is 
the case it looks to me as though the 
company is robbing the cream seller by 
undertesting the cream. Will you advise 
me in the case. 6. M. H. 
New r York. 
The matter of the overrun in the man¬ 
ufacture of butter is something that has 
puzzled many people and is still doing 
so. It is likely to be a source of some 
trouble for a time to come. The law re¬ 
stricts the water content of butter to 16 
per cent. That is on the basis of the 
product when finished for market. It 
means that in 100 pounds of butter there 
may be 16 pounds of water, and yet there 
can be no case against the manufacturer, 
provided the sample taken gives the exact 
at the creamery was excellent. It seems 
to me that 20 per cent overrun is a good 
one. 
It is not at all surprising that this cor¬ 
respondent is suspicious that the cream 
is not tested correctly. From the figures 
that I have given it will be seen that I 
would regard a 25 per cent overrun as 
possible. I am of the impression also 
that Federal inspection where butter is 
to go to a local trade, as much of the 
butter of this company does, is not made 
so closely as in some other cases. It 
would not be impossible for them to 
work in more water than the law allows 
and still not be hauled up for it. It is 
a dangerous practice for most manufac¬ 
turers, however. I do not know that 
this company have very superior mate¬ 
rial from which to make their butter. It 
is regarded as more easy to get a large 
overrun where the cream comes in fine 
condition than where the quality is infe¬ 
rior. While I regard the excess of butter 
overfat in this case a possibility, I pre¬ 
sume I should regard the figures just as 
this correspondent regards them if I 
were in his place. The fact is that the 
Babcock test is being so misused that 
everybody is inclined to become suspi¬ 
cious whenever there is anything unusual 
in the figures, and sometimes when there 
is nothing unusual. It is a shame to al¬ 
low so good a thing as the Babcock test 
to become discredited in the hands of 
manipulators. No one should sell on 
BERKSIIIRES ON PASTURE. Fig. 37S. 
PASTURING BERKSHIRE SWINE. 
Part I. 
The profit to be derived from a herd 
of swine in this day of high-priced pork 
is not sufficiently realized by the average 
farmer. In years past it was the usual 
practice throughout the West and in 
some other sections as well, to maintain 
pigs in a pen and develop them by shov¬ 
eling to them all the corn they would 
consume. This practice was not con¬ 
fined to the fattening herd; but breeding 
stock to a great extent received the same 
treatment. This system was, in part, to 
blame for reducing the average size of 
mature animals, after a few generations, 
from 600 or 800 pounds to 300 or 400 
pounds, and where, under natural condi¬ 
tions, brood sows throughout the West 
farrowed litters averaging eight or ten 
and raised them, deterioration was in¬ 
evitable, until the average breeder, par¬ 
ticularly in the corn belt, was satisfied 
with a litter of five and gratified with 
more. A gilt should farrow at her first 
litter six or more, and a mature sow 
should average from year to year not 
less than 10. If these females are per¬ 
mitted sufficient exercise and the right 
sort of food, and not too much of it, they 
will not only produce such litters, but 
will raise a satisfactory proportion of 
them to weaning age. In our own herd 
mature brood sows have, for years, aver¬ 
aged between 10 and 11 pigs per litter; 
and certain families of sows, bred by us 
for generations, have averaged better 
than 11. 
It is probably true that corn at 60 
cents a bushel will profitably produce 
pork, selling for seven or eight cents per 
pound, live weight, but the margin is not 
large enough to induce speculation, nor 
hardly to cover the labor and many risks 
involved. In order to maintain the herd 
in maximum thrift, to produce satisfac¬ 
tory litters of strong pigs, and, in short, 
to produce pork profitably, it. is neces¬ 
sary that the herd be maintained upon 
range, and that the major portion of the 
ration be gathered by the pigs from pas¬ 
tures or crops intended to be harvested 
by them in the field. A large hoghouse 
is not only unnecessary, but of very 
doubtful value. Colony houses, either 
A-shaped, so-called, or of the shed-roof 
style, which will house from 10 to 20 
animals each, may be maintained in sep¬ 
arate pasture lots and, if desired, moved 
from place to place with little trouble. 
Such houses, well constructed and paint¬ 
ed, will cost from $15 to $25 each to 
build and, if kept painted, will last for 
many years. The writer finds an A-shaped 
pen, measuring 7x10 feet on the ground 
and seven feet high at the peak, used in 
connection with shed-roof pens, 8x16 on 
the ground, five feet front and 3 1 / 4 eleva¬ 
tion rear, to be very satisfactory. Of 
course our herd is composed of purebred 
animals only, and the young disposed of 
for breeding purposes, so that we seldom 
keep more than a dozen in one lot or pen. 
Our system of pastures and forage 
crops includes sweet corn, sorghum, rape, 
rye, clover and Alfalfa, with permanent 
pastures of Blue grass. The South has 
a great advantage in this respect in that 
the growing season is much longer and 
forage crops may include peanuts, in 
corn; cliufas, artichokes, Crimson clover 
and a much longer pasture season for 
grasses. We cut and feed the corn on 
grass pastures, commencing with a stalk 
each day per animal, ear and all. and 
gradually increasing the amount. Much 
care should be exercised in starting ani¬ 
mals on green or immature corn. We 
sow rye or rape in the corn at the last 
cultivation and practice this in larger 
fields where the corn is grown primarily 
for the silo or otherwise. Rape is sown 
ahead of the cultivator at the rate of 
three pounds per acre. Rye sown the 
same way at the rate of two bushels per 
acre. Either of these will afford abun¬ 
dant pasture after the corn is harvested, 
and will last well into the early Winter. 
The rye may be utilized the following 
year, as described later. When rape is 
grown alone for swine pasture it may be 
sown or drilled any time after the ground 
is ready in the Spring up to July 1st. It 
will be of advantage to furnish two or 
three lots of this pasture. The pigs will 
soon crop it down close, and if removed 
to another lot the rape will make a new 
and much more luxuriant growth from 
time to time, the size of the plant and 
amount of forage being greatly increased 
by occasional croppings. Should the pigs 
results indicated in the example men¬ 
tioned. It may be well to note that a 
100 pounds of butter containing 16 
pounds of water may show either a 
smaller or a larger amount of water by 
the test than the true amount. It de¬ 
pends upon the sample as that may con¬ 
tain proportionately more or less than 
the 100 or the 1,000 pounds averages. 
For this reason it is never perfectly safe 
to run up to the limit allowed by the 
law. Fourteen or 15 pounds of water is 
all the cautious butter-maker cares to 
incorporated in 100 of butter. 
It should be remembered that butter 
fat and water are not the only constitu¬ 
ents of butter. There is salt and casein, 
to say the least. There may be three 
pounds of salt and possibly two of casein. 
Now if we figure 80 pounds of fat, 15 of 
water, three of salt and two of casein we 
have one hundred of butter. This on a 
basis of fat content is an overrun of 25 
per cent. I would regard this possible 
under the most favorable conditions. In 
a table of content of butter under aver¬ 
age conditions Wing gives the following: 
He further adds that the casein should 
not go above four per cent nor the water 
above 15 per cent. The fat, he says, 
should not be under 80 per cent. Ilis 
table was made some time ago before 
watering butter came to be such a fine 
art, but the remarks that go with it 
show that he was not even then unaware 
of the varying constituents of butter. I 
have just been looking over a yearly re¬ 
port of a creamery where the amount 
of fat handled amounted to over 172,000 
pounds. The overrun in this case 
amounted to 20 per cent. The proprie¬ 
tor told me that he expected to increase 
this overrun at his next statement. In 
this case I am sure that the milk and 
cream were tested correctly, and the 
condition of the product when delivered 
tost without being in position to deter¬ 
mine definitely whether he is getting a 
fair deal. Some of the companies that 
have a good reputation are coming under 
suspicion. H. n. L. 
SELECTING A BULL. 
It was recently stated in The R. N.-1 t . 
that if a man wants to improve his dairy 
cows, he should get a purebred bull; buy 
as good a one as he could find, and be 
sure that he got his money’s worth. This 
is sound advice, but now comes a man 
who wants a little further information. 
He says he wants to know .how such a 
dairyman, without much study of breed¬ 
ing of purebred animals, can know that 
he is getting his money’s worth, as 
stated. 1 low would you advise such a 
man to go to work to know lie is getting 
his money’s worth with purebred stock? 
In my opinion such a man as you de¬ 
scribe should first settle in his mind be¬ 
yond a shadow of doubt the breed of cat¬ 
tle for which he wishes to care, and then 
take a step further and decide the type 
of animal which constitutes the ideal 
toward which he wishes to breed. Hav¬ 
ing done this I do not advise a man to 
buy too hastily. Of course if the man 
who is buying is a better judge of hu¬ 
man nature and men than of breeding 
and cattle he can go to a reliable breeder 
and put the question of value to him 
fairly and receive a “square deal,” but 
unfortunately there are breeders whose 
standards of honesty are not far enough 
advanced to make such a step always 
advisable. So a man must, sooner or 
later, inform himself and be his own 
judge and, for that matter, for all the 
time and study he puts into doing this, 
he will be well repaid. It will be money 
well expended for a man to visit several 
good herds and get prices on different 
grades of cattle. To some extent it 
would be of value to him to attend auc¬ 
tion sales of good cattle, taking time to 
study the catalogue of the sale and to 
look carefully over the stock before the 
sale begins. Personally I do not think 
the hurry and rapid bidding of a suc¬ 
cessful auction sale is a good place for 
an average dairyman to spend his money 
for foundation stock. If a man is so 
situated that he cannot leave home to do 
these things he is naturally thrown back 
upon the breeders of his own locality and 
upon advertised herds. In the latter case 
the best thing he can do is to write breed¬ 
ers who are following the lines of breeding 
which he intends to follow, and from a 
comparative study of the cattle which 
are offered him he can form some opinion 
of the price he must pay for kind of 
stock ho wants. Let me add one word 
of caution; do not buy breeding unless 
the animal is a good individual. A pedi¬ 
greed scrub isn’t an inspiring sight. And 
remember, too, that a couple of years 
of scrub care will undo the work of sev¬ 
eral generations of breeding. 
Vermont. ciias. S. AIKEN. 
If that question could be positively an¬ 
swered affirmatively it would take out 
the greatest problem in breeding. He 
cannot know—he can only hope. Bulls 
can be judged on their counts, individ¬ 
uality, pedigree and offspring. The first 
count is embraced in the score card, is 
usually fairly accurate, and needs no 
elaboration from me except to say that 
I insist on a level top line to the tail, a 
big barrel, sharp withers, and nothing 
very “beefy.” I don’t like a coarse head, 
and I want the rudimentaries well 
placed (but for that I study his dam). 
As to pedigree, the most important 
thing to remember is that the best part 
of the pedigree is the breeder’s name. If 
you have no confidence in the breeder, 
the pedigree is not worth much, and if 
you have confidence, then rely on him 
(largely) and disregard the pedigree. 
Try to see the ancestors and any half or 
full sisters that may be around, study 
the herd environment and ascertain 
whether the herd is a “reigning” herd or 
a bunch of “has-beens.” Disregard fash¬ 
ion in blood lines for the grade herd. 
Remember that records are more to the 
credit of the milker and feeder than to 
the credit of the cow, especially 
short-time records. I have seen 
inferior animals bought to head a 
university herd on the strength of 
short-time tests made by skilful feed¬ 
ers. and a fine herd ran down 50 to 60 
per cent in four years. Offspring is the 
final test and the only sure one—and it 
has uncertainties. In the offspring you 
can see the tendencies of the bull, and 
you know what to expect. An aged bull, 
four to six years old, can almost always 
be bought for less than a young bull. 
The reason is that the average man is 
justly much afraid of a mature bull, and 
he hates to undertake the work of mak¬ 
ing his bluff good with the old fellow. 
Another reason is that many bulls, 
through careless handling become slow, 
and partially impotent—facts which can 
be ascertained readily before purchase. 
But, to my mind, an important thing 
to remember is that in selecting a bull to 
head scrub or grade herd, fine points in 
pedigree, etc., need not be considered that 
should be considered in selecting a herd 
leader for a registered herd. The breed 
influence behind almost any purebred 
bull, if his mother and father are all 
right, should be such as would improve 
the average grade herd. Finally, though, 
raise your calves carefully, and feed and 
watch them until they freshen. This is 
a Jersey section. Only Jersey bulls are 
used; and in the past few years advance 
has been rapid. I have given free serv¬ 
ice of my registered bulls to all who 
would come—about 125 cows per year, 
and besides have loaned out bulls to all 
who would care for them. With equal 
opportunity, some herds here are now of 
such quality that $75 will not buy the 
poorest grade—unless she is not sound— 
while in others $45 is a top price. The 
difference is almost wholly in the method 
of raising and feeding the calves. But 
that is another story. GEORGE G. CURTIS. 
Wisconsin. 
A MIDDLE-AGED bachelor was in a res¬ 
taurant at breakfast when he noticed this 
inscription on the egg. "To whom it may 
concern: Should this meet the eye of 
some young man who desires to marry a 
farmer’s daughter, 18 years of age, 
kindly communicate with -, Sparta, 
N. J.” After reading this he made haste 
to write to the girl offering marriage and 
in a few days received this note: “Too 
late. I am marrjed now and have four 
children.”—Newark Star. 
