1914. 
'FH EC RURAL NEW-YORKER 
640 
BREEDING BUTTERFAT; WORKING BULLS 
How much can we improve the quality 
of Holstein milk by selecting the best 
specimens? What about working a bull? 
It is possible within certain limits of 
increasing the percentage of butterfat by 
breeding and selection, although it is 
probably true that for market milk pur¬ 
poses it would be more desirable to look 
to the Holstein breed for quantity of 
milk, and if it becomes necessary to 
raise the quality or increase the butter¬ 
fat or color, it is best to keep in the 
herd a few representatives of either the 
Jersey or Guernsey breed to supply milk 
of the quality desired. There are a 
number of instances that might be men¬ 
tioned where the breeder is selecting 
Holstein sires from dams whose milk 
tested above the average in butterfat, in¬ 
stances where every female in the short 
tabulation of the sire’s dam was a pro¬ 
ducer of say 4% milk. It is a debatable 
question whether this line of endeavor 
is worth while, for at best the' amount 
of increase would be proportionately 
small, for in reality there is very little 
difference between milk testing 3 Ya% and 
milk testing 4%. We oftentimes hear 
breeders state that they have relatively 
high-testing Holstein cattle, and that this 
condition is the result of careful selec¬ 
tion and mating. It is reasonable to be¬ 
lieve that improvement can be made along 
this line, in fact it has been done, yet 
just to what extent it is profitable would 
be hard to determine. It must be re¬ 
membered, however, that if any change 
is made it must be necessarily slight, for 
in my judgment it would surely be fool¬ 
ish to start out with a 3% cow in an 
endeavor to get individuals that would 
produce 5% milk, since we have estab¬ 
lished at this time definite useful breeds 
that produce liberal amounts of 5% milk 
at low cost. In other words the Holstein 
breed of cattle is noted for producing 
milk of 3%% butterfat, and while in¬ 
stances are common where individuals 
produced milk of 4% quality and above, 
it is reasonable to believe that the bulk 
of the individuals will always produce 
milk of the 3 or 3 1 / 4% quality, and it 
would be no doubt very difficult to pro¬ 
duce both the quality and the quantity. 
A bull can safely be put to work on a 
farm, and such activities will not de¬ 
crease his usefulness as a breeder. In 
fact exercise is one of the essential re¬ 
quirements for successful management of 
a bull, and it is invariably the stall-fed 
bull whose potency is of questionable use¬ 
fulness when he is two or three years old. 
Two years ago the Walker-Gordon farms 
were evidencing some difficulty in getting 
their cows safely settled, and put into 
vogue the practice of working their breed¬ 
ing sires, utilizing them in this case for 
hauling manure, and not only have they 
been able to increase the usefulness of the 
sires from a working standpoint, but they 
were able to get a higher breeding per¬ 
centage and the bulls were much more 
easily handled and of less trouble to the 
care-takers. Of course, there would be a 
limit as to the amount of work and ser¬ 
vice that would be expected of a bull. He 
should not be expected to do team work 
to the extent of his ability and at the 
same time be responsible for heavy ser¬ 
vice in the breeding pen. As a rule bulls 
will look out for themselves when it 
comes to work, and it is true that more 
often they are not given enough exercise 
rather than they are given too much 
work. By subjecting a bull to regular 
work on a farm enables the owner to feed 
him a more substantial grain ration, 
which in turn is conducive to more effi¬ 
cient service as a breeder. Idle bulls 
are often given an excessive amount of 
roughage, and a minimum amount of 
grain, while their feet are often neglected, 
and their usefulness of short duration. 
In my judgment there is everything to 
be gained by breaking a bull to work 
either in harness or tread power. This 
will enable the owner t determine more 
accurately the real value of the bull, and 
he can keep him without great expeuse 
for maintenance until his first daughters 
come in milk, at which time their record 
of production can be compared with that 
of their dam’s record, which is the real 
measure of value of a dairy bull. The 
present practice of selling bulls for three 
cents per pound that are worth $3 per 
pound is most unfortunate, and certainly 
the practice of working bulls, and letting 
them earn their feed by manual labor 
gp Makes 1J 
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Waterproof 
Harness 
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^ Jnst put your name 
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iw Separator book free. 
On the latest, most modern, most 
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Gearing runs in a constant bath 
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Closest skimmin*?. new type disc dowI. 
A lot of New Sanitary features not found 
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William Galloway Co. 
during the interval when they are under 
such test is one method of solving the bull 
problem. F. c. minkler. 
COMPOSITION OF BUTTERFAT. 
Does butterfat mean actual butter, or 
is there a difference? E. G. II. 
Prof. II. H. Wing gives the following 
average composition of butter: Fat, 85%; 
casein, 1% ; salt, 3% ; water, 11%. In 
some cases there is more water than 
others. It ought not to rise above 15%, 
and there ought to be at least 80% of 
fat. Thus it will be seen that pure but¬ 
terfat does not mean actual butter. It 
does mean enough of the fat combined 
with water to make it smear well on 
bread, and containing enough salt to give 
it a satisfactory taste. This question 
is frequently asked, so that it is evidently 
not clear to many people just what is 
meant by butterfat. If we remember 
that butter is the fat with water and 
salt added, we shall get a clear definition. 
A small quantity of casein or cheesy mat¬ 
ter may be carried to the fat through the 
cream. 
We may consider the difference be¬ 
tween sugar and candy. Candy is made 
of sugar, yet all sugar is not candy. 
As the simplest form of candy, we may 
take molasses boiled down to a sticky 
paste. Molasses candy is usually made 
by adding more or less butter and some¬ 
times other ingredients with the mo¬ 
lasses, and boiling them sufficiently to 
make a thick sticky mass, which when 
cooled and pulled out so as to admit the 
air, becomes light in color and hard and 
firm in texture. While the candy con¬ 
tains molasses, molasses is not all candy, 
but as is the case with butter, is made 
from fat with the addition of other ma¬ 
terials. The fat is the basis of butter 
and the fat test of milk, gives the amount 
of pure fat found in that milk. In or¬ 
der to figure the amount of actual butter 
that can be made from a sample of milk 
we would find the amount of fat in that 
milk and then add about 15% to it. as 
this would give the amount of average 
butter which would be made from that 
fat. 
Sweet Corn and the Silo. 
I have two fields which will measure 
up about 15 acres together. I am in a 
quandary whether to plant this to silage 
corn for cow feed, or to plant it to sweet 
corn, selling the corn in New York and 
using the stalks and unsalable nubbins 
for silage, making up any shortage by 
purchase of cornmeal. Raising silage 
corn is undoubtedly the easiest, less care 
and less work than raising and selling 
sweet corn, but the latter appears to be 
the most profitable proposition. What 
say you : 
•> 
This problem will require considerable 
figuring. Without question the field corn 
properly grown so as to form a good-sized 
ear, will make a better quality of silage 
than the sweet corn stalks with most of 
the ears picked off. From our experience 
such stalks of sweet corn, however, would 
be about equal in feeding value to the 
large silage corn grown in drills and not 
forming many ears. The weight per 
acre, however, of the silage corn would 
be much greater than that of the sweet 
corn. In Northern New Jersey, where 
the market for sweet corn is good, an 
acre of the late varieties properly grown 
and handled ought to bring from $50 
to $G0 worth of ears, in addition 
to the smaller ears of nubbins left 
upon the stalk. From a financial 
point of view, therefore, there would 
probably be a larger income from plant¬ 
ing sweet corn, and selling the ears as 
is here suggested. Care, however, must 
be taken in handling a proposition of this 
kind. The earlier varieties of sweet 
corn would not be so satisfactory. The 
stalks are small, and will not give a 
heavy crop per acre. It would be better 
to cut these earlier varieties as soon as 
the ears are picked, and use them as 
green fodder to help out the pasture. The 
best results from this management will 
be in planting late varieties like Ever¬ 
green or Country Gentlemen, picking the 
ears in September, and immediately cut¬ 
ting the stalks into the silo. Silage from 
sweet corn stalks must be handled with 
care. The silo must be packed solidly. 
To sum it up. u good field corn will j 
give a better quality of silage, hut it is 
doubtful if it would give enough greater 
feeding value from an acre to offset the 
cash returns from selling the ears of 
sweet corn. 
B Y TURNING your cream separator handle at the wrong speed you are losing anywhere 
up to half of your butter-fat. You are leaving this butter-fat in the milk because by 
"guessing” at the speed you turn your separator, you are not turning anywhere near the 
right speed. You are feeding, perhaps, 10 cows, and making a butter profit on only 5, 
6 or 7 of them. But you can get a butter profit on all of them by putting a Stewart Speed 
Indicator on your cream separator. Thousands of dairymen who used to lose cream by turning 
at the wrong speed, just as you do now, are now saving it by using the 
Stewart Speed Indicator 
for Cream Separators 
This instrument goes on the crankshaft and shows how many revolutions you turn the handle 
per minute. There is no counting or timing—for the Stewart tells at a glance the exact speed 
you are turning the crank. 
How You Lose Cream Without The Stewart Indicator 
You cannot crank your separator at the correct speed by “guess”. No living soul can do this. 
We tried thousands of people, and hardly one came anywhere near correct. 
Any authority on dairying will tell you that even one wrong revolution per minute means 
a loss of cream If you turn too slow, cream is left unseparated m the skim milk, it you turn 
too fast, particles of fat in the cream are burst and spoil the quality of the butter. Most people 
crank too slowly by ten to twenty revolutions per minute. 
__ One dairyman with 20 cows lost $524.10 in one year by 
- f “guessing” at his speed. He found he turned it just half 
fast enough. Actual tests at Purdue showed this. 
Another dairyman writes that he owns 8 cows and los. 
$18.60 in one month because he “guessed”. 
With the Stewart Speed Indicator attached to your sep¬ 
arator you turn the crank properly every time and so save 
every possible bit of butter fat. 
Fits Any Separator—$10 
It doesn’t make any difference when your separator was 
made or what kind it is. The Stewart will fit it. Tell us the 
name, the number, and the year it was made and we furnish 
the Stewart Speed Indicator on a new crankshaft that you 
can easily put on. (If your separator is a De Laval, then no 
extra crankshaft is necessary.) The price is but $10 complete. 
30 Days Trial 
If the Stewart doesn’t increase your cream production, 
return it and get your money within 30 days. 
Facts, Figures and Butter Book—Free 
Fill in and mail the coupon below to us, and we’ll send 
you some amazing facts about cream waste and the way to 
stop it. You ought to know these things right now. Mail the 
coupon today. 
I Stewart-Warner Speedometer Corporation, 
* 107 Diversey Blvd., Chicago, Ill. 
Please send me, free, all your literature on Cream 
. Production and the books about the Stewart Speed Indi¬ 
cator for Cream Separators. 
For sale by all hardware 
and agricultural implement 
dealers all over the world. 
My name is... 
My address. State. 
“Licks the Backet Clean’ 
Blatchford’s Calf Meal 
As good as New Milk at half the Cost. 
100 pounds makes 100 gallons of Perfect 
Milk Substitute. 
Send for pamphlet, “How to Raise Calves 
Cheaply and Successfully Without Milk.” 
At your Dealers or 
BLATCHFORD’S CALF MEAL FACTORY 
WAUKEGAN 
ILLINOIS 
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BOOKS WORTH BUYING 
= Law for the American Farmer, Green 1.50 
= Insects of Farm ami Garden, Treat. 1.50 ^5 
Black’s Medical Dictionary. 2.50 ^3 
Tho Rural New-Yorker, 333 West 30th St., N. Y. 
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