Published by 
The Rural Publishing Co. 
333 W. 30th Street 
New York 
The Rural New-Yorker 
The Business Farmer’s Paper 
Weekly, One Dollar Per Year 
Postpaid 
Single Copies. Five Cents 
Vol. LXXIV 
NEW YORK, JANUARY 23, 1915 
No. 4291 
A FRUIT GROWER’S COWS. 
Milk Trade a Side Issue. 
S TARTING WITHOUT EXPERIENCE.—This is 
the experience of a man entering the dairy 
business; one who had never owned or milked 
a cow, or worked among them. In beginning we 
had only horse sense, the help, free to all, in the 
agricultural papers, and the aids and appliances 
advertised in their columns. This is not written 
to encourage baek-to-the-landers, for very few men 
and women will work as we do here, or stay home 
and devote their time to the work. Dairy business 
is every day, and usually eight months of 16-hour 
days. 
In March, 1912, we moved on this farm which 
contained about 10,000 grapevines. Concord, Dela¬ 
ware, Worden and Niagara, 15,000 currant bushes 
and a few cherry trees, the remainder of the 60 
acres being bush lots and waste land. 
FOUNDING THE HERD.—In April we bought a 
cow, 12 years old, with a six-weeks-old calf and a 
two-year-old heifer due to freshen in April. The 
old cow, Mollie, proved to be a rich milker, so we 
raised the heifer calf, Spatter. The first Summer, 
fruit sold at top-notch prices, but when April, 1913, 
came, we found that the returns from the farm 
two quarts middlings, one quart gluten and one 
quart beet pulp before soaking morning and evening. 
SOILING CROPS.—The Spring of 1914 we start¬ 
ed with 10 cows. We had sown rye in 1000 peach 
trees which I had set out the Spring of 1912. As 
early as possible, we cut this rye and gave them a 
feed morning and evening after milking. As soon 
as the ground could be prepared, we s^ved at in¬ 
tervals of one week one-half acre in oats, one acre 
in oats and Canada field peas, one acre in oats and 
vetch, and one-half acre in early fodder corn. In 
the meantime, I had taken out about 3000 Worden 
grapes and we bought a corn planter and planted 
this piece with Eureka corn. In another old grape 
patch I planted one acre of Eureka corn. This corn 
was all planted in rows, not in hills, and cultivated 
every time we could do it. Besides this, we planted 
every vacant row of grapes and every vacant spot 
with fodder corn. About the middle of June, we 
commenced to feed green oats morning and evening 
with hay at noon. This one-half acre fed the 
cows for 10 days. The grain ration was the same 
as usual, omitting the beet pulp. 
SUCCESSION CROPS.—The acre of oats and 
Canada field peas was the finest fodder we ever saw. 
The ground was plowed and harrowed as early as 
possible, first covering well with stable manure. 
my neighbors joined in and helped, and we blew 
that field of corn and part of another into the silo 
just as your advertisement says the blower will do 
it. Bad weather did not permit us to get more than 
two-thirds full after it had settled and the silage 
is all right. 
CHANGES IN RATION.—Beside feeding green 
corn until the frost cut it we had enough fodder to 
feed to the 12 cows, twice a day, until Dec. 20. We 
have used clover hay for the mid-day feed. On ac¬ 
count of having so much trouble getting beet pulp, 
we have substituted dried brewers’ grains with 
equally good results. We have on hand one car¬ 
load of Alfalfa hay bought from an advertiser in 
The R. N.-Y. which was harvested in fine condition 
and we plan to feed this with our silage. We raise 
our calves on calf meal because we never have milk 
enough to satisfy our trade—and they are beauties. 
BUYING THE COWS.—We have bought all of 
our cows from one man. They have all been healthy 
and did as he said they would. When we need an¬ 
other cow, we just hook up and go over and take the 
pick of his herd. We have had chances to buy 
cheaper, but have always feared that a cheap in¬ 
vestment in the cow line might prove false economy. 
Our cows are just ordinary cows, sleek and fat. 
well fed and well housed. We are sending you their 
were practically exhausted, and unless some new 
source of income was found it would he necessary 
to borrow from our capital. At this time we were 
selling about 10 pounds of butter per week at the 
store, and a friend who worked there said: “I wish 
you would bring some milk down instead of this 
butter.” Acting on this suggestion we went among 
our friends and engaged 15 quarts per day at eight 
cents and started delivering the following Monday. 
A few days afterward, May 21, we bought Brownie; 
on May 27 we bought Midget; on June 10 we 
bought a milk cooler and bottler, one of our best in¬ 
vestments; on July 7 we bought Sallie, etc. Along 
in November we tore the inside out of the lower 
part of the barn and put in a concrete floor and 
swinging stanchions for 12 cows, gave the whole a 
coat of lime and moved in our eight cows. 
FEEDING RATIONS.—The first year, when we 
had but a few cows, we pastured in the bush lots 
and supplemented through August, September and 
October with corn fodder, but our cows slacked off 
alarmingly in the Fall, and in our desperation we 
began to study balanced rations as suggested in 
agricultural papers. We had nothing but 1500 
sheaves of corn fodder on the place, so bought 20 
tons mixed clover and Timothy hay. We tried a 
ration of bran, middlings, cottonseed meal and beet 
pulp. This brought results except that cotton seed 
meal did not agree with our cows, so we substituted 
gluten and did better. We fed two quarts bran, 
Then we plowed in our peas and a week later sowed 
the oats and harrowed them in. This acre fed the 
cows twice a day for 25 days. Then we commenced 
on one-half acre of fodder corn which lasted two 
weeks. From this time on we used fodder corn for 
morning and evening feed. Our field of oats and 
vetch was no great success and matured about the 
same time as the oats and peas, so we cured for 
hay, but the cows were not very fond of it. We 
planted millet after our oats and peas were har¬ 
vested, but on account of the long dry spell it did 
not grow very high; we cut the best of it and let 
the cows pasture off the remainder. Our cows are 
kept in the barnyard and a stony lot containing 
about one acre of ground surrounding barn. What 
we used as a pasture for our two cows the first 
year we now use for dry cows and young stock. 
EARLY SILAGE.—That acre of Eureka corn 
grew wonderfully. I do not think there was a 
stalk less than 10 feet and some went as high as 
14 feet. I had erected my silo the first part of 
August, and about the 20tli a terrible shower put 
down that acre of corn so flat that I knew I must 
ensile it or lose it. All papers advised to the con¬ 
trary but that was a sick-looking field of corn, and 
with 3000 Delaware and 1000 Worden to be harvest¬ 
ed the forepart of September, we took a chance. 
A silo is a novelty in our section and a cutter a 
great attraction. The latter part of August is the 
breathing spell between currants and grapes, so 
records for the year. Some of them would have 
made better records if we had had more experience 
and better judgment. Mollie would have been far 
ahead, but shortly after she was fresh she fell and 
lamed herself terribly. Midget’s poor record is due 
to our poor judgment. Last year was her first 
milking, and we milked her up to three weeks of 
freshening to train her to hold to her milk, and she 
is due to freshen in a little over 10 months. She 
is a very persistent and steady milker, and we look 
for a good record next year. We bought a regis¬ 
tered Guernsey bull calf last February, and hope 
to raise some great Guernsey grades from Spatter, 
Dixie and Gypsy. These cows are meeting our ex¬ 
penses and enriching our soil. We ought to have 
20 cows to satisfy the demand, hvA our capacity for 
work is limited ;and we are looking forward to a 
milking machine and watching the columns of The 
R. N.-Y. for the practical wood fiber bottle. 
Quantity Jan. 1 ’ll 
Age 
Fresh 
Jan. 1 ’15 
Pue 
Mollie, 1 A 
March 9 
6759 3-8 
Dinah 4% 
May 26 
6161 3-8 
May 2S 
Spatter 2 yrs 
. 10 rnos. 
Dec. 7 
6872 1-4 
Brownie 9 
Apr. 26 
6379 3-4 
J uly 15 
Midget V> l /> 
Apr. 26 
5762 1-8 
March 8 
Sal,lie 9 
May S 
7140 1-4 
April 2S 
Dominie 16 
Apr. 26 
6385 3-8 
July 9 
Rennie 13 
Oct. 18 
6356 7-16 
Dixie 3^4 
Sept. 18 
7601 3-8 
Daisy S 
Bought 
Feb. 23 
5103 7-8 
Dec. 29 
Gypsy 
Bought 
July 13 
4592 1-2 
May 28 
Bessie 12 
Near 
Jam, 1915 
FRUIT 
GROWER. 
