1070 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
August 28, 1915. 
Live Stock and Dairy 
An Opening for Beef Cattle. 
It is claimed by some that the chief 
purpose in the introduction of cattle into 
the less fertile sections of the Central and 
North Central States was for their man¬ 
ure, and that the milk was but a by¬ 
product. Sapposing this to be true, and 
acknowledging the increase in the produc¬ 
tivity of those sections, it seems reason¬ 
able to think of applying the same treat¬ 
ment to our deplete-in-humus Eastern 
soils. Moreover, there exists almost the 
same condition of land values here that 
obtained there at the time of that cow 
migration; in other words, land here 
may be bought for as little as $15 to 
$30 per acre, and some that is excellent 
for pasture, but worth nothing for any 
other purpose unless it be forestry, may 
be procured for five dollars per acre. 
To be sure, there is not a whole State 
of this, but there is a very considerable 
amount, and there are some sections 
where large tracts of this kind of land 
may be found. 
It does seem that if beef cattle can 
be raised with more or less profit on 
land valued at $150 to $200 per acre 
and be shipped across the whole coun¬ 
try, something could be done in such a 
State as New York in some of her coun¬ 
ties where the lowlands will cut 30 to 
40 tons of green fodder, or ten to 15 
tons of first-class cured silage corn per 
acre, and where there is adjoining such 
land hilly and mountainous land that 
will supply excellent pasturage for six to 
seven months in a season. In addition, 
it is a fact that GO to 70 years ago these 
same hills used to supply large herds 
of grazers with food, which same cat¬ 
tle were driven to the nearby cities, 
where they were butchered. This busi¬ 
ness continued until the Western States 
shipped in so much meat that the mar¬ 
kets were affected, and as a result graz¬ 
ing gave place to other lines of work. 
Now the conditions again seem favor¬ 
able for us, and especially so in that we 
have great need of the manure. The 
labor problem is such that dairying on 
such a large scale as we are thinking 
about would be impracticable if not im¬ 
possible, but the opening for the rear¬ 
ing or even the pasturing and finishing 
of feeders seems favorable to a very en¬ 
ticing degree. 
To do this, for some it might be a lit¬ 
tle difficult, but to those men who have 
tracts of land of 500 to over 1.000, 
and in some cases several thousands of 
acres, it would be easily practicable. No 
large amount of money for barns* would 
be required, for, at Pennsylvania State 
College, it has been proven that cattle 
of beefy tendency, fed to produce beef, 
did produce it not only in a three-sided, 
well-roofed shed, but did it at a fair 
profit, a profit favorably comparing with 
the profits obtained in the Western 
States. Moreover, it was found that 
corn silage, shelled corn, and cottonseed 
meal was the ration that did the best, 
and those are the very things that we can 
produce or obtain as easily as can our 
Western competitors - to - be, for before 
long there are many acres in the New 
England States and in New York that 
will have their herds of beef cattle be¬ 
cause they can do it, and the Western 
States are finding it harder and harder 
to do it. 
Besides the profit that may be expect¬ 
ed from the meat, which we will have 
to consider as the by-product, there is 
the opportunity for the making of large 
amounts of manure from our silage, 
mixed grasses, as hay, our old stand¬ 
by, Red clover, and our rapidly ap¬ 
pearing successor to that, Alfalfa. Sweet 
clover, too, is indigenous to much 
of our soil and, in the opinion of some 
authorities to the contrary notwithstand¬ 
ing, it is greatly relished not only as a 
pasture feed but as a hay food. 
As there are quite a few farmers who 
are only desirous of their cows freshening, 
and care nothing for the calves, it might 
be that arrangements could be made with 
them whereby the owner of a beef 
bull could have the calf for the service, 
or for a slight payment. In this way 
the beef man could get stock carrying 
half blood of a beef type, and in some 
cases more, for there are quite a few 
so-called dairy cows with a very defi¬ 
nite propensity to put on beef instead 
of giving their attention to making milk. 
This keeping of large numbers of 
stock would call for a better method of 
keeping manure, but with large enough 
amounts of litter there would be little 
difficulty in keeping it in the best way 
possible, aside from direct application to 
the field, which would be in having a 
floor of some non-leakable material and 
in allowing the stock to keep the man¬ 
ure tramped by letting them run right 
on it all the while; in this way but 
a small per cent of the valuable material 
would be lost. 
The reader is not supposed that the 
stock is kept as dual purpose, for we 
all know there is no money as a rule 
in stock of that type. The milk that 
would be given would be taken care of 
by the calves, which would run with 
the dam, and if a certain cow gave an un¬ 
usual amount an extra calf could be given 
her. Hogs to follow the animals while 
in the finishing period would add several 
dollars to the profit of each animal. A 
market could be found if the right kind 
of goods were produced. With the man¬ 
ure from the stock and the lime from 
our numerous mines, as they might be 
called, it would be but a few years be¬ 
fore our land would be where we should 
have, and could have, kept it. 
W. J. HAGER. 
Dutchess County, N. Y. 
Storing Butter for Winter. 
Would you let me know how to store 
butter in earthen crocks so as to last in 
fair condition for about six months? My 
storage is about 50-55 degrees. J. F. 
Stuyvesant Falls, N. Y. 
In storing butter for Winter use the 
most essential point is to have good but¬ 
ter. The crocks should be packed with 
butter so the butter is perfectly solid, to 
within an inch and a half of the top. 
Over the butter place a circle of paper 
cut to fit closely around the edges. Over 
this paper put a layer of salt coming up 
to top of crocks; over the salt a thin 
cloth, and over all paper coming down 
over top and sides of crock should be 
securely tied in place. Why not try 
some by the brine method? K. C. w. 
“Net Weight of Butter” Law. 
Is it true that there is a law compel¬ 
ling sellers to mark the weight of butter 
on the package when sold? 
Maine. reader. 
The State of Maine has a net weight 
law which says that “for the purpose of 
this act an article of food in package 
form if sold at a greater price than five 
cents shall also be deemed to be mis¬ 
branded if the quantity of the contents 
be not plainly and conspicuously marked 
on the outside of the package in terms 
of weight measure or numerical count.” 
You will notice that this applies to all 
articles of food, including butter, candy, 
oysters if sold in package, canned goods 
and in fact any package which contains 
food and sells for more than five cents. 
There is also a national net weight 
law which depends not upon the price, 
but rather upon the size of the package. 
Section 8 of paragraph 3 of this act 
reads, “Except as otherwise provided by 
this regulation the quantity of the con¬ 
tents in all cases of food, if in package 
form, must be plainly and conspicuously 
marked in terms of weight measure or 
numerical count on the outside of the 
covering or container usually delivered 
to consumers.” The exceptions to this 
are when it contains less than two avoir¬ 
dupois ounces of food or one fluid ounce 
of food, or when the units of foods there¬ 
in are less than six. 
Dairy Conditions in Tennessee. 
Most dairymen are very well satisfied 
with prices agreed upon for their stuff, 
which is about the same as last year, 
viz.: 40 cents per pound for butterfat 
in whole milk, from April to October, 
and 45 cents the remainder of the year, 
and 36 cents per pound in cream. These 
prices are of course delivered at creamery. 
It costs 25 cents ^er- 10-gallon can to 
ship it. There is plenty of kicking on the 
test and I presume some of it is justified. 
I have tested what was said to be a 
fair sample of cream shipped and it gave 
a clear test of 23 per cent., and the 
producers claim -17 per cent, was all 
they got from factory. 
There are more people going out of 
the dairy business than are going in, and 
I judge that for this region there are 
not more than GO per cent, as many dairy 
cows as there were five years ago. The 
price of cows is not as good as a year 
ago by 25 per cent, or more, and there 
is not near the enthusiasm among the 
dairymen there was five and ten years 
ago. Lack of satisfactory help and los¬ 
ing money by the failure of creamery, 
etc., is driving many out of that line 
into other lines, many going into beef 
growing. As to pastures, up to 12 days 
ago we had lots of rain and heat, and 
pastures had seldom been better, but are 
beginning to need rain now. The same 
could be said of early upland corn, and 
more good rain, if it comes soon, 
will make a full crop of early corn on 
all high lands; has been a little too wet 
for the river men. There is an immense 
acreage of peas and Soy beans all through 
this region, and they also are extra good, 
so that at the present time the prospect 
for Winter feed is far better than or¬ 
dinary years. E. L. griffin. 
Food Value of Skim-milk. 
We have always claimed that skim- 
milk has not been properly valued as a 
food. We think that this despised by¬ 
product of the dairy should have a square 
deal. When we skim milk we take out 
the fat. There remdins the sugar, pro¬ 
tein, minerals and bone-forming food. In 
a bulletin just issued by the Department 
of Agriculture we are told: 
Since the nutritive part of skim-milk 
consists "very largely of protein, it is to 
be classed, as whole milk is, with such 
food materials as eg^s, meat, fish, poul¬ 
try, and cheese (thougn it is much more 
delicate than those foods) rather than 
with such substances as sugar, which 
serve only as fuel. Two and a half 
quarts of skim-milk contain almost as 
much protein and yield about the same 
amount of energy as a pound of round 
of beef. When skim-milk sells for four 
cents a quart or about two cents a pound, 
and round beef for 20 cents a pound, a 
dime, or any other sum of money spent 
for skim-milk will provide nearly twice 
as much nourishment as it will if spent 
for round steak. Round of beef, of course, 
is one of the lower-priced meats and when 
compared with the more expensive cuts, 
skim-milk makes a still better showing 
from the standpoint of economy. The 
comparison with oysters is very signifi¬ 
cant : a quart of oysters contains less 
than twice as much nourishment as a 
quart of skim-milk, and yet it often costs 
several times as muen. Both are use¬ 
ful, wholesome foods, and in the oyster 
one has a special flavor. A combination 
of the two in oyster stew or creamed 
oysters is an economical way of using the 
oysters, since it makes a given quantity 
“go further.” 
This idea that a quart of skim-milk 
is as nourishing as a pint of oysters will 
be a new one to most people, but this 
is the sort of thing we should talk about 
in order to give skim-milk a fair show¬ 
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