1018 Oie RURAL NEW-YORKER 
Milk and Forage Notes 
Transplanted Alfalfa in Wisconsin 
The picture given below shows a field 
of ti’ausplanted Cossack Alfalfa. This is 
sent by Mr. Hugh Jeffries of Wisconsin, 
who says concerning it: 
It was taken the 10th of July, and 
shows a part of the field transplanted 
on old, worn-out ground, quite sandy, the 
plants set 3x3 feet. The soil is a little 
acid, as it turns blue litmus paper pink, 
and we did not lime or fertilize it. At 
the same time, I think it is policy to use 
both lime and ground rock phosphate be¬ 
fore the natural fertility of the land be¬ 
comes exhausted, and we are planning on 
treating a 20-acre field that we shall put 
into Cossack next Summer. 
We have had an unusually dry season 
here, and the advantage of having the 
Alfalfa in rows so that it could be culti¬ 
vated has been very noticeable. These 
pictures, taken .July 10, .show the field 
in full bloom, and they are still like a 
flower garden, and making seed 7’ight 
along. We don’t expect to cut it for 
seed until about August 20, as it usually 
makes seed for about six Aveeks before 
the fii’st seed to ripen begins to .shatter. 
From present indications we shall have 
a heavy seed crop. 
There may be, and are, solid objection 
to the plan of transplanting Alfalfa on 
any large scale. For a seed crop, how¬ 
ever, such planting pays, as the big 
plants surely do shell out the seed. Our 
own observation is that both Cossack and 
Semipalatinsk Alfalfa will thrh'e on 
rather sour land, though lime should be 
used with them. On a small scale, say 
on chicken farms, we fully believe in 
transplanting. 
Millet in the Silo 
This Spring, owing to bad weather 
conditions, we were unable to prepare in 
time to plant corn, some land that I had 
broken for that purpose'. In order not to 
entirely waste the labor of plowing we 
seeded it to Japanese millet, and the crop 
is coming along well. 
Can you tell me whether this crop can 
be successfully used in a silo, and if so 
when is the best time to cut and store it? 
If not a good silage crop what is the best 
way to prepare it? m.-m. b. 
Millet makes a fair silage crop when 
handled right. It should be cut while 
quite green—before the heads are fully 
filled out and chopped up fine in the cut¬ 
ter. Millet and the grains with hollow 
stems carry considerable air into the silo 
and this will make trouble from fermen¬ 
tation unless the silage is stamped down 
firmly. If the millet gets toO' dry water 
should be added. If not put into the silo 
the millet can be fed green or cured into 
hay. This makes good cow fodder, but 
should not be fed to horses. 
Testing Cream 
I recently tried to test some cream, 
and followed the directions, with . the 
tester, which said take one-half the usual 
quantity of 9 c. c. I followed the di¬ 
rections carefully and got a test of 22%. 
Is this right for half quantity? I fig¬ 
ured I was getting about 40% cream 
and if 'I had used the usual quantity, 18 
c. c., would I have a test of 44% ? Is 
there any other Avay to test cream ex¬ 
cept the Babcock test? E. E. ». 
Midland Park, N. J. 
The only simple accurate method of 
testing cream for butterfat is by means 
of the Babcock test. To get strictly ac¬ 
curate results in testing cream it should 
be weighed into the test bottle. There 
are two general types of cream test bot¬ 
tles on the market. One is so gradu¬ 
ated on the neck as to give correct re¬ 
sults, reading directly, when two grams 
of cream are used, the other when 18 
grams are used. The principal reasons 
for Aveighing cream into the test bottle 
are that the weight of a given volume 
of cream testing differently varies ac¬ 
cording to test and then in pipetting 
cream considerable sticks to the sides of 
the pipette. There is an 18 c. c. cream 
pipette on the mai’ket which is presum¬ 
ably what you used. This pipette gives 
results that are very close. The richer 
the cream the less accurate the result. 
Nine grams of cream can be tested in an 
18 gram bottle and the correct test ob¬ 
tained by multiplying the reading by two. 
I should judge that probably this was 
the type of bottle that you used and 
therefore your cream tested 44%. If 
you measure the cream using half the 
regular amount you must have a 9 c. c. 
pipette or else estimate the amount in 
a larger pipette. This latter practice 
is unwise, and would greatly increase the 
chance of error in the test. H. F. J. 
Milk and Apples for Children 
The Seattle public schools are about 
to supply a glass of milk to any child for 
a cent and in case of need supply the 
penny also. The idea Is good. Why not 
every apple-grower Avork for an exten¬ 
sion of the idea to include apples? This 
would make a large outlet for apples, 
both directly and indirectly, and what is 
of the greatest importance, furnish a 
healthful palatable food for the children. 
Good, Avell-matured specimens of fruit 
could be offered at a very reasonable sale 
when all rental expense is eliminated, 
and no pi’ofit-takers between the produc¬ 
er and con.sumer alloAved. 
Washington. x. k. hopkixs. 
Why not, indeed? This is a good 
chance to advertise the apple and adver¬ 
tise it in a thoroughly practical Avay. 
There is no better Avay to induce a family 
to purchase a certain kind of food than 
to get the children interested in it. Once 
let the children decide that they Avant a 
certain article of food and we feel sorry 
for the parents until th’ey serve it reg¬ 
ularly. Those who have read “The 
Child” will remember hoAV the boy em¬ 
ptied a barrel of cider apples on the 
street so that the children of mill work¬ 
ers could get them. It seemed to the 
older farmers like a foolish thing to do, 
yet evei-y one of those children became 
the mo.st active kind of an agent for in¬ 
troducing api)les into their homes. 
As one of the mothers remarked, “Those 
children give me and their father no 
rest by day and by night, they say all the 
time, apple, apple, A\'e want apple.” 
Many a farmer may think it a waste 
of time and money to help in a distribu¬ 
tion of this sort, but in the end it will 
proA^e a tremendous advertisement for 
his crop. 
As for milk at a penny a glass, that 
will mean at least 4i/^c. a quart, and 
every glass sold to the school children 
Avill prove an argument for the people at 
home to buy a quart. It is a great idea, 
and may well be folloAved out. 
Ration for Young Pigs 
What could I do to get my pigs start¬ 
ed to groAV? I have six little ones, three 
of them doing a little but the other three 
do not seem to move. They get lots to 
eat. Is it better to let them run in the 
lot or pen them up? J. c. 
Pennsylvania. 
You state that your pigs are getting 
plenty of feed but do not state what. 
There is nothing better to start them 
than skim-milk and a little cornmeal, 
middlings and tankage. By all means 
let them run in pasture if possible. 
There is nothing like clover or Alfalfa 
pasture for pigs. Occasionally one gets 
hold of a pig that seems stunted some 
Avay so it never grows as fast as it 
should. It may be possible that some of 
your pigs come into this class. Possibly 
they need a little more mineral matter 
than they are getting in their feed. She 
that they have access to salt and char¬ 
coal. A green pasture crop and root¬ 
ing in the ground is most sure to help 
them. H. F. J. 
Slime in Separator 
What is the cause of the slime on the 
inside of the separator, when I take it 
apart to wash? Is there something wrong 
with the cows, and if so what should be 
done for them? Sometimes it is absent 
for weeks at a time, and then comes on 
again. Also sometimes when we intro¬ 
duce a new cow into our herd it comes 
on. or if Ave sell a coav it stops for r 
while, proving that the trouble is often 
in only one cow’s milk, M. B. 
New York. 
It would seem that the annual amount 
of slime you find at times in your sep¬ 
arator bowl AAms due to the fact that one 
or more coavs was suffering from inflam¬ 
mation of the udder or garget as it is 
commonly called. When this is the case 
the cow can be commonly detected when 
her milk is strained, as the milk strains 
with difficulty coating the strainer with 
a masg of slime. The udder or certain 
parts of it are sometimes swollen. When 
the cow is located the trouble, if not too 
severe, can be remedied for a time at 
least by giving her a dose of Epsom salts 
(one pound) and following this Avith an 
ounce of saltpeter in the feed for tAvo or 
three days after. H. F. J. 
The Milk Test in Butter Making 
What percent butterfat should milk 
show when tested Avith a Babcock tester 
if same milk shoAvs 12 per cent cream in 
a set gauge tube after standing 24 houi’s? 
New York, F, H. B. 
It would be impossible to state Avdiat 
the actual percent of butterfat would be 
in milk Avhich showed 12 per cent cream 
by set gauge. There are too many fac¬ 
tors Avhich affect the creaming ability of 
milk to make this method an accurate 
one. 
If ypu will send samples to the Dairy 
Department Ncav York State College of 
Agriculture, Cornell University, Ithaca, 
New York I am sure they would be glad 
to test them for you, H. F. J. 
Corn-and-cob Meal for Horse 
I haA^e tAvo bushels of corn-and-cob 
meal and with it I had ground a peck of 
beans that were spotted, so they Avere 
not salable. Would it be safe to fee<l it 
half and half with some corn and cob 
meal to a horse? She has done well on 
the corn and cob meal and I AA’ould like 
to feed other if I can safely. F. N. D. 
New Hampshire. 
Every horse that has sound teeth should 
grind his OAvn feed, so Ave cannot adA’ise 
you to feed cornmeal or ground beans. 
Give those feeds to hogs and feed Avhole 
oats and ear corn to horses. A horse 
also may have Avheat bran. If it is 
found necessary to feed meal to 'a horse 
mix cut hay or straAV Avith it to give 
it bulk and encourage perfect mastica¬ 
tion. Ground feed is a common cause 
of indigestion in horses. A. s. A. 
Shrink in Milk 
I have nine coavs all fresh within the 
last tAvo months; they have Avithiii three 
days fallen from 80 to 50 quarts a day 
in milk. All seem well as usual—I feed 
them nothing but pasture. What is the 
trouble and how can I get them back to 
proper milking? A. G. P. 
PennsylA-ania. 
If your conditions are anything like 
ours here should say that the falling off 
in milk floAV Avas due to a combination 
of pastures getting short, extreme hot 
weather, and the coming of flies. They 
haA’’e fallen off so badly it is doubtful if 
you can get them back to where they Avere 
again. If you have any silage left OA^er or 
any green crops to cut for them, that 
will help. At any rate it will be neces¬ 
sary to feed some grain. I should make 
a ration of tAvo parts by weight of bran, 
one part middlings, one-half part cotton¬ 
seed meal, and one-half part oil meal. See 
that the cows have plenty of salt. Feed 
grain at the rate of a pound to about 
four pounds of milk produced daily de¬ 
pending on how the coavs respond. 
H. F. J. 
Diseased Udder 
I have a five-year-old grade Holstein 
that gives a little bloody milk Avhen near¬ 
ly through milking. She became fresh 
the last of last March, Another teat has 
given gargety milk a few times within 
the last month. A teat that became al¬ 
most a failure last season is pretty good, 
August 26, 1917. 
though it does not give very much milk. 
The teat that gives the bloody milk does 
not gh'e it when I begin to milk. 
When I change to the other teats and be¬ 
gin on that teat again the stream is 
bloody then becomes clear again. 
Ncav York. A. D. w. 
Growths in the milk duct of the teat 
probably bleed from irritation during 
the milking process, but it is quite like¬ 
ly that the blood may be an indication of 
congestion and inflammation (mammi- 
tis) as other quarters have been affected. 
We should not consider it adAusable to 
retain such a coav for dairying as the 
conditions described will gradually be- 
corne Avorse and there ahvays is the pos¬ 
sibility too that tuberculosis of the ud¬ 
der is present in such cases. We should 
advise you not to breed the cow again. 
GroAvths may sometimes be removed by 
operation Avhich is best done by the 
trained surgeon. We should advise you 
to milk the coav gently three times a day. 
Ma.s.saging the iidder each time and at 
night rubbing in a mixture of one tea¬ 
spoonful of turpentine, and fluid extracts 
of poke root and belladonna leaves and 
five teaspoonfuls of melted lard. 
A. s. A. 
Abnormal Milk 
I have a cow that gives thick milk at 
times which has a yellow color. Is due 
to freshen in November please advise me 
what to do for her. a. s. 
Goaa'S which are well advanced in lac¬ 
tation as your coav is sometimes give ab¬ 
normal milk. It Avould seem from what 
you say that the cow may be troubled 
with garget. When the trouble occurs 
it AA’ould be a good plan to give her a 
pound of Epsom salts and folloAv this up 
Avith an ounce of saltpeter per day for 
tAvo or three days. h. l! j. 
Buckwheat for Pigs 
In a recent issue the advice is given 
not to feed buckwheat to pigs, and the 
statement made that this grain is pro¬ 
ductive of serious disorders if fed to 
SAvine. I am AA'ondering if that state¬ 
ment is true, or Avhether the idea is sim¬ 
ply one of those notions which gain cur¬ 
rency because of some one’s post hoc, 
propter hoc argument and float about un¬ 
contradicted because no one carries out 
sufficiently extended and careful experi¬ 
ments to determine hoAA- much truth there 
may be in tliem. 
Having alAA-ays lived in the buckwheat 
country, where pigs also prevail, and be¬ 
lieving, as I do, that there are few more 
delicious and substantial delicacies than 
buckAVheat cakes and fresh pork gravy, 
I should really like to know whether 
there is any good reason why the foun¬ 
dations of these props of country life 
should never be combined before they 
reach the platter. It is true that the 
question is chiefly one of academic in¬ 
terest, as they sayj for no farmer cares 
to feed high-priced buckAvheat to his 
pigs Avhen it may be exchanged for 
cheaper corn, particularly since corn is 
believed to make better pork than buck¬ 
Avheat, but it is over questions of aca¬ 
demic interest only that the most vio¬ 
lent combats are Avaged and the most in¬ 
timate friendships sundered, so I should 
like to “start .something” here. 
I have neA'^er fed buckwheat to pigs, 
for the reason mentioned aboA'e, probably 
neA'er will; neither, so far as I can learn, 
have my neighbors; so “personal exper¬ 
ience,” that most misleading of all au¬ 
thorities, cannot be quoted. Looking the 
matter up in the books, I find that 
Henry & Morrison in “Feeds & Feed¬ 
ing” mention seA^eral experiments that 
have been made to determine the rela¬ 
tive A’alue of buckAvheat and corn as a 
food for groAving pigs. These experi¬ 
ments do not encourage the substitutiou 
of buckAvheat for corn from an econom¬ 
ical standpoint but say nothing of any 
deleterious effects that buckAvheat might 
have. Personally, I can see no reason 
why buckwheat should be injurious to 
pigs and I am getting so that I believe 
but little until I know that there are 
substantial grounds for the belief—and 
not much then. H". b. d. 
Coughing Cow 
During a recent storm my coav got very 
AA'et. Soon after this she began to cough 
a little but I thought that the A’ery fine 
middling.s, AA^hich I gave her, got into her 
lungs. Now she coughs even Avhen she 
is not eating. The cow is a registered 
.Tersey and is very d licat‘. She had to be 
kept iu the stable all Winter by doctors’ 
order. She has no fever and eats well, 
although I stopped feeding her the mid¬ 
dlings. The cow coughs only once in a 
while. Could you advise what I should 
do? c, E. 
New York. 
As the cow coughs and is so delicate 
Ave should advise having her tested Avith 
tuberculin as tuberculosis is to be sus¬ 
pected. The test should not be applied 
in very hot weather or when the cow is 
advanced in calf. Meanwhile she would 
be better out of doors as much as possi¬ 
ble in fine Aveather. A. s. A. 
Insxtbance ExAmNEB: “What did you 
say your grandfather died of?” The Sub¬ 
ject : “Well, sir, I can’t remember right¬ 
ly, but I know it was nothing serious.” 
—Ladies’ Home Journal. 
A Field of Transplanted Cossack Alfalfa in Wisconsin 
