l^22 
UAe RURAL NEW>YORKER 
October 2H, IblS 
A Yankee in Iowa 
Notes on Live Stock Fanning 
Part I. 
0A1BTING A Side Line. —^The greate-st 
surprise to the writer was to find the 
great dairy industry of Iowa in a way a 
eide line to the beef industry. It is a big 
side line, to be sure. There are many 
fine herds of strictly dairy cattle, most of 
them Holsteins. Most of these cattle are 
found in the vicinity of cities where their 
product is used as market milk. The 
great bulk of the milk and cream that is 
tributary to Iowa’s 451 creameries comes 
from the good old red Shorthorn cow. 
There are some nice cows among these 
dual Shorthorns, and they fit into the live 
stock industry of Iowa as no other cow 
could. Right here the writer wishes to 
state that he is every day getting stronger 
in the opinion that this same type of cow 
and this type of live stock farming is the 
proper kind for the New York and New 
England man who is far from tovm and 
has good pasture. Pasture is the keynote 
to success in this business. The cows 
freshen in the Spring and the calves are 
weaned early and given skim-milk. In a 
month they are pasturing nicely beside 
their dams. The cows give a large flow 
of milk on grass, and this milk is like a 
gift from Heaven for the farmer. No 
grain is fed, and about the only cost to the 
farmer is drawing the milk from the cows 
and taking it to the creamery. In Win¬ 
ter the COW'S are housed in basement 
barns, so common here, and are fed on 
corn silage, corn stover, straw and a lit¬ 
tle hay. For grain they get corn and 
oats raised on the farm and a little cot¬ 
tonseed or oilmeal is bought to mix with 
it. Almost every farm has its silo, and 
cows are fed all year round much more 
cheaply than in New England. I still 
believe that much grain is wasted when 
fed to. cows on good Eastern pastures. 
There are some good ones there as well 
fls here. When I mention the way grain 
is fed during pasture season in the East 
the farmer says, “What do they waste it 
for?” The herds of milking cows are 
small, most of the farmers milking about 
10 cows. Very few milking machines are 
in use on this account, and all hands 
turn out and milk the cows in short order. 
The writer has visited farms where the 
farmer, his wife and two or three young 
boys were milking. He has also seen 
women bring milk to the creamery and 
dump 40-quart cans of milk into the weigh 
can as if they had alw'ays done it. This 
is an example of the sturdy stock of peo¬ 
ple living on many of these farms. 
The Cbeameby Indttstrt. —Most of 
the farmers separate their milk at home 
and haul the cream to the creamery. This 
jives them the fresh skim-milk for calf 
feeding. In Summer cream is delivered 
either every day or every other day. 
There are a few whole-milk creameries, 
but the majority are whole milk and 
cream together, or all cream. ISIilk is de¬ 
livered every day, and all skim-milk is 
pasteurized before it is taken home by 
the farmers. An Iowa law requires this. 
This pasteurization is accomplished by 
mixing live steam with the skim-milk just 
before it enters the skim-milk tank. The 
heating is done in a hollow cylinder into 
which the skim-milk pipe and steam pipe 
enter. The arrangement looks like a muf¬ 
fler on an automobile exhaust pipe. This 
hot skim-milk is taken home and is either 
fed to calves at once or given to the hogs. 
The hogs get most of it, since it will not 
keep sweet any length of time, often go¬ 
ing sour before noon. The farmers prize 
their skim-milk very highly, and in the ’ 
creamery districts have little desire to 
sell w'hole milk. 
Otheb Conditions. —^The milk pro¬ 
duced largely by these dual-purpose cows 
enabled the 451 creameries in the State 
to make 94,269,685 pounds of butter dur¬ 
ing the year ending October 31, 1917. 
Of this vast amount of butter, 81,311,017 
pounds were used outside the State, the 
jreater part of it going to the Now York 
market and being distributed in the East, 
Practically all the milk produced in Iowa 
is sold to the creameries or used as mar¬ 
ket milk. There ai’e about two dozen 
small cheese factories and three conden- 
series in the State. Many of the farmers 
take very poor care of their milk and 
cream and of thMr separators. They feel 
it is a side issue with them and know if 
the creamery will not accept it the cen¬ 
tralizer will. Practically none of the 
creameries pay on the basis of quality, 
and the man who delivers poor cream gets 
as much for it as the man W'ho delivers 
good cream. As long as this condition 
prevails improvement will be slow. 
The Centralizer. —^The centralizer is 
« creamery located at some railroad center 
to which farmers from the surrounding 
country may ship their cream. The idea 
is to provide a market for cream w'here 
cows are not thick enough to warrant the 
establishment of a creamery. The idea, 
if properly adhered to, is all right. How¬ 
ever, the centralizer has developed into an 
ulcer on the face of the dairy business, 
and absolutely its only function is to 
make some money for the operators and 
sell the consumers butter that really 
should be labeled adulterated. There are 
a number of these centralizers in Iowa, 
and I visited one recently. They get good, 
bad and indifferent cream, most of it very 
poor. Much of it is so full of gas as to 
blow the covers off the cans. The cream 
is sorted into three grades. It is then 
flash pasteurized and neutralized, t. e., the 
sourness is partly destroyed by the addi¬ 
tion of lime water. It then runs into a 
vat with perforated coils of pipe in the 
bottom, and air which has passed through 
a chloride of lime solution is blown up 
through it to drive off the undesirable 
odors. The cream is blown for a period 
of nearly an hour. A starter is now add¬ 
ed and the cream ripened slightly and 
churned. No. 1 grade and the No. 3 
grade, of which they make but little, goes 
to the Eastern market, while the No. 2 
grade is palmed off on the local trade. 
The worst of it is the No. 1 grade is put 
up in a most attractive package and ad¬ 
vertised to death (we read the ads all 
over New England) and sold on the New 
York market as an “extra” in competi¬ 
tion with the best creamery butter. The 
centralizer is gradually closing out the 
creameries here, just as the demand for 
market milk has closed out the New Eng¬ 
land creameries. Some of the centralizers 
have their own little way of doing this. 
All of them will accept any old cream, 
and when a creamery tells a patron he 
must deliver better cream he promptly 
quits the_ creamery and send his cream to 
a centralizer, whereupon be gets the same 
price as the creamery is paying for butter 
fat. The fact that he gets cut on weight 
or test does not bother him, as he doesn’t 
seem to realize it. When enough of the 
patrons do this the creamery has to close 
up for lack of sufficient raw material. 
How a farmer can imagine that a central¬ 
izer can pay him as much for his cream 
as the local creamery when he knows the 
average price of the centralizer butter is 
less and when express must be paid on 
his cream, is a mystery to me. And yet 
hundreds of them are doing it under the 
very shadow of a good creamery rather 
than take the proper care of their cream. 
A Word About the Pigs. —Pigs are so 
plentiful one has to dodge them in the 
roads in some places. The Duroc Jerseys 
predominate, followed by the Poland 
China, Chester White and Berkshire. 
The hog industry is carried on more in 
Summer, i. e., the sows farrow in the 
Spring.^ The pigs get a good start on 
skim-milk and barley. They are pas¬ 
tured in clover or rape all Summer where 
these crops are available, and where they 
are not the pigs are pastured in with the 
rest of the stock. When the corn crop 
comes on in the Fall they are finished and 
marketed. They require and get very lit¬ 
tle care. h. f. Judkins. 
Problems of a Florida Stockman 
I live on graded road 10 miles from 
railway station, surrounded by worlds of 
free range from which hogs and cattle are 
marketed that never get a pound of tame 
forage, but they do better by having it. I 
have had only seven years of experience 
in preparing land for stock raising and 
cultivating various forage crops for stock. 
I have been successful in raising Japanese 
cane, which I cut and feed to cattle from 
July 15 till January 1. I have also 
raised fine crops of velvet beans, planted 
about February 25, and cow peas in 
March of the early varieties. They ma¬ 
ture about June 10. Milo maize planted 
in February matures in June; also sor¬ 
ghum cane. Milo maize planted Septem¬ 
ber 1 matures in December. Rye and rape 
planted in October gives fine grazing from 
January till April 15. Para, Natal, crab, 
crowfoot. Ft. Thompson, Rhodes and 
Bermuda grass furnish grazing about 10 
•months each year; Bermuda, 12 months. 
I have found chufas . and rice planted 
about June 20 make good grazing during 
August and September. 
For hogs, after December 1, an acre of 
chufas is equal to 40 bushels of corn, and 
the hogs do the harvesting. For stock no 
barns or silos are needed where one has 
plenty of land. Since The R. N.-Y. is 
in touch with thousands of dairymen, I 
would greatly appreciate replies from 
several who would advise me under these 
conditions as to a problem of a financial 
success by selecting a breed of beef cat¬ 
tle that would produce the greatest quan¬ 
tity of milk and not quality, using the 
whole milk to make cottage cheese. Also, 
could cottage cheese, properly made, salt¬ 
ed and pressed into one-pound bricks, 
wrapped in paraffin paper and placed in 
cartons, same as butter, labeled W'ith a 
brand and weight of each package, be 
placed on the market commercially, and 
what price per pound would it demand? 
If practical to enter such a business it 
would eliminate the expensive equipment 
in making butter. I desire to raise beef 
cattle, but have not the money to pur¬ 
chase more than 20 head. I hope to hear 
from anyone who has had experience in 
marketing cottage cheese commercially, 
or has any knowledge of same; also a 
recipe for making a good quality of cot¬ 
tage cheese. L. c. baibd. 
De Soto Co., Fla. 
We have printed the facts about mak¬ 
ing cottage cheese. Now w'e would like 
to know about selling it. The Agricul¬ 
tural Department at Washington will 
send pamphlets if requested. There is no 
question about the possibilities of stock 
raising in Florida, but dairying is a new 
proposition there. The milking Short- 
hoi-n cattle ought to just suit such con¬ 
ditions. 
Shoe Boil 
1. I have a mare 15 jears old that has 
a shoe boil as large as a man’s fist. It 
broke and runs. What treatment is re¬ 
quired? 2. I have a cow with a soft 
bunch on knee the size of a quart bowl. 
Can it be cured ? w. G. 
Massachusetts. 
1. Have the shoe boil amputated by a 
skilled surgeon, as that is the only effec¬ 
tive treatment in such a case. 2. Have a 
veterinarian drain the serum from the 
cyst (hygroma) on the knee by opening 
it at the lowest part, injecting iodine and 
then inserting an antiseptic pack. 
SHEEP 
Stubborn Horse 
Last Summer I bought a horse five 
years old. He worked well in the wagon, 
but I find it hard to plow as he never 
walked in the line. He is afraid of big 
trucks and big electric w’orking cars. He 
always goes back, so I have no more con¬ 
trol over him. What do you advise? 
H. V. 
This horse should be worked as the 
middle one of a three-horse team at plow¬ 
ing and other work. He may then get 
over his bad habits. If you cannot do 
this, you might arrange with a profession¬ 
al horse-breaker to have him properly 
trained. a. s. a. 
Thriftless'Pig 
I_ have a pig about four months old; 
he is healthy and fat, but does not grow 
large. I feed him potatoes, milk and 
oatmeal. Can you tell me what to give 
him to make him grow? MBS. J. B. 
New York. 
Allow the.pig to graze on stubble and 
pasture, or feed some green-cut stuff, 
j'eed a slop of wheat middlings, ground 
barley or rye and flaxseed meal, and if 
possible add ear corn as the pig improves. 
As worms may be present, mix one tea¬ 
spoonful of turpentine in the slop for each 
80 pounds of body weight once daily for 
three consecutive days and again in 10 
days’ time. A. s. a. 
Sheep For Sale 
If yon want to pnrehass High class heavy shearing. 
Range bred Yearling Ewes of the mutton type that 
will give you large profits In Wool and Mutton, we 
can sell you any number. Price3,$17 and$19ea('h. 
INTERSTATE lIVE STOCK CO., Selkirk. N.Y. 
FINE WOOL,Ovcrthc Top,at 75c 
Rambouillet, Delaine, Dorset, Cheviot and Shrop¬ 
shire rams,Cheshire and ChesterWhiteBrood sows. 
Duroc pigs 6 weeks old. D. H. TOWNSEND SONS, liKerlakMi, N. T. 
HAMPSHIRE RAMS For Sale 
An extra good two-year-old at a bargain. Some groat 
lambs. Afewewelambs. llASLETTBROTIIkRS,8«nMs,n.r. 
SA?E-Reg. Shropshire Ram wo^e^^fh®Jo®d 
Head covering. LeRoy C. Bower, Routes, Ludlowville, N.Y. 
For SaIe-14Shropshire Ewes 
Ram; well woolod, fine condition. One Reg. Rani. 
Address MYERS BROWNELL; Sr., Hopewell Junction, N. Y. 
ForSalc-Reg.ShropshireYearlingandLambRams 
Pure bred. Theodore Reed, Caledonia, N. Y. 
15 Reg. YearlingShropshire Rams H!^B?mER®Tt.i'i.?.T. 
Southdown Rams for Sale 
from the celebrated flock of Wm. Rockefeller. Address 
B. 31. HAWKS, • Tarrytown, New York 
Oxf orddown Rams 
H. S. TILBURY, • Owego, New York 
CHEVIOTS-ct 
Hampshires of Quality 
Wks. Old. Either Sox. M. 0. PHILLIPS. North East. Pa. 
Reg. Hampshire Ram UrTseWa?!?'?® 
C. P. & 31. AV. RIGI1A3I, Gettysburg, Pa. 
For Sale- Reg. Shropshire Sheep 
Ewes all ages. O. G. BOWEK, Ludlowville, N.Y. 
REQISTERED Vparllnff D-mo FOR SALE. 
SHROPSHIRE 1 Bailing naiHS STEVENS BROS., WiljBO, N. T. 
poTawoLD, Lincoln, Lestere, Tunis, Hampshire and Shropshire. 
U All lUcorded papers with each. LeROY KUHET, Adrian, Miehioan 
r AIRIIOLME IIAMPSHIIlE UAMS for sale. Excajdionally 
r fine Individuals. Earl D. Brown, II. 2. Illon, N. Y. 
HORSES 
pf 
SHETLAND PONIES 
We sell on the INSTALLMENT plan. 200 head to 
select from. Herd established 1891. Send lOo 
for contract and price list. Address Dept. L 
THE SHADYSIDE FARMS, North Benton. 0. 
Detachable Water Bowls 
WM. LOUDEN 
Originator of Modern 
Labor - Saving Barp 
Equipment. 
. .. 
Removed and Sterilized 
—the Work of a Minute 
Louden Detachable Water Bowl rep¬ 
resents the greatest improvement (or indoor 
watering of cows that has been offered to 
the dairyman in many years. 
The Louden Bowl can be easily and quickly sterilized. It takes but a 
moment to raise the nose piece to a vertical position, lift up the bowl and 
slip it off—no rusty set screws to unloosen, no supporting levers to release, 
no collar connections or other trouble-making attachments to tinker with. 
No wrench or tools of any kind required. Yet it is an impossibility for the 
cow to budge the bowl, so rigidly is it held in place. 
Increases Milk Yield—Reduces Labor 
Milk is made up of about 87% water. The more water the cow drinks 
the more milk she will give. The average cow must have 10 gallons per 
day to keep up her milk yield. The Louden Bowl makes it possible for 
the cow to have a drink of pure, fresh, even-tempered water any minute of 
the day or night she wants it. Supply valve operates automatically—water 
stops flowing the instemt the cow stops drinking—absolutely no waste. 
—no expert help needed. Increased milk srield 
of cows, and daily labor saved, pay for the 
Louden Bowls many times over every year. 
Illustrated Catalog Sent Free on Request, gives full information on our complete 
line which includes stalls and stanchions, feed and litter carriers, ha^f tools, anittial 
pens, bam and garage door hangers, etc. “Everything for the Bam.” Write for it. 
Easily Installed in AnyBarn~ 
The Louden Machinery Company 
2625 Court Street (.Established 1867) Fairfield, Iowa 
Branches: St. Paul, Minn. Albany, N. Y. Chicago, IIL 
