149 
The Winter Thoughts of a Farm Woman 
(Continued from page 136) 
homes the weather doesn’t matter nny 
more at all^whether it be January or 
June. And it is my job and yours to 
somehow make the weather matter to 
these homes again. January and Febru¬ 
ary are hard months to fight, and neigh¬ 
bors can’t drop in easily to talk and gos¬ 
sip. So in a way, we mustn’t be too 
obvious of this mischief time, but, if nec¬ 
essary, get out and help drive its terrors 
away. 
Farm Help. —The help question is a 
teasing one with us, as it in fact has been 
since November first. Perhaps I have 
mentioned in former letters that our man 
left us at that time to work for $100 a 
month in a nearby knitting mill, and we 
have led a merry dance in the meantime. 
Ours is a busy dairy farm, and nowadays 
many dairymen iare the busiest at this 
period of any part of the year. We 
breed purebred Holstein-Friesians and 
have just finished putting seven-day rec¬ 
ords on a bunch of them. This business 
of official testing means an awful lot of 
particular and nerve-trying world, as the 
herdsman has to be on the job weighing, 
fussing and planning the feed rations most 
of the time. This my husband went 
through with entirely alone, and in addi¬ 
tion milked the regular herd twice a day, 
plus attending to regular chores, besides 
milking the six test cows four times a 
day. Of course this is altogether too 
much for one pair of hands to attempt to 
do for any length of time, but if you are 
left unexpectedly in the lurch and the 
Winter’s routine arranged, it sometimes 
isn’t best to give in to trying circum¬ 
stances. While testing. I did what I 
could to help with chores, like scraping 
four or five bushels of sugar beets and 
mangels every day and then running them 
through the cutter. Several of our par¬ 
ticular bovine dames loftily refused their 
beloved beets unless carefully scraped 
clean of all dirt, and of course it pays to 
humor good test cows! But the official 
work is over now and my husband has 
his leaders on a three-times-a-day milking 
schedule. This isn’t exactly a picnic for 
one lone man, but I hear little complain¬ 
ing. We have been fondly hoping that 
George would return to us in the Spring 
if war help were turned off and wages re¬ 
duced, but he gives us little encourage¬ 
ment. lie reasons that $100 a month (if 
it lasts) is lots more than $50. conveni¬ 
ent house, 20 or more bushels of potatoes 
a year, a garden, two quarts of milk 
daily, and any amount of wood, plus ap¬ 
ples, and anything else we eourselves have 
and are pleased to share with him. I am 
not so sure his reasoning is right, as he 
could hardly tell just how much ahead 
he has been through the Winter, as we 
have let him continue to live free in our 
tenant house and have furnished a horse 
and wagon to drive back and forth from 
the village. Rents are pretty .high even 
in country towns now, and if he moves to 
town the $100 will grow much smaller in 
apparent purchasing power. 
A Perplexing Problem. —Other R. 
N.-Y. readers are probably trying to get 
around this same problem, and it looms 
discouragingly big as the first of March 
draws nearer. We can’t take up with 
every Tom, Dick and Harry who offers 
himself, as the dairy has got to have a 
reliable man around it—and a fast, quick 
milker is especially necessary. If we can 
only find somewhere as good and con¬ 
scientious a man as George made us, our 
troubles will disappear as the morning 
dew—but alas! such hired helpers fail to 
grow on every bush. In a way, the war 
has put the farmer in a deep hole so far 
as satisfying the helpers is concerned. 
Most of us can’t compete with war wages, 
and have no intention of trying to do it. 
As for our own particular case, it will 
mean selling off half the dairy and put¬ 
ting in half-crops or less if no good man 
is available. We want to run the farm 
at top speed while young and able to do 
it—but you can’t do it all alone. But 
here’s hoping things look up a bit and 
that George decides to “try it just one 
more year!” H. s. K. \v. 
Bitter Butter 
Can you tell me the cause of my butter 
being bitter? I have a three-year-old 
heifer, not due to freshen until next Sep¬ 
tember. Her butter has been good until 
last two or three churnings. She has for 
Iht RURAL. NEW-YORKER 
feed four quarts grains a day and what 
mixed hay she will eat. She is healthy, 
in good condition, and milks well. 
Amherst, Mass. h. j. m. 
From the data given it would seem that 
the only cause for the bitterness in your 
butter would be bacterial contamination 
somewhere along the line. If you are 
sure the milk does not have a bitter taste 
when it is drawn from the cow, particular 
care should be taken to keep dirt out of 
the milk, and to wash and scald all uten¬ 
sils thoroughly, since the contamination 
must get in after the milk leaves the cow’s 
udder. If you have a batch-of cream that 
does not taste bitter before it is churned, 
try pasteurizing this cream and see what 
happens. Pasteurization is easily ac¬ 
complished by setting pail containing 
cream in a larger pail of hot water, bring¬ 
ing the cream to a temperature of 145 
degrees Fahrenheit and holding it there 
for 20 minutes and then cooling to churn¬ 
ing temperature. Churn this cream 
sweet. I feel sure that if the cream is 
not' bitter before it is pasteurized that 
this will overcome the trouble. In pas¬ 
teurizing the cream, stir it frequently so 
that it is heated evenly. n. F. J. 
ing 10 quarts of milk or more two quarts 
of dry grain, two quarts feed, three 
quarts oats (crushed), one quart barley 
feed, twice a day, and oat and pea hay 
twice a day, with oat left in hay. This 
feed is all soaked in warm water 30 
minutes before feeding, salt included. 
New York. f. b. s. 
Feed all the oat and pea hay cows will 
clean up and make up a grain ration of 
200 lbs. barley feed, 100 lbs. of crushed 
oats, 100 lbs. dried brewers’ grains, 100 
lbs. feed, and 100 lbs. oilmeal. Add 1 lb. 
of salt to each 100 lbs. of feed. Feed a 
pound of grain to each 3*4 pounds of 
milk produced daily, depending on how 
the cows respond. This mixture will 
weigh about a pound to the quart. It is 
doubtful if soaking the feed pays if your 
cows will now eat it without being 
soaked. H. F. J. 
Dairy Ration 
Will you give me the best ration 
for cows, some fresh and some giv¬ 
ing only a few quarts of milk, being in 
calf? Crushed oats are $2 per 100 lbs.; 
barley feed. $2.80 per 100; mixed feed, 
$3.25; oilmeal, $2.75; cottonseed meal, 
$3.60; bran, $2. I have fed to cows giv¬ 
Ration with Cowpea Hay 
Will you give grain ration for Jersey? 
I have good cow-pea hay and beets. 
Illinois. g. A. c 
Feed all the cow-pea hay cows will 
clean up. Feed beets 20 to 25 lbs. per 
day per animal, depending on the amount 
of beets on hand. Make up grain ration 
of two parts bran, ground oats or bar¬ 
ley, one part cornmeal or hominy feed, 
one part gluten feed and one part linseed 
oilmeal. Salt should be added at the 
rate of 1 lb. to 100 lbs. of feed. Feed a 
pound of grain to each 3 to 3y 2 lbs. of 
milk produced daily. n. f. j. 
“Why do you always insist upon hav¬ 
ing the largest piece of pie, Harry?” 
asked the mother reprovingly. “Isn’t 
your big brother entitled to it?” “No’m,” 
said Harry; “he was eatin’ pie three 
years before I was born.”—Credit Lost. 
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if cows are properly fed and cared for. Give them water 
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Feed poultry warm food if you 
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much less cost. 
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