1868.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
59 
absorb the milk of the best farmers in the dairy 
regions. The supply of milk for the cities and 
large towns draws alike upon the cheese and 
butter supply and would not disturb the balance. 
What is to be done in this state of the market, 
to restore the balance and give us butter at 
reasonable prices ? We believe a few of these 
factories make both butter and cheese, and this, 
perhaps, will become necessary for all, to get the 
highest market price for the products of milk. 
These are butter, cheese, and whey, the last of 
which is fed to pigs. Under the old system, 
all farmers who had a convenient market for 
butter preferred to make that from a part of 
the milk, and convert the balance into cheese. 
The skimmed cheese was a second-rate article, 
but wholesome and nutritious, and entered quite 
largely into the family supplies. It found a 
market at the country store and utilized the 
milk better than exclusive butter making would 
have done. The exclusive cheese makers were 
those who had no ready market for butter. 
The cheese would keep better, and could be dis¬ 
posed of in large or small quantities as suited 
the convenience of the dairyman. We see no 
insuperable objection to the making of both 
butter and cheese by the factory system. Of 
course, first-rate cheese could not be made at the 
same time that the butter was made. But we 
might have first-rate butter with a second-rate 
article of cheese all through the season, or the 
season might be divided between them, giving 
the cooler months to butter and mid-summer to 
cheese. Some change is called for, and we must 
have it or go back to the home manufacture. 
If farmers find they can get 45 cents a pound 
for butter at their doors and only 15 for cheese 
at the factory, they will prefer to take care of 
their milk at home. The factory system has 
some drawbacks besides low prices. It strips 
the farm of fertilizers. The skimmed milk fed 
to pigs with other feed made the best of pork, 
and the swine made a yard of the best manure. 
Wherever it went it told a much better story 
than stable manure, and its effects were visible 
for many years upon the hay crop. Any system 
in farming is much to be deprecated that pre¬ 
vents the manufacture of home made fertilizers. 
Poultry Manure—How to Save and Use it. 
Poultry manure, one of the most valuable fer¬ 
tilizers made upon the farm, is too often allow¬ 
ed to go to waste. The hens and turkeys roost 
upon trees, under the shed, in the wagon-house, 
or wherever it happens. To save the manure, 
these birds must be taught to roost in one place. 
Turkeys readily take to elevated poles near the 
house or barn, and these should always be pro¬ 
vided for them. Sweep up their droppings 
every few days, and put in a box or barrel, and 
keep dry. Hens will roost under cover, and 
a hen-house should always be one of the farm 
buildings. The floor, if not of boards in a loft, 
should be such that it can be cleaned easily and 
frequently. It is well to keep plaster or dried 
peat under the fowls. Put the sweepings in 
old barrels as fast as they accumulate. In a 
dry state they will keep a long time without 
much loss. It is customary to mix these drop¬ 
pings with wood ashes, without much attention 
to definite proportions, at the time of planting, 
and drop them in the hill for corn and potatoes. 
If care is taken to keep the seed from contact 
with the manure, they produce very satisfactory 
results. But this is not the best way of using it. 
Two or three weeks before planting, mix the 
contents of the barrels with about three times 
their bulk of moist loam or peat under cover. 
When the mass is well heated, shovel it over, 
and mix with it as much more loam or peat, and 
let it lie until wanted. This may be worked 
into beds prepared for garden seeds, or dropped, 
a handful to the hill, for field crops, and will 
always tell a good story at harvest time. 
An Above Ground Cellar. —A correspond- 
dent, R. H., at Oshkosh, Wis., writes as follows: 
‘‘ I built a cellar above ground in 1866, but did 
not protect it sufficiently; the sawdust being 
wet got frozen, and the frost penetrated to the 
cellar. This year I banked it up with litter, and 
put a ventilating pipe through the roof, and it 
works well so far. The temperature is about 
even, no matter what the weather may be. It 
has double floors, packed with sawdust; boards 
nailed to the studdings inside and out, making 
a 4-incli dead air chamber; then 10 inches of 
sawdust; the ceiling is of matched flooring 
with 8 inches of sawdust above it. I will, in 
the spring, lath and plaster it, and lay a brick 
floor. It is ‘ as handy as a pocket in the shirt.’ ” 
------— 
Origin of the Domestic Turkey. 
Many suppose, from its name, that the Turkey 
originated in the East. Not only does the English 
name give support to this belief, but the French 
name, dindon, a contraction of Oiseau d'Inde, 
(bird of India,) shows that the same is held in 
Europe. Professor S. T. Baird, of the Smith¬ 
sonian Institution, than whom there can be no 
better authority, has investigated the subject, and 
finds that we have two distinct species of tur¬ 
key in North America: “One confined to the 
more Eastern and Southern States, the other to 
the southern Rocky Mountains and adjacent 
parts of Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, and 
Arizona; that the latter extends along eastern 
Mexico, as far south, at least, as Orizaba, and that 
it is from this Mexican species, and not that from 
eastern North America that this domestic turkey 
is derived.” One of the points of difference be¬ 
tween the two, and the one believed to be con¬ 
stant, is in the color of the tips of the tail-feath¬ 
ers and of the feathers overlying the base of the 
tail. These are creamy, or yellowish white, in 
the Mexican, and typical barn-yard birds; while, 
in the wild turkey of eastern North America, 
the same parts are of a chestnut brown color. 
The domestic turkey was introduced into En¬ 
gland, in 1541, and some years later, became 
sufficiently abundant to afford the farmer his 
Christmas dinner. When the Spaniards con¬ 
quered Mexico, the turkey was found in a do¬ 
mesticated state, and it probably had been reared 
as a tame bird for several centuries to that time. 
Care of Pigs in Winter. 
It is bad for the swine that the city societies 
to prevent cruelty to animals do not extend their 
offices into the country. We wonder how store 
pigs survive the winter treatment they often 
receive. They are fed at irregular intervals and 
with unequal supplies in quantity and quality. 
They have no suitable shelter, and are often con¬ 
fined in muddy pens without any opportunity 
to keep themselves dry and clean. The pig is 
a luxurious liver, if you give him a chance, and 
will keep himself clean and comfortable. No 
animal will pay better for warm quarters and a 
plenty of straw. This can usually be had in 
any quant ity and at small cost about the farmer’s 
premises. The sty should have its full share, 
and as often as it gets worked up fine it should 
be thrown out, and be replaced. Then it is ex¬ 
ceedingly profitable that the feeding trough be 
kept under cover. Swine do not enjoy eating 
in the snow and rain more than other animals. 
Give them a chance to follow their instincts, and 
then see just how much they love snow 
banks and rain storms. Then the feeding 
should not be simply the refuse of the family, 
but substantial food at regular intervals, and in 
quantities adapted to their weight. Store pigs 
want to be kept in good thriving condition until 
they are put up for fattening. Money is sunk 
in trying to make pork out of stunted pigs. 
More Cattle Wanted. 
With the price of beef at 18 cents by the 
carcass, and Porter-house steak at 35 cents, it is 
quite evident that meat eaters in our cities want 
more cattle, and we think the farmers, both East 
and West, North and South, want them quite 
as much. Pork is the only cheap meat in the 
market, and that is rattier owing to a short crop 
of corn and potatoes than to any surplus stock 
of swine»in the country. The great corn grow¬ 
ing States of the West have been visited by a 
prolonged drought, diminishing that crop from 
twenty to forty per cent. Farmers having large 
stocks of hogs are not able to winter them, 
and are pressing them upon the market in a 
half fatted condition. This temporarily de¬ 
presses the price oi pork, but nothing occurs to 
make cheap beef steaks. The war has closed, 
and many things have fallen to quite reasonable 
prices. Cotton and wool are depressed, and 
clothing of these materials is receding toward 
ante-war prices. The merchant with a large 
stock of these goods on hand trembles in his 
shoes with anxiety to be rid of them. He is 
exceedingly accommodating both as to price 
and credit. But the butcher wears his white 
apron as stiffly as ever, and treats one as coolly 
as the season. There is only so much stock in the 
market and nobc cty can undersell him.- The 
cattle trade is, no doubt, very well regulated, and 
we hear of combination anct speculation to 
regulate prices. This trade is so vast in bulk, 
and draws its supplies from so wide a territory, 
that it is hardly in the power of any man or any 
combination to keep up prices unusually for 
years as they have been since the war. The 
men who own cheap lands raise the cattle and 
sell to the men who graze and fatten them on 
better lands. These graziers, coming from all 
parts of the West, sell to the drovers and 
forwarding merchants in the large Western 
cities. More of this business is done at the 
Chicago stock-yards than at any other one 
point. Thousands of cattle and millions of 
money change hands in a day. It is an open 
market business, and the price is regulated by 
demand and supply as in most other kinds of 
business. The shortest and best way to reduce 
the price of beef is to raise more cattle, and 
this, we believe, will be quite as profitable for 
the producer as for the consumer. 
A mixed husbandry is, unquestionably, the 
best for the land and its owner in the long run. 
The raising of cotton and tobacco in the South 
leaves old fields and deserted mansions every¬ 
where. The soil is recuperated only by expen¬ 
sive manuring or by a long rest in forest. Con¬ 
tinual cropping, without returning any thing to 
the soil, will make any region desolate. The 
constant wheat and corn growing upon the new 
lands of the West is steadily reducing their 
fertility, except on the river bottoms, where the 
annual overflow restores what is taken away. 
