49 
Jonathan Cory’s Statement: 
“ During the past season I milked sixteen cows, eleven of which were 
heifers two years old each—with their first calves. They are of the 
common breed of the country. I have been prevented from trying some 
of the choicer breeds of the day, by the expense attendant upon their 
purchase and transportation, and consequently cannot judge of the com¬ 
parative merits of the different breeds. In selecting my cows for their 
milking properties, I have been guided in a very great degree by a small 
treatise on milch cows, written by M. Guenon. I am confident that the 
rules laid down in that book are generally to be depended upon. The 
cows are pastured in the summer on the native prairie grass, and in the 
fall on timothy grass. I can see no difference in the quality of the milk 
or butter made from either, while the prairie grass is green and tender; 
but as soon as the prairie grass begins to turn yellow, it loses its flavor 
very soon, and I then use timothy pasture, which is the aftermath or 
second growth. In the winter I use timothy hay mostly, feeding no grain, 
except a little bran, which is given once a day to those cows that drop 
their calves before the grass starts in the spring ; but I am careful to 
feed plenty of hay, and give the cows free access to good water. I raise 
all the calves, feed them new milk a few days, and then skimmed milk 
until they are four or five weeks old, when I feed them buttermilk. I 
I think it more profitable to feed the buttermilk to calves than to pigs, 
and they soon learn to drink together from a trough, so that it is no 
more trouble to feed them than to feed pigs. The cows are milked regu¬ 
larly twice a day ; the milk is then strained through a wire strainer into 
pans that hold a pailful each, and set, in warm weather, in a cool cellar, 
where the milk is allowed to stand uncovered till it becomes thick; it 
must then be churned soon, for if it stands too long the cream will 
become soured ; it is then put into the churn, milk and cream together, 
until the churn is filled about half full, I then put in from one pail to 
three pails full of cold water ; our churn holds one and one-half barrels, 
and is a common dash churn ; I then put in warm water till it can be 
churned without much frothing; I use no thermometer, the water serves 
to thin the milk so as to require less labor to separate the butter from 
the buttermilk; I usually churn about three quarters of an hour, using 
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