291 
State Convention—Butter-Making, Etc. 
breeds. Save your calces from your good cows and sire. That I 
consider of great importance. The sire and dam, dairy-breed, 
should belong to good dairy-stock. 
To test the quality of milk. Some cows give a large quantit} r 
that is not very rich, some a smaller quantity that is very rich. I 
have a glass vessel about the size of a candle to test the milk. 
These are filled with milk; these vessels are about six inches long, 
and very easily set up on the end by boring holes in a piece of tim¬ 
ber. If with a fair trial the cream rises five-eighths of an inch in 
thickness, the milk being of the depth of six inches, or the length 
of the vessel, I call her a passably good cow, but if the quan¬ 
tity is less than five-eighths in thickness, I discard her. I 
have a cow at this time that gives an average of thirty pounds a 
day, on dry feed, and her milk, by this test, raises cream seven- 
eighths of an inch in thickness, and sometimes more; and I doubt 
not, makes ten pounds of butter per week. One of the best fea¬ 
tures of a cow is a good appetite. I want a cow to eat. I like to 
have her good size and quality, such as we get in the cross of short¬ 
horns with good natives. 
Mr. Anderson : I would like to ask Mr. Curtis if the amount of 
cream did not depend considerably on the kind of feed, if you will 
not get more cream if you feed corn-meal, than if you feed bran. 
Mr. Curtis: Of course. 
Mr. Anderson: Do you prefer carrots or the sugar-beet? 
Mr. Curtis: I have not tried the sugar-beet in comparison with 
carrots; I know carrots to be good. There is another product I con_ 
sider of great importance which I might here allude to in connection 
with carrots. The orange-carrot I have used. I find some of them are 
more yellow than others. I notice the e}^e has a good deal to do in 
the sale of butter. They want it yellow. Annatto is used for that 
purpose. Somehow I do not like it; I don’t use it at all. But lat¬ 
terly we have learned to take this yellow carrot, and with an ordi¬ 
nary grater, grate up sufficient, say three or four quarts, and let 
this stand in water, five, six, or ten hours, just what is convenient, 
and then press out the juice through a strainer, and put this into 
the Gream and churn it. It gives a good color, and we think also 
adds to the flavor of the butter, because it gives a fresh, grassy taste 
that our citv customers call for, more like June butter. 
