Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 January 1893 — ABOUT DAIRY FARMING [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

ABOUT DAIRY FARMING

THE HOME OF THE GUERNSEY AND JERSEY. Treatment of Thoroughbreds Is Princely in America The Flout Breeds Are Marked Daintily as a Racehorse—Aristocracy Averts Itself at All Points. Beanty Blends with Batter. Ip al]. the old geographies New f ork was, amohg other things, put down as the first State in its dairy products, says the Press. Its excellence in dairy farming was due to the character of itsinhabitants, who were (largely Dutch and large consumers es butter and cheese; to the extensive 'battle grazing meadow lands in such pounties as Herkimer, Delaware, Dutchess, and Onondaga, and to the growth of its great cities. The State produced more and better butter and cheese than all the balance of the Country, and the Southern and Western farmers sent to the State for the best brand of cattle as the merchants came to the city to buy their best goods. A farmer in Illinois or Virginia, when he had bought a Jersey or Guernsey'heifer or bull from New •York, generally advertised the fact in his local paper and his neighbors usually called in great numbers to see this improved example of the bovine kind. ( New York has exercised as great influence over the dairy interests of this ..country as Kentucky has over the raising of fine horses, or Ohio and Illinois on sheep husbandry. Put a few years ago the New York Dairymen’s Association began to realize the fact that the State was losing

its prestige in this respect, and that IHiotas, Wisconsin and Canada were ' butter and selling it in this owy for not more than half a cefitapound advance over the New York,, .-State product. The market preferred the Canadian and Western product, ;and the dairy farms in the State were not making more than exjibhdes. .The Western meadows contained more plant/food, and the sa.mfe,,&resd of cows would yic'd a fourtba4H*»re butter. The West had

better mehdows and the railroads in ita 'fivjof, and the Eastern farmers .»a»usb4eft a6o*6t to scientillcally meet the competition of their Western rivals or abandon their old farms as New SStglabd farmers had done in attempt to raise grain, etc,, In competition with the therefore been a life and cfceatfyßs'Uggle with a great agriculturaypßustry that has contributed shiargely to making the Empire Sta ion and wealth. Vwrk Dairy Product*. ago the State Dairyestablished a ntimber or fflftry' conferences or schools, where the farmers were scientifically, taught how to produce the best milch cows, the greatest yield of milk and the finest butter.

Tji«*f kPjMgJg an< * compulsory •cifinwfiejthwf to the chief farming 1 interest Qfthe State have had the «. result of .partially re-establishing the prestige farming. The fttgaaers best cows, if not the best meadows, the best dtaßes aQ<l the best creameries of , TOpooiiltry. A farmer of much Intelligence knows just how to breed gob<s?cows %nd .what to feed them upOn to secure the greatest, and best . yield ,pf iptljf and butter, but how to makA" his latfd produce the food p products necessary for such yields has given him no little thought. The State is old, and the large resources ; of plant food that made the f dairymen in so many counties EKQspeitfi}s,,feive been largely exhausted. • -V Hkftliy any other product of the soil and the mill so exhausts land as cheese. A ton of cheese will take $9

a ton of plant food from the land while a ton of butter takes only 26 V coats. The manufacture of cheese from cattle not ofethe best blood had therefore exhaustffi many large farms to such a degree that butter producing was. not even profitable. Plant food is the hardest of all foodf to reate?* tp the solL Grain food is easily ' shipped, but grain food does not produce milk. Its function is making beef, and beef and milk will not mix

in the same animal, therefore, there was but one way for the New York dairy farmer .fcQmeepthe prqblem that poor farms, ordinary cows and extravagant feeding had brought upon him, and that was to produce a cow that, being fed upon the minimum of plant food, would produce the maximum of butter and cheese. The farmers knew it waseasierto produce a fine milker than to restore the virgin resources of nature, for a fine cow or a fine horse is distinctly a product of civilization and culture, while nature, once robbed of its virginity, can neveT be entirely re-

stored. This has not yet become so necessary in the West. Illinois and Wisconsin hay fields and meadows are as fresh as New York’s were a half century ago, and here is given its reason for raising the best breeds of cattle for dairy farming, for a fine cow will eat no more timothy or clover than a scrub, hut she will produce five times as much milk. The result is that New York has the best milch cows that have so far been raised. Cattle culture in this State has become one of the finest branches of veterinary science. Many of the

richest men in the State are devot ing their time to the breeding of fin cattle and are conducting sojne c the most costly and prosperous farms in the world, for they have learned that this sort of farming is not only most remunerative, but It is one of the. most delightful and elevating branches of agriculture. The world renowned Jersey cattle have always been prime favorites among most dairymen, but there are other breeds that are constantly disputing supremacy with this great breed of cattle. The two other breeds that are well before the world to-day are the Crumhorn, HolsteinFriesian and the Guernsey. The former breed has maito-a great record

as milkers, but it is to the latter that particular attention Is to be called. The Guernsey is a spotted Shorthorn cow, ated is one. of the largest and most beautiful and gentle cows in the meadow or at the stall. They are always plump and maintain good condition, and it is always a pleasure to look at and handle one. But, best of all, they stand equal in record in the quality and quantity of milk and butter yield with the Jersey and the Holstein They are certainly more beautiful than either of the other breeds. A half-dozen of these beautiful cattle were on exhibition at the recent food exhibit at Madison Square Garden. They were the property of Vice President Morton, and certainly were one of the chief attractions of the fair. Every lover of the cow and those who cared nothing for the cow gathered about tjjese beautiful and gentle creatures which Mr. Morton had sent down from his farm at Rhinecliff-on-the-Hudson. His farm superintendent, Mr. Cottrell, said these cows were sent to the food exhibit for the high butter record they had made. * . • t... Guernsey* at ths Food Exhibit. ••pbjjre is, for instance, the pet of the lot; Good Morning, 3674, a nearly solid fawn, imported Nov. 16,1887,

and which has a record of 8,295] pounds of milk in a year and 1,071| pounds in a month. o6ho is to go to the World’s Fair as a specimen of a high bred, rich milker. Then there is Rosette, |vith a record of 8,101 pounds in 351 days; Olga, "75 pounds in one month; Margo, 6,o97'poqpds in eight months; Lady Antoinette 11., 830 pounds in one month; Britoni, 5,701 pounds in seven months; Chamoinesse, 5,532* pounds in nine months; Rosaline, 5,716 pounds In nine months, and May Blossom, 5,780 pounds in eight months. In a serie* of tests made among the very large

stock of thoroughbreds owned by Mr. Morton the milk from Cood Morning showed a percentage of 5.90 of butter{at. ” Last summer Mr. Morton's barn was burned, but his fine stock.was saved and the new barn which he is now building at Elerslie will be one of the finest in the world and certainly the best equipped for the breeding of fine stock, there being room for more than 400 cattle. The main building will be 300 feet in length and 65 feet wide, with an extra width of 89 feet for room for the silos and machinery. The Morton

herd now contains 164 head and will be increased to 400, with a working dairy of 300 cows. " The world is standing on tiptoe trying to approximate the speed oi the future horse, hut the amount ol food that is to be given to the future cow and the amount of milk and butter to come from her is a very great economical question. Nowhere yet have civilized men .settled so near to each other that the cow does not thrive. In England, France, and Germany she keeps pace with the civilization about her. The more nervous and intelligent the people grow the firmer grows the cow. The more populous the community becomes the richer and more milk

and butter does she yield, notwithstanding the fact that tlm meadows and hay fields are gradualljKbecoming smaller. The growth, ami perfection of the cow is one hf the greatest economical triumphs of the present civilization, for she is one of the chief agencies of its existence, and he who can continue the im-

proveinent of the cow is no iess than a benefactor of his time.

THE DAIRY.

Power house. Dairy Stable for 400 cattle. Main entrance and Hen house. Barns for calves, 2,000 ton silos. VIEW OF THE BUILDINGS ON MR. MORTON'S DAIRY FARM.

THE GUERNSEY COW, CHANOINESSE.

INTERIOR OF THE MAMMOTH STABLE, CONTAINING 400 STALLS.

FINEST GUERNSEY BULL IN AMERICA.