Rensselaer Republican, Volume 19, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 June 1887 — THE DAIRY. [ARTICLE]

THE DAIRY.

Dairies or Creameries, Which? Mr. N. J. Shepherd, of Missouri, furnishes to the American Dairyman, under the heading of “Dairies or Creameries," as to their degree of profits, an article which will be interesting, especially in some sections where controversy is going on as to the outcome as between creameries and the production of butter on the farm. The correspondent says: Which is the most profitable for the average farmer? Can the creameries pay as much for the cream as it is worth to the farmer? At the first glance it would seem that they could not, because the creameries expect, of course, to make a reasonable profit in manufacturing and sending to market, and if the farmer kept the cream at home and manufactured it into butter himself he could secure the same profit that the creamery would. That implies, of course, that the farmer can manufacture as cheap, or rather with as small a proportionate expense, and manufacture as good an article that will sell for as much per pound. Can he do this? If he can, certainly it seems that the best interest to the fartner could be secured by dairying—making his own cream into butter and sending to market rather than selling without manufacturing. Can he take the milk, orratherthe cream, from ten, twenty, or thirty cows and manufacture into butter that will grade as well and sell for as much as a creamery that will take up the cream from three or four hundred cows? It is mainly upon this question that a decision hangs.

Taken ordinarily, in proportion to the amount of labor-saving machinery we use, we can decrease the cost. The farmer with his small herd of cows cannot afford to invest too much money in dairy machinery. The interest on the money invested is so much that the amount manufactured would not return a fair profit. He at best cannot make a large quantity of butter, and it requires the nicest care to secure the same grade each time. By having a so much larger quantity of cream to manufacture the creamery can use more machinery, and should be able to reduce the cost of manufacture to the lowest possible sum and at the same time make an article of a much more even grade, and, of course, ought to secure a better price. Not that this is true in all cases or in all sections. Circumstances in different localities will make a difference. But for the average farmer who is located convenient to a creamery, and who can at best only keep a small number of cows, in connection with the other farm work, this offers the best disposition he eon make of his milk or cream.

Some dairymen, by giving very close attention to every detail, are able to secure a better price and realize a larger proportionate profit than the creameries or farmers that sell the cream. But at the same time there are plenty of others,in many respects fully as careful, with the advantages of location, that derive as much profit from dairying as those who simply sell their cream. Fanners, of course, want to secure the largest amount of profit, and usually with the least risk. Taking all things into consideration, under average conditions, the creameries can afford to pay more for the cream than it is worth to the farmer to manufacture himself. The farmer can use as much feed raised on the farm, and can secure as much manure from the cows by either plan, so that in this respect there need be no difference of any account. With a creamery convenient that is inclined to treat its patrons fairly, in a great majority of cases selling the eream will give the most profit. But when away from a creamery, or where from any cause they are not willing to pay what .the cream is really worth to the farmer, dairying will pay the most profit.

Dairy Soles. Cbeam scalded too high is melted into oil. Oil does not come to butter in the churn. Nothing else will so help the flowing milk of the cows for winter feed as a pailful of ripe apples chopped into slices, and sprinkled with the meal. It pays as well to grow apples for the stock, if not better, as to grow roots in the field. A mess of feed given to a cow while she is being milked draws her attention and she will not hold up the milk as cows are apt to do when the calf .is taken from them. , The milking enn be done more thoroughly as well as quicker, when the cow is quietly eating. And if fed turnips or cabbage at this time the odor will not affect the milk. Mints to Housekeepers. To sWEETEN bitter yeast thrust into it a. red-hot iron. -In cooking cabbage, put a small piece of a red pepper into the pot. It will not only improve the taste of the vegetable, but prevents any harmful results in the eating thereof. A carpet can be mended by cutting a piece like the carpet a little larger than the, hole. Put paste around the edge of the patch, then slip it under the carpet and rub it well with a warm iron until day. If the figure is matched it makes a very neat job as well as a quick one.