The Dairy.

Opunake Times, Volume V, Issue 195, 17 July 1896, Page 3

The Dairy.

CAREFULLY SELECTED COWS.

Some tall facts, that is if they are facts,.are submitted in Heard’s Dairyman (a reputable and generally accurate journal, it should be mentioned) under the heading of “ A notable object lesson of what may be done by carefully selected and well-managed cows, given by Mr William Parkinson, of Jarvis, Ontario.” His average number of cows in 1895 was Ilf, and the total yield of milk was 101,1121 b, averaging 88001 b, or 860 gallons per cow. Cheese was made during nearly all the year, and sold 11c. per pound for the winter make and Bfc. for the summer make. All the food, except bran, was grown on the farm of 50 acres, and wheat was sold to pay for the bran, which was mixed with ground oats and peas. This dry food is given all the year round, and whatever some theorists may say to the contrary, it must be credited in part with the richness of the milk, which showed an average of 48 per cent. The food cost 36 dol. per cow, and a clear profit of over 58 dol. per cow was obtained. In 1894 the results were still better. The average yield of milk was 89501 b, or 870 gallons per cow, and the cash return 10,285 dol. The cost of feeding is put at 41 dol., leaving a profit of 61.85, or fully £l2 per cow, putting the value of the manure against the cost of attendance. This is an extraordinary result, and it is impossible to say whether Mr Parkinson charges enough for the keep of the cows. But 870 gallons at 5d per gallon, which Mr Parkinson would probably average, including the value of the whey, would amount to £lB 2s 6d ; and that sum would certainly leave a large margin of profit in Canada. On his 60 acres he also fattens 200 pigs in a year, besides keeping a good many poultry and breeding a few carriage horses. Greater leturns have been made in England in past times, but the expenses were much heavier than they are in Canada, and the price of milk or cheese was then a good deal higher than it was in 1894 or 1895. It is mainly the great average yield of milk that makes Mr Parkinson’s profit large.

CONCERNING BUTTER FLAVOR.

In butter there are flavors many any various. They differ as widely in origin as in kind. Many come to the cow through her breed, her feed, her drink and her surroundings; other flavors are born and bred in the dairy. All of these save one, the breed flavor, are more or Jess corrupt flavors. They do not belong to butter rightly made. Butter rightly made has also different flavors according to the breed of the cow, the stage of ripeness at which the cream was churned, and, probably, the stage'of lactation. These are flavors of composition. Take cream from a number of typical cows of the several breeds, and from scrubs, all in milk the same length of time, and ripen the cream as nearly as possible alike, churn each in the best way for it, and the several butters obtained will have the flavors as markedly distinct as their colors—not that there is any known connection between color and flavor. There will be a Jersey flavor, a Guernsey flavor (scarcely distinguishable from the Jersey), an Ayrshire, a Holstein and a nondescript flavor. The flavors of the Jerrey and Guernsey are peculiarly rich and nutty-like, and persons who once become accustomed to them are never content with any other butter. The other three differ less from one another than all do from the Jersey and Guernsey. These are facts within the experience or observation of all who make or use first-class from the cows described. Creamery men find it to their interest to deny or ignore these facts, because to state them or admit their truth when stated by others is both to announce the fact, and, at the same time, account for it, that the best creamery butter is not as finely flavored as the beat dairy butter. The best private dairies do and can control the conditions that govern and make the richest flavors. The best of creameries do not and cannot control these conditions.