THE DAIRY

Feilding Star, Volume XV, Issue 79, 30 September 1893, Page 6 (Supplement)

THE DAIRY

WASHING THE "BABY."

Explicit Directions For Cleansing the Hand Cream Separator. 1 have now owned and operated continuously an Alpha DeLaval No. 2, commonly known as 'Baby No. 2," for over 14 months, and when I say continuously I mean it in the fullest acceptation of the term, as never a day has elapsed during the entire period that it has not twice each day separated the milk of 20 cows, thus necessitating two washings each day. As soon as the separating is over, I turn the separator bowl with the disks in a pile in a small tin pan of clear, warm (not hot) water. I have a stout, hempen cord about a yard long, pass it through the pile of disks, and they are strung like beads on a string. 1 have ready in a dish pan, used only for this purpose, boiling hot water in which is a small amount of concentrated lye, just enough to cut the grease and not enough to corrode the tin. Taking hold of either end of the cord, I roll and agitate the disks on the string uutil they are thoroughly cleansed. By this time they are ready for the drying process. I then take my piece of broom handle, sawed just long enough to reach across the top of the pan used to dry them off. lift the disks from tho water with the ends of tbe string, insert the broom handle and withdraw the string, place the handle across the top of the drying pan and pour a couple of quarts of clear, boiling water over the disks, remove from the top of the pan and let them drain and dry, and while they are drying wash my bowl and the ceutral cylinder and scald them. Wipe dry and replace the disks and cylinder No drying with a cloth is necessary, as the heat from the boiling water poured over them dries them thoroughly. Wash and wipe the rubber ring and screw down the top of the bowl. Putting the remaining portions of the separator through* the same process takes scarcely any more time than I've taken to write this. I can at any time wash and put my separator in complete order in 10 minutes, and that, too, without any undue haste By the use of the Btring it obviates the necessity of handling each disk or plate separately and prevents the possibility of gettiug the numbers mixed. Since it is imperative that the plates should go into the bowl consecutively according to the numbering, this plan of stringing precludes the misplacing of the numbers. —Mrs. Kate M. Busick Feeding the Cow For Money. The efforts of dairymen to make their cows surpass anything that has yet been done in the way of producing milk or butter needs to be made with a great deal of care. Heavy feeding, which is one of the absolute essentials to success in record breaking, must be directed with no small degree of skill or else it will result in a diminished instead of an increased power of production, and it may, as it has done in not a few instances, lead to tho loss of the animal itself. If absolute safety is to be considered, it will be wise to remember that extremes are usually dangerous and that the feeding of animals is uo exception to tbe general rule. But it is possible to learn very much about the merits of a cow as a butter producer without incurring any special risk. If tbe feed is increased gradually, as it invariably ought to be, and its effect is carefully noted, the owner of a cow will have little difficulty in deciding when the safe limit has been approached. Long before that point is reached he will be able to determine whether the increased: quantity of food supplied is profitably utilized, for, contrary to what seenis *to * be the belief of some advocates of high feeding, there are cows which, through some fault of digestion or assimilation or because they have a much stronger tehdency to produce flesh than they have to yield milk, do not pay for extra quantities of grain. It therefore follows that when a test of the productive powers is made the health of the animals and the financial interests of their owners will be best protected by a gradual increase in the quantity of grain supplied and the careful watching of the effects which it produces.'

Sorghum Fodder. Oreat care should be employed to keep the cows in milk as long as possible, it takes a large percentage from the profits when cows are dry froni three to four months in the year, or if their flow of milk decreases to any very marked degree during the last four or five months of the year. Clean, warm stables, plenty of pure water, from which the chill has been taken, roots or grain, or both, in addition to their dry feed, aro conditions which secure success in winter dairying. Nor is winter the only time when the cows need supplementary food. As soon aa the summer's drought begins to shorten the pastures there should be plenty of corn or sorghum, to supply the lacking feed. Sorghum is an especially satisfactory crop for this purpose, as the cattle will eat it up clean. Dairymen cau hardly regard this plant too highly.*

Milk For Cheeßeiuakiui;. Milk for cheesemakiug should always be aerated as soon as drawn from the cow. First class cheese cau only bo made from milk that is absolutely free from all impurities and aeration helps to secure such. Dairymen who furnish milk to the factories should be taught to use aerators. A very effective one ,cau be made easily and cheaply by drilling one-sixteenth inch holes through the bottom and uear the outer edge of some kind of a vessel. Suspend this as high as possible above another vessel and let the milk run through while it is yet warm.