AN AMERICAN DAIRY FARM.

Marlborough Daily Times, Volume II, Issue 144, 6 August 1880, Page 1 (Supplement)

AN AMERICAN DAIRY FARM.

The farm of the Hon. L. F. Allen, on Grand Island, under the management of Ilia son, Mr. C. W. Allen, is something over dOO acres. It is mostly a rich clay loam, of generous depth and easily worked, 'i’he old pastures contain a great variety of grasses well adapted to dairy grazing and the production of an excellent quality of milk. The general plan of this dairy is, however, not to depend wholly upon pastures in summer, but to raise a variety of green crops upon which to full feed the cows in a dry time or when the pasture becomes deficient in quality or quantity. It is intended that every cow shall have an opportunity to do her best. She is only relied upon to convert food into milk, and is not expected to work any miracle in the production of milk from pedigree or breed, althrough the breed is particulary considered, as having the capacity and habit of producing the largest quantity and best quality of milk from a given amount of food. Full rations are to be provided at all seasons, and in as succulent a state as the season will permit. Clover, fodder corn, millet, Hungarian grass, oats, and peas— ail fed green in their season —will furnish the extra food for milk. The dairy being kept for the production of butter, the herd is selected with that end in view. The elder Mr. Allen regards the Shorthorn as admirable for the production of milk a 3 well as beef, and thinks for quantity the milking strain of Shorthorn is not surpassed by any breed ; but for richness and colour of cream he is 1 favourably inclined to the G uernscy. It is proposed, therefore, in this diary to graft the Guernsey upon grade Shorthorns. Selected common cows are crossed with a Shorthorn male from a milking family, and the heifers from this Shorthorn cross are again selected and crossed with the Guernsey male. Only selected animals arc bred. A calf with poor appetite and digestion is discarded, whatever the blood, for capacity to cat and digest is the foundation of milk production. This system of selection and breeding is expected to produce liberal. milkers with high-coloured and flavoured cream, The Shorthorn often produces a richly coloured cream, and G uernscy cream is somewhat higher coloured than Jersey. So this double cross may be relied upon for quality and colour to suit the most fastidious taste. The herd now numbers about forty head, but is to be increased to eighty. The most important matter of temperature in the handling of milk must be regulated in a dairy house. This should not be subject to atmospheric changes, but have a comparatively even ten ,eraturo. Their dairy house is built of stone, with double walls, the outside being ]<> inches, and inside 10 inches, laid in mortar, having an air space of 0 inches between them. The roof is double, so as to prevent any heat from penetrating through it. The windows are upon the north side, with blinds. The height of the story is 10 feet, and the floor is of solid concrete, worked down very smoothly, and as easily cleaned as a floor of polished marble.

The main dairy room is I ! by is feet, for setting trio milk in four long pans. The milk may be further refrigerated by ice-water iu a channel surrounding the milk. _ The rest of the dairy house is occupied by a churning room and store room. There is a small wooden building adjoining the churning room ; iu this is the wash room, with a large, deep slate _ sink, in which all the ' dairy utensils are washed. Hero is also a throe-horse engine, with a five-horse tubular boiler, wnich gets up steam very quickly, runs the churn and furnishes hot water and steam for - all purposes of cleansing. This little engine reduces the labour so materially-that a slender girl is able to do all the labour about the dairy house and the entire manufacturing eff the butter. She is, of course, a dairy expert. The engine pumps the water for the boiler, and for all other purposes. The temperature of the dairy room stands at (IQJeg. to (fikleg, in the hottest weather. The milk is set at a temperature of bodeg. to OOdcg., the pans being so large that the present quantity of milk does not fill them more than six or seven inches deep, and the temperature is not reduced so low as would be required for deeper setting. A barrel churn is used which is easily managed with the engine. Tne butter is washed in the granular state- before gathering, is worked with an ordinary lover worker upon o marble slab : tho salt worked in when taken from the churn ; it is then allowed to stand for a few hours, when it is re-worked and put up in pound prints, wrapped in muslin, and placed in drawers, each containing fifteen prints. Four of these drawers are placed in a case and ssnt to the dealer, who sells to his customers. Vdiih all these facilities, and a careful handling of the milk, the product might be expected to reach, as it does, a hrnli degree of excellence. it was placed upon the market in Buffalo, at the lowest point of last summer's low prices, and sold readily at JO cents above the market for first quality pail butter. It has kept abcut that figure above the market since. This dairy is to produce butter winter and summer. There are many such private dairies, and it is encouraging that nearly all of them are eminently successful in getting remunerative prices. It shows that only skill may win.— f Country Gentleman.’