'SHAKERS' AS FARMERS.

Waikato Times, Volume XIX, Issue 1636, 30 December 1882, Page 4

'SHAKERS' AS FARMERS.

Ix,all New ICngland, dent; of the Aiiiiric(ii\ 'I/ifojmjm there are no better fiiiiiier^!fclvlfi'/tlio;'*tsliakers. They always have the 1/ est of , implements, .niil keep fully a-brartt with all modern improvements, 'nud with tin; newest and Iwst way of taking advantage of the rich HluTiility of ' benolioent nature, but they do not rush wildly and recklessly into exttavagr.iut expenditure on now ideas. As yet they liavo tried silos and iMi^il.me only in a small way. • They wait lor more light. They blniin^ that l>y their care and method of feuding they make their daiiying pay them in wint'M" almost UK well as in au'mmer. For three month of th« year their cattle mi' carefully liohskil, ami .seldom allowed to go bi'Vond the confines of the lurnyard. T\w cow-hoii.ses me, moderately warm by straw, the water lms the chill take 1 oil", and the food given tlu'in — hay, shoots, meal, corn, fodder roots of turnips, butt-., &c. — is .ill well steamed. An animal keeps in youd Husband ijood heart on a much smaller allowance of food than under the old rt/jutir, the proportion now being an average of 21 Übs of stewed food to a former allowance of 38A.lbs per diem, for each animal, of raw food. The theory is that cooked food and tempered water keep up-Ehe animal heat, and cows kept in this way give nearly double their fo«ner yield ot milk. In the yard are two streams of water, one cold and the other heated with pipes. The cows prefer cold in summer and the heated in winter. The cows are milked morning and evening, and at the evening milking are fed with a measure of meal. The breed preferred by the Shakers is exclusively Durham. They make the very best butter and cheese that it is profitable to produce by the most exceptional manipulation, immaculate cleanliness being the salient characteristic of the manufacture.