the offspring, if sufficient regard is paid to the selection of the individual animals to breed from.

The Ayrshire unites to a greater degree than other breeds the supposed incompatible qualities of yielding a great deal of milk and beef.

LENGTH OF TIME COWS SHOULD BE MILKED.

About five months after calving, there is a great difference in the quality of a cow's milk as compared with that of one lately calved. The milk of a cow newly calved not only contains more butter, but the butter exists in larger globules and is more easily churned than afterward. After five or six months, the cream is much smaller in quantity, but it changes in character; the globules are very small and exist as an emulsion with the milk rather than as a separate part of it. In the souring of milk, alcohol is formed by the decomposition of the sugar of milk; the alcohol forms an emulsion with the cream, and as this is butter in the churn, it foams up and froths over, but makes no butter. Hence the reason why it takes so much longer to churn late in the fall and in early winter than in the spring. When this season occurs and the cream froths up in the churn and butter will not come, patience ceases to be a virtue, for it is useless. The cream might as well go into cakes and puddings or be thrown to the hogs.

COWS FOR THE BUTTER DAIRY.

Frank K. Hall, of Sugar Grove, Ill., says:

I have recently made some tests for the purpose of determining the relative value of my cows for a butter dairy. I am convinced that farmers too often simply guess at the value of their cows for this purpose, and do not always give honor where honor is due, and sometimes allow a cow a place in the barn which ought to be in the beef barrel.

milk of each cow by itself, The milk was heated after

On the 27th day of December we saved the setting it in separate pans and at the usual depth. setting twelve hours, and skimmed when thirty-six hours old. Milk, cream and butter were carefully weighed.

My herd numbers but six cows, as follows:

No. 1. Thoroughbred Jersey, ten years old; weight about seven hundred pounds; came in last May; due to come in again next April; average time of going dry, two weeks.

No. 2. Thoroughbred Jersey, two years old last spring; weight about seven hundred and fifty pounds; came in last September; due to come in again next June.

No. 3. Probably a full blood Jersey, nine years old; and seventy-five pounds; came in last August; due to June; average time of going dry, two weeks.

weight nine hundred come in again next

No. 4. A Jersey and Ayrshire cross, six years old; weight nine hundred and fifty pounds; came in last April, due to come in next June; average time of going dry, two weeks.

No. 5. A half blood grade Jersey, two years old last spring; weight about seven hundred and fifty pounds; came in last September; due to come in next June.

No. 6. A common cow, six years old; weight about nine hundred and fifty pounds; came in last July; due to come in again next June; average time of going dry, nearly three months.

The cows have been fed and treated alike, except that the heifers have not had quite as much grain as the old cows. They have had all the tame hay and corn fodder they would eat, and two bushel baskets of soft corn (some sweet corn), a one and one-half bushels of beets per day.

It will be seen that cow No. 6 gives the most milk, and is by far the poorest cow in the herd, since she goes dry nearly three months each year, and only 4.8 per cent. of her milk is butter.

Cow No. 3 made last July, just one month before dropping her calf, one and one-fourth pounds of butter per day. She now makes more than one pound per day. Therefore I think it safe to say that cow No. 3 will make 365 pounds of butter every 365 days, while cow No. 6 will not make 250 pounds. Now if butter is worth twenty-five cents per pound. cow No. 3 makes $91.25 worth of butter per year, while cow No. 6 makes but $62.50 worth, provided the feed and labor of caring for the cow costs $60. Cow No. 3 gives a profit of $31.25; cow No. 6 gives a profit of $2.50.

Problem: If cow No. 6 is worth $40, how much is cow No. 3 worth?

On December 20, milk drawn from each of these cows (Nos. 3 and 6) was placed in glass tubes twenty-one inches long. In twenty hours after setting, the cream line of No. 3's milk was plainly visible, and all the cream had evidently reached the top of the milk, while the same state of things did not exist in the other tube, until the milk was more than thirty-six hours old. Therefore, I infer that the difference between the per cents. of butter and cream would be much larger in summer than in winter.

In making this test, the butter was weighed before salting, and salted at the rate of one ounce of salt for each pound of butter. After standing twentyfour hours, it was worked the second time, and weighed again. The weights given in the table are the weights after salting.

RAISING CALVES FOR THE DAIRY.

On this subject, Mr. Willard, of the Rural New Yorker, has the following: There are various opinions in reference to the best and cheapest manner of raising calves. We believe the best results are obtained by giving the calf generous treatment from first to last. A poor, stunted and half-starved calf will never be able to reach that standard of excellence that it would, had a more liberal allowance of food been made during its earliest days. If a calf gets a fair start on milk, its food may be changed to whey by adding a porridge of oatmeal, oil-cake, buckwheat flour, or something of this kind, to supply the necessary constituents lacking in the whey. We have sometimes seen good calves raised on a small quantity of milk, by adding the liquor from steeped hay. Where conveniences are had for steeping hay, and only a small quantity of milk can be had, this plan may be resorted to, but if good, sweet whey can be obtained, the porridge, or oat-meal or oil-cake will require less labor in its preparation, and is easier to be regulated as to the quantity required.

In butter dairies, good calves can be raised on skimmed milk. Almost every farmer has some peculiar notion of his own, in regard to the manner of raising calves; but the great and general fault in management is a scanty allowance of nutritious food in the early stages of growth. It is important that the young animal be kept in a growing, vigorous condition, so that when cold weather approaches in the fall and early winter, it will be able to meet the exigencies of change in climate with good feed and care, and without special nursing to bring it through the rigors of winter. It pays well to do the work thoroughly and in the best manner at first, since, if this omitted, no after treatment will be able to wholly counteract neglect and starvation in the early stages of growth.

The importance of growing good dairy stock cannot be too strongly urged upon the dairy farmers of the State at this time. The difficulty of getting good stock, by selecting from droves brought from a distance, is so great that the raising of stock on the farm where it is to be used is now almost imperative, if a good and profitable herd is desired. Calves should be selected from deep milking animals, and if these have been crossed with thorough-bred bulls of good milking families, the chances are almost certain that the calf will make a good cow.

CONCERNING THE EAR MARKS OF BUTTER COWS.

Hon. John Shattuck, a noted butter dairyman of Chenango Co., N. Y., said at the late convention of the New York State Dairymen's Association, that he had found the color on the inside of the ear to be one infallible guide in the selection of a good butter cow. If the skin on the inside of the ear is of a rich yellow color, the cow was sure to give a good quality of milk; that is, milk rich in butter. He said in all his experience he had never known this sign to fail.

Mr. J. W. North, in the Maine Farmer, gives some further information concerning the subject. He observes that cows producing very high colored butter have a large amount of the ear secretion, in many instances the whole internal surface being covered with a thick, orange-colored, oily matter; on the other hand, the light-colored butter makers present a scanty, thin and pale yellow secretion, in some cases found only at the bottom of the ear. His theory is, that every animal has the power of secreting a certain amount of this yellow pigment. If the quantity be sufficiently large, secretion will take place freely in the mammary glands, the ear and skin. If, however, the production be limited, the tendency may be wholly toward the milk glands and ear, causing the animal to exhibit a pink hide, or the skin may be almost the sole avenue of escape from the body, the butter, in consequence, being light, colored; or there may be so little coloring matter evolved as to furnish none to the skin, and a very scanty supply to the ear and milk. In selecting Jersey cows, in order to judge in regard to the color of their butter, he recommends the ear to be inspected.

Dr. Sturtevant, in his recent address before the Connecticut State Board of Agriculture, alluded to this color of the ear in selecting cows, but he thought some caution should be observed in clearing away the secretion that may have accumulated on the skin, so that the true color of the skin on the inside of the ear may be seen. Otherwise the accumulated secretion, if taken for the true color of the skin on the inside of the ear, would deceive, as it might be darker, or exhibit a deeper color than that of the true skin. He regarded the color of the ear as a good guide in respect to the color of the butter which the cow would yield.

REARING YOUNG CALVES.

A gentleman of Plattsburg, Mo., states:

As regards the merit of the various plans of keeping calves, we are averse to tieing calves by the neck. It cramps their motions, and deprives them of that freedom of action which is so conducive to health and growth. By restraining motion, they will no doubt sooner acquire condition; but for stock calves this is of less importance than strength acquired by moderate exercise

within limited space within a crib. As to a number of calves within the same loose box, though certainly having liberty to move, they have also liberty to suck one another, a propensity inveterate in calves. The ears, navel, scrotum and teats suffer by this dirty habit; and there is no preventing it after it has been acquired as long as two calves remain together. Upon the whole, we prefer the separate crib to each calf, sparred to allow it to see its neighbors, and it is then in as much company as to remove the idea of loneliness. The separation, at all evants, prevents the abominable habit of sucking; and such cribs are as useful when calves are suckled by the cows as when brought up by hand.

In regard to bringing up calves by suckling, there is no question it is the best way, provided the calf has always free access to the cow which is supporting it; but we are doubtful of the superiority of suckling over feeding by hand, when the calf is only allowed to go to the cow at stated times. It saves the trouble of milking the cows and giving the milk to the calves; but a saving of trouble is of no importance compared to rearing young stock well. An objection to suckling exists when one cow brings up two calves at a time, that the quantity of milk received by each calf is unknown, and the fastest sucker will take the largest share. True, they are both brought up; but are they brought up as well as when the quantity of milk drank is known to be sufficient for the support of each? The milk becomes scarcer, too, as the calves get older, instead of becoming more plentiful, as it should be. The objection to partial suckling is, that a cow suckling a calf does not allow milking afterward with the hand in a kindly manner, as every cow prefers being sucked to being milked by the hand. Unless, therefore, cows are kept for the purpose of suckling throughout the season, they become troublesome to milk with the hand after the calves are weaned. Usually, one cow suckles two calves; and a cow that has calved early may suckle two sets, or four calves, or at least three, in the season. When brought up by hand, it is reckoned that each cow shall support two calves, the calves beyond their own being taken from cows whose milk is wanted for other purposes, or being purchased from those who do not bring up calves. In this way ten cows will support at least twenty calves, and maybe twenty-five.

OIL-CAKE FOR MILCH COWS.

A correspondent of the Toledo Farm Journal gives the benefit of his experience as follows: Dairymen in this vicinity, where continued feeding of milch cows is requisite from five to seven months of the year, who have not tested the virtue of oil-cake as an economizer in fodder, can scarce believe how profitable its results are, especially during long, cold, severe winters. Owning about forty cows several years since, all of which were stabled during the winter season, the writer's attention was called to the value of cotton-seed oil as an economizer of fodder, and a trial was given it, a ton or two being purchased at