PREFACE.
This work is designed to embody the most recent information on the subject of dairy farming. My aim has been to make a practically useful book. With this view, I have treated of the several breeds of stock, the diseases to which they are subject, the established principles of breeding, the feeding and management of milch cows, the raising of calves intended for the dairy, and the culture of grasses and plants to be used as fodder.
For the chapter on the diseases of stock, I am largely indebted to Dr. C. M. Wood, Professor of the Theory and Practice of Veterinary Medicine, and to Dr. Geo. H. Dadd, Professor of Anatomy and Physiology, both of the Boston Veterinary Institute. If this chapter contributes anything to promote a more humane and judicious treatment of cattle when suffering from disease, I shall feel amply repaid for the labor bestowed upon the whole work.
The chapter on the Dutch dairy, which I have translated from the German, will be found to be of great practical value, as suggesting much that is applicable to our American dairies. This chapter has never before, to my knowledge, appeared in English.
The full and complete explanation of Guénon’s method of judging and selecting milch cows,—a method originally regarded as theoretical, but now generally admitted to be very useful in practice,—I have translated from the last edition of the treatise of M. Magne, a very sensible French writer, who has done good service to the agricultural public by the clearness and simplicity with which he has freed that system from its complicated details.
The work will be found to contain an account of the most enlightened practice in this country, in the statements those actually engaged in dairy farming; the details of the dairy husbandry of Holland, where this branch of industry is made a specialty to greater extent, and is consequently carried to a higher degree of perfection, than in any other part of the world; and the most recent and productive modes of management in English dairy farming, embracing a large amount of practical and scientific information, not hitherto presented to the American public in an available form.
Nothing need be said of the usefulness of a treatise on the dairy. The number of milch cows in the country, forming so large a part of our material wealth, and serving as a basis for the future increase and improvement of every class of neat stock, on which the prosperity of our agriculture mainly depends; the intrinsic value of milk as an article of internal commerce, and as a most healthy and nutritious food; the vast quantity of it made into butter and cheese, and used in every family; the endless details of the management, feeding, and treatment, of dairy stock, and the care and attention requisite to obtain from this branch of farming the highest profit, all concur to make the want of such a treatise, adapted to our climate and circumstances, felt not only by practical farmers, but by a large class of consumers, who can appreciate every improvement which may be made in preparing the products of the dairy for their use.
The writer has had some years of practical experience in the care of a cheese and butter dairy, to which has been added a wide range of observation in some of the best dairy districts of the country; and it is hoped that the work now submitted to the public will meet that degree of favor usually accorded to an earnest effort to do something to advance the cause of agriculture.
DAIRY FARMING
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY.—THE VARIOUS RACES OF PURE-BRED CATTLE IN THE UNITED STATES.
The milking qualities of our domestic cows are, to some extent, artificial, the result of care and breeding. In the natural or wild state, the cow yields only enough to nourish her offspring for a few weeks, and then goes dry for several months, or during the greater part of the year. There is, therefore, a constant tendency to revert to that condition, which is prevented only by judicious treatment, designed to develop and increase the milking qualities so valuable to the human race. If this judicious treatment is continued through several generations of the same family or race of animals, the qualities which it is calculated to develop become more or less fixed, and capable of transmission. Instead of being exceptional, or peculiar to an individual, they become the permanent characteristics of a breed. Hence the origin of a great variety of breeds or races, the characteristics of each being due to local circumstances such as climate, soil, and the special objects of the breeder, which may be the production of milk, butter and cheese, or the raising of beef or working cattle.
A knowledge of the history of different breeds, and especially of the dairy breeds, is of manifest importance. Though very excellent milkers will sometimes be found in all of them, and of a great variety of forms, the most desirable dairy qualities will generally be found to have become fixed and permanent characteristics of some to a greater extent than of others; but it does not follow that a race whose milking qualities have not been developed is of less value for other purposes, and for qualities which have been brought out with greater care. A brief sketch of the principal breeds of American cattle, as well as of the grades or the common stock of the country, will aid the farmer, perhaps, in making an intelligent selection with reference to the special object of pursuit, whether it be the dairy, the production of beef, or the raising of cattle for work.
In a subsequent chapter on the selections of milch cows, the standard of perfection will be discussed in detail, and the characteristics of each of the races will naturally be measured by that. In this connection, and as preliminary to the following sketches, it may be stated that, whatever breed may be selected, a full supply of food and proper shelter are absolutely essential to the maintenance of any milking stock, the food of which goes to supply not only the ordinary waste of the system common to all animals, but also the milk secretions, which are greater in some than in others. A large animal on a poor pasture has to travel much further to fill itself than a small one. A small or medium-sized cow would return more milk in proportion to the food consumed, under such circumstances, than a large one.
In selecting any breed, therefore, regard should be had to the circumstances of the farmer, and the object to be pursued. The cow most profitable for the milk-dairy may be very unprofitable in the butter and cheese dairy, as well as for the production of beef; while for either of the latter objects the cow which gave the largest quantity of milk might prove very unprofitable. It is desirable to secure a union and harmony of all good qualities, so far as possible; and the farmer wants a cow that will milk well for some years, and then, when dry, fatten readily, and sell to the butcher for the highest price. These qualities, though often supposed to be incompatible, will be found to be united in some breeds to a greater extent than in others; while some peculiarities of form have been found, by observation, to be better adapted to the production of milk and beef than others. This will appear in the following pages.
Fig. 1. Ayrshire Cow, imported and owned by Dr. Geo. B. Loring, Salem, Mass.