BUTTER PRODUCT OF A GOOD COW.
Peoria, Ill.
1. What may be fairly regarded as the average annual butter product of a good class of dairy cows? 2. Is not $50 an exorbitant price to pay for an average cow?
Young Housekeeper.
Answer.—Of course the butter product depends on the kind of stock, the pasturage and winter feed, the care of the cattle, and the skill and industry of the butter-maker. The following statement of Mr. Wm. Guinter, of Twin Grove, Wis., shows the average annual product of butter realized by him from six cows, together with the average value of this product: “I have kept a strict account for one year of the income from six cows. I have sold 1,185 pounds of butter, and counting four pounds a week of cream and butter for family use of four persons, increases the total product to 1,393 pounds. The highest price received per pound was 38 cents, and the lowest was 16 cents, making an average of 26 cents. The whole amount realized, then, was $362.18, or $60.36 a cow. I have my cows come in fresh in the fall on account of making a better quality of butter and getting a better price. I keep them in good condition all winter: feed chopped corn and oats and all the clover hay they want. Feed about three quarts of chop twice a day to each cow. My cows are only the common grade. I have clover pastures, but never turn cattle in till the first or middle of May, so as to let it get a good start, and then the pasture will be good all summer. Some of my neighbors ask: ‘Do you think it pays?’ I do it whether it pays or not: but I think it does. You can’t expect a great yield of milk from straw and dry cornstalks. What stock you keep, keep well. It will pay.” 2. Obviously the value of a good milch cow depends somewhat on the locality. A cow is worth more in the immediate neighborhood of a good market than in a region remote from such a market. With the above average product of a good cow, in pounds, to guide one, every intelligent person can form a judgment as to whether it will be profitable for him, taking the price of butter and feed in his own market, to pay $50, or more or less, for a good cow.
VACCINATING IMMIGRANTS.
Washington, Ill.
Is it true that there are government physicians who examine all immigrants from Europe and compel them to submit to revaccination before they allow them to pass certain stations? If so, by what authority is this done?
A Doubter.