Friday, July 25, 2014

FARMERS' CLUB DISCUSSES CARE AND MANAGEMENT OF DAIRY STOCK



The Cortland Democrat, Friday, April 29, 1887.
Cortland County Farmers’ Club.
   Club met at the usual hour with a fair attendance of the practical farmers of the vicinity and some from adjoining towns. The discussion of "Care and management of dairy stock" was continued from last meeting.
   Mr. Rindge: The first I look after is the comfort of my cows. I fodder five times, grain twice and water twice. In the morning the first thing is to clean the mangers, then feed grain and afterward hay. After breakfast I let them out to drink—a few at a time. At 8 A. M. I feed hay again and again at noon. About 2 P. M., I begin to water the second time. Afterwards I give a slight feed of hay and just before milking feed grain for the second time. Until they drop their calves I feed wheat middlings and continue for two weeks after. Afterwards feed half middlings and half corn meal—four quarts at a feed. I give salt every day, and throw it in the grain feed at night. I think early cut hay the best for producing quantity and quality of milk. White daisies give a bitter flavor to the milk and shrinks the quantity. I prefer the heavy middlings. When the cows are turned out to grass I feed lightly as long as the grass is flush, but as it falls feed heavier. I rarely have a poor cow about. Raise Hungarian grass and sowed corn. Sow state corn about May 20, one to one and one-half bushels to the acre and seed the land to grass. I like sweet corn to sow but find it is more liable to rot in the ground. Let the cows go dry from four to six weeks. Try to milk at a certain hour every day and think the more regularly it is done the better for all concerned. The best remedy for caked udder is to let the calf suck the cow. Would prefer to let the calf suck for the first four weeks. Am very particular about having the cows milked out clean when they are being dried up. Keep the cows fat the year around. Cows average from thirty-five to forty pounds per day. The best age is from four to six years, but when the teeth are good they may do well often till they are twelve or fifteen years old. I like a grade short horn the best, everything considered. Have some grade Jerseys, Ayrshires, Holsteins and Devons. I think it very important that the grain should be divided and fed in two rations.
   Mr. Dart: The best average I ever had without feeding grain was 28 or 39 pounds.
   Mr. Chamberlain: I had a dairy of 35 grade short horns that averaged a little over 200 pounds of butter per cow. Fed them three quarts of corn meal and bran mixed in equal quantities per day.
   Mr. Young, of Garrison & Young, brought in some sample boxes of Alsike clover, orchard grass, red top and blue grass that had been sown 30 days. They were very fine. He also presented a sample of Sou fodder corn.
   Mr. Rowley: I sow a mixed crop of oats, barley, peas and spring wheat and find it excellent for feeding as well as a very productive and profitable crop. I mix one bushel each of oats, barley and peas—the small white Canadian—with 1/2 bushel of wheat and sow from 1 3/4 to two bushels per acre. Have had as high as 80 bushels per acre yield. I think as much of sowing this as of having a crop of potatoes.
   Mr. Purvis: I never sow over 1 1/2 bushels of oats to the acre and had the best crop with 1 1/4 bushels.
   Mr. Rowley: I take, the ground that farmers sow their corn too thick. I had rather have one stalk with an ear on it than a half dozen without. When too thick the sunlight does not get in and the sugar is not produced in the stalks.
   Mr. Dart: 1 have sown thick, thinking the fine stalks are better.
   Mr. Rindge: I have found nothing that would kill out thistles like a crop of sowed corn.
   Pres. Blodgett: Will it kill quack?
   Mr. Rowley: Cabbage will do that.
   Club adjourned for one week, Saturday, April 30. Subject will be the "Cultivation of Corn and Potatoes." Mr. Purvis and Mr. Williams will open the discussion. All are urged to attend as it is the last meeting before the summer vacation.
C. M. BEAN, Sec'y,
Cortland, April 23.

Free Postal Delivery.
   The Post-office department has notified the Postmaster at Cortland that the free delivery system, will not go into effect in Cortland, until the houses in the village are systematically numbered.
   The Board of Trustees have accordingly obtained low prices for numbers in large quantities to supply the people, and placed the matter in the hands of Mr. Samuel Parsons, publisher of the New Directory, who will canvass the village. The numbers will be raised and nickel-plated on a brass plate enameled with black and very desirable. They will be furnished at the expense of the house owners, and put in place at 20c each.
   It has been impossible to avoid the necessity of renumbering many of the houses already numbered, and the new directory will contain the numbers as fixed by the new numbering only.
   It is hoped that the people will respond promptly, and purchase their numbers either of Mr. Parsons or otherwise, as upon their prompt action depends the introduction of the free postal delivery system, to which the village will be entitled when the numbering is complete.
HARRISON WILLS, Pres.
F. H. COBB,
H. H. GREENMAN,
FAYETTE REYNOLDS,
H. L. GLEASON,
Trustees.

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