A business man of New York, living in one of the neighboring villages,
being troubled to get good milk for young children in his family, took
our advice the latter part of the winter and, so to speak, went into the
dairy business on his own account. The result will be instructive to
tens of thousands of families in cities and villages. He has no pasture
grounds, the only convenience being a roomy stall in a carriage barn,
with opportunity for the cow to sun herself and take limited exercise in
a small area, say fifteen by twenty feet, at the side of the barn, and
this was seldom used. The stall is kept clean and neat, with fresh straw
litter, and the cow has remained in excellent health and vigor. Chewing
her cud and manufacturing milk seem to give all the exercise needed. Her
feed has been bale hay, cut in a small hay-cutter, and mixed wet with
corn-meal, bran, and shorts, with some uncooked potato parings, cabbage
leaves, left over rice, oatmeal, etc., from the kitchen.
A laborer is paid one dollar a week to milk and feed and brush her night
and morning, and take care of the stable, and he is allowed any excess
of milk she gives over twelve quarts a day. He prepares a mess for her
noon feed, which is given by one of the boys at school when he comes
home to lunch. The cow is a grade, probably three-fourths Jersey and
one-fourth common blood. Her milk is rich, yields abundant cream, and, as
the owner’s family say, “Is worth fully double any milk we ever got from
the best milk dealers.” One neighboring family gladly takes six quarts
a day at seven cents a quart, and would willingly pay much more if it
were asked, and other families would be happy to get some of it at ten
cents a quart; but six quarts are kept for home use, and it is valued far
above seven cents a quart, and worth more than that amount in the saving
of butter in cooking, making puddings, etc. So it is a very low estimate
to call the whole milk worth seven cents a quart. No one could deprive
our business friend or his family of their good, home produced milk, if
it cost ten or twelve cents a quart. An accurate account is kept of the
feed; the man in charge orders at the feed store anything he desires for
the cow, and it is all down on a “pass-book.” Here are the figures for
one hundred days past: