WINTER DAIRYING.

BY S. C. BASSETT, GIBBON, NEB.

Dairying as a business hardly existed in Central Nebraska until the advent of the creamgathering system, which occurred some five years ago.

To be sure cows were kept and some butter made, but the principal market was the grocery store, the pay, truck, and the price, though not remunerative, was uniform for all grades. The establishment of the first creamery was the outgrowth of a farmers' institute organized and held for the especial purpose of investigating the creamery system of butter making, and at which time the institute management secured the attendance from abroad of a practical creamery man and butter maker. From the start the business has been reasonably successful. The number and size of the dairies has increased each year, while the little, one-story creamery building of five years ago has this year given place to a fully equipped two-story and a basement establishment, one of the finest in the state.

At first the cows were allowed to go dry during the winter months, but one years' experience showed there was something radically wrong in the management of a business which was so conducted that the bulk of the product was thrown upon the market to be sold at the time when it was least wanted and the price the lowest; prosperity in business requiring that goods should be sold at a profit, and this can be best secured by selling when the goods are most desired and the price is the highest. Every dairyman present knows that fresh, desirable winter butter is worth during the winter months from 50 to 100 per cent more than the same grade of goods in summer, and this being true, the next question is, how much does it cost to produce a pound of butter in winter? Some effort has been made on our part to determine this question from the standpoint of a Nebraska dairyman, and herewith is the result of our efforts: The total number of cows milked by us during the year was twenty-five, but some were only milked a few months and sold, and others bought later in the season; the average for the year is twenty. Of these, six are two years old and five three years old.

The whole herd, with one exception, is grade Short-horn.

Commencing in December, 1885, we have carefully weighed and recorded each cow's milk at each milking, and a monthly summary of this record, with the age of each cow, is a part of this paper. We have also for periods of one month each weighed the grain fed each cow, noted the kind and value of the same, also noted the amount of milk and butter produced during that time. From month to month during the year we ascertained the number of pounds of milk required for one pound of butter, this being necessary to determine the amount of butter produced, as a portion of the new milk was fed to the calves, twenty-one being raised the past year. Experiments were also made to determine the butter value of each cow, with the result that some of the finest looking cows in the herd (cows which tipped the beam at rising 1,500 pounds each) went to the butcher's block-and "still there's more to follow." Commencing with May, for five months thirty pounds of milk were required for one pound of butter, while for the remaining seven months an average of twenty-five pounds was required. Total number of pounds of milk produced during the year, 93,336. Average number of pounds per cow, 4,666. Pounds of butter used and sold, 3,047. Estimated number of pounds of butter in new milk fed to calves, 384. Total pounds of butter, 3,431. During the months of January and February, 1886, twelve cows were milked. Five of the number were fresh in the preceding October and November, the others were fresh in the spring of 1885, and were bred to calve in October and November of 1886. Two, when tested, proved of so little value for dairy purposes that they were sold for beef in May following. The grain ration fed during these two months was corn and cob meal three parts, and wheat bran one part, by measure, and the amount fed from twelve to seventeen pounds per cow per day, corn being worth at that time 15 cents per bushel, and bran $7 per ton. Millet hay and drilled corn fodder were also fed, the latter in a feed lot and only when the weather would permit of the cows being turned out of the stables. When millet hay alone was fed the cows would consume about fifteen pounds each day, worth at the time $3 per ton.

Dairymen of experience in winter dairying assert that by this system of dairying cows will produce at least 10 per cent more butter in a year than by summer dairying. I think this estimate none too high. With warm barns and suitable food, favorable conditions for milk and butter production can be more easily maintained than during the summer months. A cow fresh in the fall can, by good management, be made to produce a more continuous and uniform quantity, and also a better quality of milk, extending even into midsummer, than can the cow fresh in the spring. The latter, worried by flies and oppressed by heat, will, in spite of extra feed, shrink in milk, and even in late summer and early fall nothing but the best of care and liberality in feeding will prevent a still further shrinkage as winter approaches. Again this cow

is in the poorest possible condition to repay the expense of any extra feed at this time of the year, because in the natural order she must cease to give milk at about the beginning of the year. A cow fresh in the fall is in the best possible condition to repay the extra feed and care required in winter dairying. A reference to the accompanying table will show a less per cent of shrinkage per month for the cows milked during the winter than those milked during the summer. Some of the winter cows show a considerable per cent of increase in milk during the early summer months, while every cow fresh in the spring shows a decrease each month in the amount of milk given (after the month of June), and this notwithstanding the fact that we began feeding grain on July 4th, and increased the grain ration as the pasture became shorter, beginning also the feeding of fodder corn as soon as the same was needed, about eptember 1st. The difference in cost of butter produced in Nebraska as between summer and winter dairying is largely in the value of the extra amount of grain fed in winter dairying, for the summer dairy cow must be wintered, and the winter dairy cow must be summered, and both pasturage and hay or the coarser fodder are comparatively cheap. Successful winter dairying requires a liberal grain ration, and the feeding of some grain is both necessary and profitable in summer dairying. For the purpose of comparison, take the price paid for cream at the Gibbon creamery for 1886, which is as follows: January and February 21 cents, March 18, April 16, May 14, June 10, July 10, August 10, September 14, October 16, November 18, December 21. From a number of careful experiments I find that, taking the above prices for cream, and the previous mentioned prices for grain, in winter dairying about $24 worth of grain is required to produce $112 worth of cream, while with the same cows as a summer dairy, taking a like average for the season, $12 worth of grain produced $75 worth of cream. So that the average $12 extra value of grain required in winter dairying is offset by an increase of $37 in the value of the cream. If to this we add the 10 per cent before mentioned as being produced by a winter dairy cow in addition to the amount produced by the same cow in a summer dairy, we find that where summer dairying barely pays in Nebraska, there is a small profit in winter dairying. It might not be out of place to mention that our most profitable calves, both steers and heifers, were dropped in the fall, also that at no time in the year is skimmed milk so valuable for feeding shoats or pigs as during the winter months. In explanation of the accompanying table I would say the first column shows the number of the cow, the second column the age, the third and last columns the pounds of milk for the month of December, the record being from December 25, 1885, to December 24, 1886. The total in right hand column shows the amount of milk produced by each cow for the year, or number of months milked, while the totals at the bottom show the amount of milk produced each month.

But few injurious plants are more talked of nowadays, and none are more generally misunderstood than the fungi. It might be added that few are of more importance to us in their harmful relations than these little-known plants. It will therefore be fitting that I should devote a part of this paper to a brief summary of our knowledge of fungus plants in general, and the harmful ones in particular.

GENERAL NATURE OF THE FUNGI.

In the first place let it be said that a fungus is a plant, a real, living, growing plant, related (very distantly, it is true) to the common plants about us with which we are so familiar. The greatest difference between the fungus and the common plant is, that whereas the latter is an organism of a high degree of complexity, with roots, stems, leaves, flowers, and seeds, the former is relatively very simple, being composed of a few cells, and having no roots, stems, leaves, flowers, or seeds. Still, with all its simplicity, the fungus is a true plant, and in all our discussions of it we must keep this fact clearly in mind. We must fully realize the fact that the plants in this world, like animals, are of all degrees of complexity, some being but single, tiny cells, while others are composed of billions upon billions of cells heaped upon one another, and having a wonderful variety in form, size, and function. Now a fungus plant differs in another particular from the ordinary plant, viz., that while the latter is green in color the fungus is not. The meaning of this is not hard to understand. The green parts of ordinary plants are the factories in which plant food is made, this food being for the most part starch or some equivalent, as sugar or inulin. Any plant which is not green cannot make food, and this is the case with all the fungi. Plants of this kind are dependent for their nutrition upon other living things. Thus, while a corn plant can make starch out of the materials it takes from the soil and the air, with which to fill its kernels, the smut (a parasitic plant) which grows upon it cannot make starch, and so is compelled to get its supply from that stored in the young kernels. This dependence upon other living things is a characteristic of all fungi. They can not live and grow unless they have access to material made by some other living thing.

All the fungi, when examined under the microscope, are seen to be composed of little cells or sacs containing the living matter, protoplasm. In some cases the whole plant is but a single sac, while in most species a great many of these are joined into threads or strings, as may be well seen in any common mould. These threads penetrate the substance which they feed upon and absorb nutritious matters. After awhile certain cells are detached from the threads, and these blowing away and falling upon any nourish ing substance may give rise to a new crop of the fungus. These detached cells are always known as spores, and their f nction is to reproduce the fungus. No fungus ever appears in any place unless spores have in some way obtained access. This fact is of the utmost practical importance, and should always be borne in mind by every one who has to deal with these troublesome plants. The results of the most rigid experiments show that no fungus has ever been known to make its appearance in any situation from which its germs have been excluded. Every mold, every mildew, every smut, wherever found, has developed from spores, which themselves were produced by previously existing fungi. If their spores are excluded from any material there is no possibility of trouble from any fungi whatever. Moreover, it must be borne in mind that as there are many kinds of spores, and no spores of any one kind of fungus will give rise to fungi of another kind. It is just as it is with the seeds of the higher plants-clover seeds produce clover, timothy seeds produce timothy, and so on, as every one knows. Science knows no spontaneous generation of fungi, and no equivocal generation.

WHAT KINDS OF FUNGI MAY AFFECT MILK.

In looking over the field we find that there are many different kinds of fungi. These have been gathered by naturalists into families, and these again have been arranged in orders and classes, the principle observed being to bring together those which are alike and to separate those which are unlike. Now, when we consider these many families we observe that the species of some of them live exclusively upon living plants, others upon living animals, others, again, upon the fresh products of plants or animals, still others upon decayed plants or animals, or their products. We must then discriminate sharply between these families of fungi, and when we inquire what ones are likely to trouble our milk and other dairy products we must not make the mistake of accusing the innocent ones. The families of fungi which are known to contain species injurious to milk or other dairy products are the following, viz.:

I. THE BACTERIA.

These are the smallest of all plants. They are so excessively minute that only very high powers of our best microscopes will show their structure. In some cases they are little round balls, less than one twenty-five thousandth of an inch in diameter, and in fact they are often even still smaller. Other kinds are elongated, and look like little rods. Still others are long and slender, like minute hairs. Most of them produce spores, which are among the minutest objects ever seen under the microscope, and from which they are rapidly reproduced. Any bit of decaying matter is always found to be swarming with bacteria, and when milk and cream become old these organisms are invariably present. At least four species of bacteria are known to be connected in one way or another with milk. They may be briefly noticed as follows, viz.: 1. The bacterium of yellow milk (bacterium synxanthum). This is the cause of the yellow discoloration sometimes observed in boiled milk which has been allowed to stand for some time. The casein appears to be the portion of the milk attacked.

2. The bacterium of blue milk (bacterium syncyanum). This produces the occasional blue discoloration of soured milk.

3. The bacteria of lactic fermentation (bacterium lactis). This appears to be the active agent in the souring of milk. Fresh milk contains nearly five per cent of sugar of milk, a sweet substance resembling glucose considerably and common cane sugar somewhat less. Like the other sugars, sugar of milk is capable of fermentation, whereby it is converted into an acid, here called lactic acid. This acid coagulates the casein, and thus produces the well known thickening of soured milk. These bacteria feed upon the sugar, and thus cause it to become changed into lactic acid, and this appears to be their only relation to the many subsequent changes which so often take place. Moreover, it appears from experiments that if these bacteria are rigidly excluded the milk will remain unchanged for a long time.

4 The bacterium of butyric fermentation (bacillus subtilis?), butyric acid, is the substance which gives the disagreeable odor and taste to rancid butter. It is formed from lactic acid by

a further decomposition, and Pasteur has shown that this is brought about by a bacterium. It is well known that if some of the milk be left in the butter through defective washing the danger of rancidity is greatly increased. This comes about in this manner: The milk sugar in the remaining milk soon undergoes lactic fermentation, and afterwards, through the agency of a second species of bacterium, a further change takes place in the lactic acid, producing butyric acid. The several changes may be more readily understood by placing them as follows, viz.: *Milk sugar = C12H24012. Lactic acid=C3H6O3. Butyric acid C4H802. Now it may be readily seen that the proportions are identical for milk sugar and lactic acid; there is merely a different molecular arrangement, as the chemists would say. A comparison of lactic with butyric acid shows them to have very nearly the same composition, there being proportionately less oxygen in the latter than in the former.

Before leaving the bacteria it will be well to say a word as to their propagation and reproduction. Although so minute, they present a good deal of variation in this regard. One of the most common modes of propagation is for a single mature bacterium to spontaneously divide itself into two. Each one will soon repeat the operation, and this will be carried on indefinitely, or as long as conditions are favorable. Another mode is for a bacterium to form a number of spores in its interior. These are, of course, still more minute than the bacteria, and they generally possess a most extraordinary vitality, which in some cases enables them to withstand even boiling water. Moreover, their minuteness enables them to be picked up by the gentlest currents of the air and carried to great distances. A bit of our milk, when dried up, may thus prove a source of contamination to sweet milk even at considerable distances in this windy climate. When these little spores fall into milk they soon begin a rapid growth, which quickly results in the harmful dangers too well known, even though the number of spores was to begin with very small.

II. THE BLACK MOULDS.

I mention these as a family of injurious fungi more because of their general habits than from any direct testimony in hand as to their actually occurring in milk, butter, or cheese. The moulds of this group are given to growing upon starchy, sugary, and fatty matters, and are to be looked for upon any of the products of the dairy. As I have just said, however, I have no direct testimony of moulds of this kind having been as yet detected in the dairy. They will bear watching, however.

III. THE BLUE MOULDS.

With these we class the familiar cheese mould (Eurotium Glaucum), besides many others with similar structure and habits. The cheese mould is composed of minute white threads, which penetrate the cheese, and find there the substance needful for their nutrition. After awhile the threads at the surface form great numbers of bluish spores remarkable for minuteness. These are the active agents in the propagation of this mould. Every puff of air carries them away, to settle slowly down here and there, and every one which happens to "fall upon good ground" springs up and produces even more than the "hundred fold" of the biblical parable. Somewhat later in its growth this mould produces other spores, bearing bodies of a yellow color, and of a much larger size. Occasionally these spore fruits are half as large as a pin head. They contain spores also, and these appear to be designed to endure a period of inactivity much as in the case of seeds of the higher plants.

SOME THINGS WHICH ARE NOT TRUE.

Now while directing attention to the fungi as I have done, I must turn aside long enough to say that bad as these troublesome plants are, they are not quite as bad and lawless as some writers have tried to make out. In the eighth annual report of the Connecticut board of agriculture, published about ten years ago, in a paper entitled "Philosophy of Dairy Manufactures," the Hon. X. A. Willard made some statements so much at variance with well known scientific facts as to demand notice. The high authority from which these statements emanated make it all the more necessary that they should be refuted. On page 201 of the report referred to, Mr. Willard gravely informs us that milk globules have been shown to undergo transformation into fungus germs. He then goes on and at considerable length explains how the gradual transformation of the globules results in the production of the spores, threads, and finally the perfect fruiting stage of a common blue mould similar to those referred to in the foregoing pages. He even goes on to draw conclusions from this supposed transformation, making an application of it to the explanation of certain practical difficulties encountered by the dairyman. Now there is not a word of truth in the statement that fungi can be, or are, even developed from milk globules. No fungus has ever been shown to come into existence in this way. No milk globules have ever been shown to undergo any such wonderful transformation.

GENERAL SUGGESTIONS.

I will close this paper, which was designed to be suggestive rather than final, with a few general suggestions as to preventives, modes of studying the fungi, and methods of collecting and preserving them for future examination.

1. Preventives. Let it be borne in mind that all fungi develop from spores of some kind and that these spores in many cases possess a wonderful tenacity of life. Let it be remembered that one fungus may produce hundreds, even thousands of spores, and that it takes but a short time for such plants to reach maturity from the period of their beginning. Let it be remembered that dampness and a high temperature (say 75 to 95 degrees Fahrenheit) favor their growth, while dryness and coldness do not. Let all these be remembered, and the modes of prevention will suggest themselves. Remove all spores and germs. Keep as low temperatures as possible. Should fungi of any kind appear remove them at once and thoroughly cleanse the premises. Spores and germs may be killed by boiling water, but in some cases it requires prolonged *In these chemical formulas C is carbon; H, hydrogen; and O, oxygen. The figures indicate the proportionate parts.

boiling. They may also be killed by sulphur fumes, by carbolic acid, by salicylic acid, by iodine, and many other substances. Cold will not kill them, they simply become inactive, but are ready to spring into activity at the rise of the temperature. It is better for the consumer that the dairyman should keep out all germs than for him to simply keep them from growing by maintaining a low temperature, for in the latter case if the consumer does not have cold storage the fungi soon begin their work.

II. THE OBSERVATION AND STUDY OF FUNGI.

It is desirable that all dairymen should give some attention to the study of the fungi of the dairy. Too little is known of these harmful plants, and I can assure you that in the preparation of even so general a paper as this I have been much embarrassed by the fact that in most cases but little work has been done toward giving us life history of the species. But the investigation of these plants requires the trained eye and hand, as well as a complete mastery of a good compound microscope. It is not to be expected of the older men in dairying that they should be able to undertake such work, for in their school days microscopes were not the common things they now are, and courses of study in the fungi were then almost entirely unknown. But the young men, some of them at least, ought to fit themselves for such investigations. Let the members of this association urge some of their brightest boys to take a thorough course in the sciences necessary to a full study of the fungi, such a course as is now offered in the agricultural department of the state university. You cannot do a better service to the young men of the state than by urging some of them to fit themselves for investigators in the lines of their life work.

III. HOW TO COLLECT AND FORWARD SPECIMENS FOR EXAMINATION.

While I would urge the need of a training of young men who, while following the business of dairying, shall be prepared to make investigations, I would not have you rest these questions until then. Your own eyes and hands may see much and collect much of interest and value in investigations of the fungi. All the larger mould-like fungi should be carefully taken off without injury or disturbance, and after being allowed to dry somewhat, they should be placed in pasteboard boxes, carefully protected from jarring or rattling about by cotton wool If sufficient care has been exercised such specimens may be studied almost as well as when fresh. In some cases the scum bearing the fungi may be taken off and dried between papers in an old book. The thin film thus secured, when wet with water or potash will reveal most of the original characters of the fungi. For the bacteria and the troubles they cause it is often impossible to make preparations which can afterwards be studied with profit. In most cases they must be studied on the spot. But if milk showing any of the results of bacterial action be bottled up and placed at once upon ice, it may sometimes be profitably examined. Whatever can be done in the way of making examinations of specimens communicated to me in this manner will be gladly undertaken. The Industrial college of the University stands ready to do what it can to aid in the solution of questions of this kind, and if you will call upon its officers for help the call will be honored in so far as the time and facilities will permit. Gentlemen: I have to thank you for the interest you have manifested in the subject of this paper, and I hope that what has been presented may prove to be of benefit to the very important industry which this association represents.