The Book-Keeper and the Plumber Who Milked Twenty-Six Cows Before Breakfast

Dairy farming all over the United States shows numerous examples of marked success, where business men have gone into it because they were broken in health or fortune, and maybe in some instances both. The following letter from an enterprising firm at Spokane, Wash., is but another instance. We have the constant spectacle of business men leaving the city and taking up a dairy farm and making a success of a herd of cows, mainly because they are willing to look after small details and handle affairs with business judgment.

Editor Hoard's Dairyman: It may interest you to know that our dairy is located on the Spokane river, about three miles from the center of town. The writer, having been engaged in office work for about eighteen years (commencing when about 12 years of age), started this dairy in a small way about two and one-half years ago with the idea of leaving the office when the dairy got nearly large enough to support a small family. It has grown as fast as we could buy and raise cows to supply our trade, until at present we are milking an average of about twenty-six cows — about half Jersey, the balance natives and Jersey grades. Samples of milk recently taken from our delivery wagon by the state dairy commissioner tested 4.8 per cent. fat.

We have no trouble disposing of all the milk we can produce. Our sales of milk and cream for the month of October amounted to $295, and we also sold calves to the amount of $4. We also supplied four families with all the milk, cream and butter they could use, and fed a number of young calves milk. We buy all our feed, which we do in summer when prices are lowest. This year oat hay cost us $7.75 per ton in our barn, No. 1 alfalfa about $8.75, and bran and shorts $10.

We have twenty young heifers, ranging from two years down to two months old. The first one is due to calve Jan. 15th, and from that time on we hope to have a fresh cow in every month — one of these young heifers to each month's milk sales — and we think it will make a creditable showing for a dairy only two and one-half years old, and managed by a plumber and a book-keeper. Each morning we have been up and helped to milk and feed all our cattle before going to our regular day's work.

We will send you a photo of a bunch of our young heifers (notice the udder and teats on one in right of picture, taken about two months before dropping her first calf). We have raised about thirty-five calves in all since we began, and have never lost a calf but one, which was prematurely born, and we could not make it eat. It is a long time since we have had a bad case of scours. Lately we have been bedding our calves with shavings and sawdust from the planing mill, and find that we can keep them much dryer and cleaner than with straw. No calf will thrive with a wet bed to sleep on.

The book-keeper half of this firm hopes before long to spend all his time with these cattle. We do not leave the management of our dairy to hired help; either of us can milk twelve cows as they come in the barn in less than an hour. We might add that while we have been building up our dairy, the writer has been keeping the books of the largest business house in Spokane. We do not want to have the largest dairy in the state, but we do want it to be one of the best. In conclusion we wish to thank you for the many valuable hints derived from your paper; it has been of great assistance to us, and we hope to be readers of it for many years to come.

If you ever visit this corner of the country we invite you to visit us and we will take pleasure in entertaining you as well as we know how. — Dilworth Bros., Spokane, Wash.