The Portland Daily Press

AGRICULTURAL.

Butter Produced as Cheaply in Winter as in Summer.

[By Henry Reynolds, M. D.]

Butter can be produced as cheaply in winter as in summer. This is a statement which many farmers will declare to be incorrect. The general belief is that it costs more to produce butter in winter than it does in summer. Possibly it does under the management generally practiced but it need not necessarily. Certain requisites are essential to successful butter making in winter. A suitable place for keeping the cows must be provided. The stable must be warm and at the same time well ventilated. The admission of plenty of sunshine to where the cows stand will be beneficial and promotive of good results. With suitable surroundings and careful management the cost of butter production need not be any greater in winter than in summer.

The produce of one acre of good land will afford sufficient hay for one cow, and the hay produced on another acre would purchase all the grain needed for feeding the cow, while in summer two or three acres of good land are required to afford pasture for one cow. The more grain there is fed the less hay is required and it is probable that the hay from one and a half acre, and possibly from less land, would afford all the hay and purchase all the grain needed for a cow during winter. The amount of manure made would more than repay the cost of cutting the hay, and the cost of caring for the cow would not be greater than in summer. Consequently the cost of keeping a cow in winter need not be greater than the cost of keeping her in summer, while the price of butter in winter is from fifty to seventy-five per cent higher than in summer. Hence the advantage of winter dairying.