HITTING HIGH SPOTS IN THE MIDDLE WEST
Williams, Richard E.
Hitting High Spots in the Middle West Two Students of Cornell University Visit 60 Farms and Tell Story of Improvements in Dairying By RICHARD E. WILLIAMS IT" rjnT^Tl HIS is the story of an auto...
...The cow now walks back into the alley and on into the stripping stall...
...In the matter of fishing, the writer had his usual bad luck...
...The other was the forty-seven acre farm of Bill Campliell at the edge of Jessup...
...Here I learned that three thousand people were buying high quality milk, mostly Guernsey, at a premium of from 40 to 80 per cent above the average p...
...Louis...
...We passed through Frankfort in time to see the State Capitol, a beautiful building, nestling among green hills, in the late afternoon light...
...Frank Fox's herd sire, Waukesha Noon foumd us visiting Wnddington Farm at Wheeling, home of the famous Border Raider Guernseys...
...On a blistering hot' day I found his bafn the best ventilated I had ever been in, thanks to plenty of wide open windows on either side...
...To one interested in the marketing of fluid milk the latter place proved especially interesting...
...Yarn...
...Ithaca, N...
...Has Notes On 60 Farms FROM Chicago, our route took us northeast to Ann Avbor, Michigan...
...We returned east via Cleveland and Buffalo and on September 12th reached Ithaca, having visited GO farms and secured numerous valuable- notes and photographs...
...a hi!,t"'> In \\>«t Wjrinin...
...As one accustomed to eastern farmsteads I was especially impressed by the frequent use of brick, tile, and stucco for farmhouses in the Mddle West, and by the gener-ally accompanying atmosphere of prosperity...
...With morning we continued on our way toWrfi *iHk ^mmtiih *UaVe, tor 'it was \b visit this famous natural wonder that we had swung -'¦u'.h into Kentucky...
...This city distinguished itself in our minds by a Y. M. C. A. cafeteria in wheh we found the cheapest and best food of our entile trip, and by the relative scarcity of traffic cops—which, however, seemed no handicap to orderly movement...
...The first of these, located near Ames, belongs to a Mr...
...To see a battery of three or four of these sweeping down a corn field is a remarkable sight...
...In the vicinity of Waukesha I visited five certified milk, farms, all of which supply Chicago...
...Myers is able to maintain a very low bacteria count...
...At Ames, Iowa, we visited the State-College, which in the fields of animal husbandry and rural engineering is possessed of physical equipment well in advance of any of several agricultural colleges with which the writer is familiar...
...Clemens I had the pleasure of visiting the great Detroit Creamery Farms where 550 cows and heifers in the milking herd produced an average of 8.600 pounds of certified milk per cow during 1925...
...Louis at Big Spring Park in the Ozarks...
...The only calves raised are those from Holstein dams producing at least 10,000 pounds of milk, and Jersey and Guernsey dams producing 7,000 pounds...
...One, Sergei M. Popov of EES^SStj Moscow, Russia, was a student of Se^T*' chemical engineering, while the <i - fJ the writer is a student of agriculture...
...Wildman raises some purebred Aberdeen-Angus cattle, but fattens a total of 250 head, chiefly Herefords, shipped from Texas...
...On arrival in Columbus we visited Ohio State University where the writer was kindly supplied by Professor Erf with a list of farms worth visiting...
...Order Without Many Cops OUR NEXT important stop was Kansas City, Missouri...
...Here for $1 per night one could secure a cabin about 8 by 14, containing two very comfortable double beds, which fold against the wall when not in use, a folding table, chairs, and a two-burner stove supplied with natural gas...
...The royal treatment of kind friends made our three days' stay in this city a memorable one...
...My impression is that readiness to sec the value in new ideas and to adopt them has been an important element in Jake White's success...
...We pitched our tent and in the morning found ourselves direct-ly opposite the Big Spring, which is in re-ality a river with an average flow of two to three hundred millions of gallons daily...
...The stripping completed, the stripper pulls a cord, small double doora open and the cow walks out of the barn...
...From the base of a forest-covered cliff five hundred feet high, gush forth with a constant roar its cold (50 degrees), clear waters, which are...
...The idea of making such a trip was born of a desir-e to visit a certain remarkable milking l»rn near Kansas City, about which I bad read in Hoard's Dairyman of July 3, 1925...
...One pound of grain is fed in the cleaning stall, oni in stripping stall, and the remainder, according to milk production, in the milking stall, so bos-sie is alway>s ready to walk for more grain when a £ate is opened in front of her...
...Another interesting thing was t,e frequetnt drill towers, indicating gas wei»s which frequently appeared to grow up in the viitkst of hiay fields...
...Visit Ohio Jersey Farms WE S1PENT two hot days in Pittsburgh, aftcur wnicn it was indeed a pleasure to steep outdoors again...
...We camped that night in the adjoining grove...
...To the writer, one of the most interesting utures of the State Fair at Milwaukee was the first herd to complete a year of testing under t^e new Wisconsin Herd Improvement Association plan...
...It is interesting chiefly for its tremendous size and the famous Echo River which make it well worth visiting...
...Here was a man who had never farmed until 1920...
...From here I drove out to visit the Grover Myers Milking farm at Basheor, Kansas, where four men with four single-unit machines clean, milk, strip, weigh, cool and bottle the milk of 120 Holsteins in two hours and forty-five minutes...
...Hitting High Spots in the Middle West Two Students of Cornell University Visit 60 Farms and Tell Story of Improvements in Dairying By RICHARD E. WILLIAMS IT" rjnT^Tl HIS is the story of an auto trip Sgte J into the Middle West, taken by...
...And <!emwd continues to e.vcetvl -::;>p]y...
...The cows run free in sheds and from one of these enter two stalls, where they are clewed...
...On the Dixie Highway THiE DIXIE Highway back to Louisville furnished a striking contrast, with its alternating stretches of splendid asphalt and ancient roads full of unspeakable holes...
...So efficiently is his barn arranged that one man, using electric power, is able not only to grind and feed all the grain and silage, but has time left for several hours of outside work as well...
...t>««*;t...
...He has developed a means of loading a manure-spreader directly from the -gutter by means of a special scoop, chute, motor-driven windlass and pulley on a post behind the spreader, which enables him to clean out a day's manure from behind nineteen cows, in three minutes...
...All specific mention of either tire or motor trouble which beset us on this or other days is omitted, but the reader may rest assured that we had a liberal share, and that changing tires in the blazing Kentucky sun was an occupation we scarcely relished...
...Nightfall found us camped in an old orchard high in the Alleghcnies where the evensongs of hermit thrushes, wood thrushes a,nd veeries lulled us into slumber...
...Our other chief impressions of Kentucky are a five-cent gas tax, high toll bridge charges and large families—birth control is evidently unknown down there...
...Even were it not, the part we visited could not compare in beauty with either the Endless Caverns or the Grottos of the Shenandoah, both located in Virginia...
...To emerge, after two and a half hours, from the delightful 50 degree temperature of the Mammoth Cave into a broiling Kentucky sun was an experience which proved quite enervating...
...A wide-awake, progressive attitude, and a herd Of about fifteen Jerseys, which makes up in quality all it lacks in quantity, are enabling Mr Campbell to succeed in spite of some hard luck and the handicap of $300 an acre land...
...Visit Wisconsin Farms FOURTEEN months spent in school and coi-„ lege in Madison, ending in 1921, gave the writer much to look forward to in returning to Wisconsin's beautiful capital, land the week spent at the La Follette farm at Maple Bluff did indeed prove the most enjoyable of our entire trip leaving Madison, e»ur journey included a brief stop at Devil's Lake, and a trip through the Dells of the Wisconsin River...
...All were of the same make and equipped with a special cleaner and sterilizer which should disprove forever the assertion that only with great difficulty can rtified milk be produced by machine...
...A number of interesting farms were encountered in Iowa but lack of space forbids mention of more than two, each of which is unique in its way...
...The privilege of following a swim in the one with a cooling plunge in the other proved a delightful experience...
...Farms In Iowa JJ EADING north now, wc- soon crossed into 1- -»- Iowa...
...It is the only such organization which includes ownership of producing plants in addition to its retailing system...
...Our guide was astonishingly expert at throwing oil-soaked waste from the end of a sharp stick to light up some of the higher domes and vaults...
...White believes in making his cows comfortable...
...That afternoon we crossed over the Ohio River into Kentucky, and the following day saw us eating lunch in the cafeteria of the State University at Lexington...
...From a teamster driving horses on a gravel pit, to the owner of one of the finest Jersey herds in Ohio, seems, in a.nutshell, to be the story of Mr...
...We spent the next twenty hours at the camp ground near the very interesting and beautiful Great Onyx Cave, three miles distant...
...We left...
...This done, a gate is opened before the first cow and she walks out into an alley from which she is turned aside by an open gate and enters the rear of one of four milking stalls, each located directly behind the other...
...For example, he was the first man in southern Ohio to build a silo (one of the old square type), and the first in the state to bottle milk...
...JV.i) half day.-- <>f travel from Louisv>!Y...
...With high hopes of some good fishing for small mouth bass, we arrived just after dark on the day of our departure from St...
...Efficient Farm Arrangement THE NEXT place we visited was Mr...
...Before leaving Cincinnati, we visited the big main French-Bauer plant, at which milk is bottled, and where butter, ice cream, cottage cheese, buttermilk and special lactic buttermilk are manufactured...
...Alvin Wildman's 800-acre farm ^t Selma...
...That night was spent just out of Cambridge, Ohio, in the best equipped tourist camp encountered on the whole trip...
...Then, after a short stay with friends on the lovely Chain o' Lakes at Waupaca, we turned south through Osh'kosh and Fond du Lac...
...Much of our route to Cave (.]'-• -il thence to Mammoth Cave was very rough and rocky, consisting chiefly of rock foundations of old roads...
...Birthplace of Lincoln AT HODGENVILiLE, Kentucky, we stopped to visit the farm, now owned by the United States, on which Abraham Lincoln first saw the light of day...
...Shower baths were available in a nearby building...
...imported lltrhen May Kin...
...two students of Cornell UniverKl§£>Ab_ sity...
...Three of these were using milking machines with complete satisfaction...
...One mile of wear on tires between these last two points is equal to from ten to twenty on ordinary roads...
...Early evening again saw us on our way and again we were heading south...
...Wo stopped long enough outside of Columbus to give the great llartman Stock Farm and dairy-plant, well known for its Jerseys, a hasty inspection...
...A few hundred yards down stream the Spring Branch flows into the warm waters of the Current river...
...We avoided public camps as much as possible and this time our i.v...
...On reaching our destination we took what is known as route number one through the cave, which is very badly smoked...
...Then it was decided to visit as many other farms as possible firom which might be gleaned unusual tut successful ideas, likely to prove valuable to one planning a farm of his own, and to intersperse thiis business of education with plead are to the fulllcst possible extent...
...An interesting feature of the barn at Jerseydale Farm is the Canadian Government ventilating system, which has been found vastly superior to some of the best known systems of the United States used in the barns of the Oaks Farm, At Mt...
...While there we enjoyed the luxury of two swims in the famous Green River nearby...
...Here the second Man adjusts the machine and when the cow is milked opens the gate in front...
...The next morning v*e continued along the beautiful Susquehanma trail as far as Williamsport, Fa., where we turned southwest...
...first over dusty Indiana roads, and then over the splendid concrete roads of southern Illinois, where an easterner is much impressed by the flatness of the country, brought us to St...
...A large part of the 2,200 acres is in silage...
...Before leaving Jessup we visited the Con sotidated-School, the largest in the state, and the co-operative creamery which is not only the largest in the state, but second largest in th;.-United States...
...As we began to g2t into the ^western part of the state we we.'e struck by the numerous small coal mines along the roadsjj(je which in many cases are located under farms...
...The management of these two farms has just completed installation of special storage tanks for liquid manure, which will be spread with tank wagons...
...White's long career...
...Tftf> shippings are added to the milk from the chine, the svl.de is weighed and poured into a tank with r. foot-operated cover...
...It flows thence through a pipe in the wall to a covered strainer, is elevated by rotary pump to tubular cooler, and finally flows to a bottler operated by the fourth man...
...Heading northeast through Iowa wt encountered the Mississippi at McGregor, and from the nearby bluff known as Pike's Peak had a magnificent view of the river With its islands and lagoons spread out at our feet and vanishing in the hazy distance...
...a beautiful deep blue green in color...
...Campbell purchased the small farm which he now occupies...
...The Memorial by moonlight is a sight to stir the dullest of imaginations...
...Y., early in the evening of July 1, end camped for our first night on a hillside ini northern Pennsylvania...
...At Lebanon, near Cincinnati, is located the certified milk plant of the French-Bauer Cornpany, an old organization which has within recent years become a co-opeTative under farmers' control...
...Here The Oaks and Jerseydale farms were visited...
...With this system Mr...
...A long series of white steps forms an impressive approach to a simple and stately memorial hall of white granite which encloses the log cabin in which America's beloved president was bora...
...In that year, led by his son's continued preference for farming over the general store business in which he had been engaged, Mr...
...Eight Ronning ensilage cutters make short work of corn .harvesting and also silo filling...
...Ohio as a state is in fact noted for its Jerseys, and it was to the form of Jako White of Greenfield, a pioneer breeder, that we were bound...
...Here we were most cordially received and spent several very pleasant hours...
...The owner declared that the official nature of the records made by his cows had brought a sufficient increase in the price received for calves to completely off set all expense involved...
Vol. 19 • January 1927 • No. 1
