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About Tillamook headlight. (Tillamook, Or.) 1888-1934 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 3, 1899)
SPECIAL EDITION OF THE TILLAMOOK HEADLIGHT. A CHEESEMAKER’S IDEAS. A MODEL DAIRY FARM Finer Flavor Cheese and of Better Keeping Qualities Pro duced here than in other parts of the United States. Which gives an Idea why Tillamook Dairymen are Pros- perous---Described by a Granger. ; Aside from her timlier resources, Tillamook County is most noted for her adaptability to dairying. The natural grasses, the cool summer breezes blowing from the I acific Ocean, the mountain streams which flow’ through her valleys, the never failing rains—all these things combine to make the county the paradise of the dairyman. Prior to 1893, dairying was carried on in Tillamook County in a primitive way. Butter was made in old fashion churns, packed in kegs, and shipped to com mission men at Portland and San Francisco. Then came into play the principal thing needed to make a business, that is to sav, patience to await returns, which were likely a year in coming, and too often insignificant in amount. I 1 he first factory was built at Tillamook City in the spring of 1893, by Ogden & Townsend, and was operated as a creamery during that season. The following year it was converted into a cheese factory bv McIntosh & Townsend, and this was the beginning of the cheese industry in the county. At the present time there ( are eight cheese factories in successful operation in the county, producing about one million pounds of cheese a year. Owing to climatic conditions, character of grasses, etc., it is possible to produce here cheese of finer flavor and better keeping qualities than in other portions of the United States. ( Cheese factories are now becoming so dispersed throughout the county that the man in a remote district may have about as good a market for his milk as the man living near the center of trade. It is thus possible for the man seeking a (( location to purchase land near to market at cheap rates. At the present time there are in the county four large creameries producing butter, besides many private creameries using the separator process, The large ! creameries produce 350,000 pounds of butter annually. Some of the larger creameries are conducted on the “manufacturing” or co operative plan, but most of the cheese factories are owned and operated by private I individuals w’ho purchase milk according to butter fat contained. At all creamer ies and cheese factories the dairyman receives credit for butter fat according to Babcock test. The gross returns to the dairyman run from $30 to $50 per cow per annum, depending first upon the cow and second upon the brains and muscles used in the business. I know a man w’ho successfully keeps 12 cows on 20 acres of land which lacks a great deal of lieing entirely cleared. He buys no feed whatever. There areabout 6000 dairy cows in the county. The lands of the county fall naturally into three classes, i.e., bottom land, prairie land and hili land, the first named lieing the most valuable. Good land costs from $15 to $50 jier acre according to improvements and location. What has been accomplished in Tillamook County in dairying has been done in the face of great obstacles. The products l>eing of a perishable character, prompt and regular means of placing them liefore the consumer are indispensable to success, but our transpartation facilities used to be exceedingly unsatisfactory. To be com |>elled to hold back fora month the products of a cheese factory or creamery means an inevitable loss in the deterioration of the product, and, in addition, it generally means further loss because of the inability to take advantage of the liest market quotations in selling. However, even with present obstacles, if the present rate of growth lx? maintained, and with better transportation facilities, the dairy products of the county will within ten years equal five times their present volume. P. McINTOSH. Tillamook County Roads. I J ) Like all frontier communities Tillamook County has l>een compelled to struggle ) with this serious problem. From 1881 to 1885 the county was practically sigre- gate I into three distinct communities connected only by trails. Though the efforts of Senator J. W. Maxwell the county received aid from the State and a road was built from Nehalem in the north to Woods in the south of the county. The amount of rainfall and the scarcity of road labor prevented this thorougfare from lieing kept in the best condition. Judge G. W. Sappington and Commissioner C. Kay and C H. Wheeler. meml>ers of the County Court, finally decided co make use of the abundant timber and imported a portable sawmill which has now been in operation something like two months. By its aid, a mile of road planked with 3 inch plank is lieing laid down every twelve days at a cost of $400 |>er mile. When gravel is available and the drainage favorable gravel will still lie em ployed. The construction of this road will permit of hauling to Tillamook City from a ton to two tons jier load. It will also favor quick delivery of milk to the creameries at all seasons of the year. There a re three public highways leading into the county all lieing toll roads. The first coming by way of Forest Grove, through the Wilson river pass. The second by way of North Yamhill over the mountains. The third, via Sheridan, Ì entering the south end of the county. An Old Settler Tell« about Stock Raising. Stock raising in this county is not to tie considered as standing by itself, as it is profitable. We have not the range necessary to carry on that industry on an extensive scale. But in connection with dairying, the farmer can turn off a few head of cattle and hogs every year to a good profit. Good calves arc raised on skim milk, with a little shorts, middlings or oil cake, on which they arc fed until three months old. and then turned on grass. Through the winter season they are sheltered and fed hay. Calves one and two years old require to lie fed hay about two months in the year. Hogs properly fed on skim milk until five months old will dress one hundred and fifty pounds. Carrots grow well, and when fed to hogs with skim milk make solid pork, next to corn. Good horses can lie raised with very little hay. PETER BRANT. H H I ) The Imbert Marolf dairy farm, situated two miles southeast of Tillamook City, is probably now the largest and most profitable conducted farm in this county. There are others, much smaller, as is often the case, that shows greater proportion ate returns, but take its area and business into consideration, this one doubtless carries the broom. Mr. Marolf, a native of Switzerland, emigrated, with his family, to this county about sixteen years ago. He purchased and settled upon this farm, then in a com paratively wild state, and through thejexercise of a native industry, thrift and econ omy and accompanied by the true "horse sense’’ that losses no time or money in expensive experiments or shallow parades, he brought his farm up to its present state of perfection, both instructive and pleasant to contemplate by the visitor and a source of handsome profit to its owner—a profit as certain as the river that flows along near its southern boundary, runs down stream. The farm lies in nearly a square, and contains 303 acres, about 60 acres of which are upland prairie, the balance is of the low alluvial bottom land of the Trask, the frequent "backing in” of whose waters, over it and adjacent westerly lands has prevented the growth of timber and brush over much of it. This often unseasonable over-flow has necessitated some ditching, which has been done in a thorough and systematic manner on this place as well as on the adjoining farms below. With the exception of a few acres left for fuel, the farm is cleared of all timber and brush, the soil living broken and put into the domestic grasses of the country. The dwelling house is plain, substantial, roomy and comfortable, and it, to gether with its nearby orchard of fruits common to the country, require no further mention ; the horse barn stands opposite. Here are kept the teams, of w hich there are two on the place, bins and mowes, containing food for the same, also arc kept here the wagons and agricultural machinery, all of which are up to date in quantity and pattern. Two hundred feet west stands the cow barn, 56x116 ft. in size. There is another barn of the same dimensions still further west exclusively for young stock. As these barns are counterpart a description for the first will answer for lioth. The cow stables, one on each side, are stanchioned for each to hold 35 cows, with a "cutoff ” at one end, used to some extent for calves that are being fed. In front of the "cutoff” stands a root cutter at the lower end of an inclin ing shoot, capable of holding as much as two loads of roots at u time, a variety of which are annually grow n on the farm for winter feeding. The center part of the building is used as hav room. The stables are eleven feet between stanchions and wall, with the drain in the center. Along the wall «reconstructed at proper intervals low benches to hold the milking utensils during the performance of that operation. The stable floor is from 2 to 4 feet above the ground, which keeps the floor drier and healthier for the slock also, the manure thrown to the outside lies below the sills, thus rendering a less liability to rot, also ail improvement to the building appearance. One stable is constructed, purposely, higher in the joists than the other with large end doors, into this is hauled the loads of hay and unloaded with the usual apparatus. This plan, whilst not a new one, yet is well worthy of notice by those contemplating the erection of new barns as it does away with the excuse of a track, liesides an economy of room when compared w ith the ordi nary manner of a passway through a barn’s center, which absorbs a large space unless for other purposes. The large new substantial barn of neighbor Charles Kunze is constructed after this plan. Besides considerable oats and sometimes other grains, at least one acre of potatoes are raised on the farm each year. The other roots grown have been already mentioned. The cow s consist of in the average 70 head of pretty well graded short horns. The calves are all kept until yearlings. From those are selected annually a few of the most likely ones with which to maintain the dairy herd The residue are then sold. Bv this means, together with the ever to lie k**nt choice male. The “ Marolf dairy herd’* is becoming noted for quantity and quality of milk. The cows arc milked "coming and going” the year around. The average daily output for last year was between eight and nine hundred }>ounds of milk ¡>cr day. The milk is hauled to the Fairview' creamery, one and a half miles distant The average test of milk from this herd last year was 4.30, which, when we compare with that of the state of Michigan (the only statistics of the kind on hand), whose general average running through a numlier of years was 4.05, is an excellent showing. The milk output entire for last year was about 310,000 lbs , which realized 17 3-10 cts. |>er pound for butter fat, besides the sixty odd calves that were fed and raised last year. The offal from the creamery fattened hogs sufficed to make two tons of bacon. There is also quite a margin of hay beyond what is necessary for the stock upon the farm, put up and sold each year, an amount running from 15 to 40 tons. Mr. Marolf, although a fairly hale old gentleman of 87 years of age. yet has retired some years since from an active participation in the affairs of the farm, leaving its entire working and management to his four sons at home, Fred, Godfred, Alexander and Albert, and its success in their hands clearly indicates a harmony among those boys, rarely seen elsewhere. " Who is boss ?’’ I asked once of one of them. " We all are bosses," was his laughing reply. “The fact is,” he said further. " as new matter about the farm came up we consult together as to the liest plan with which to meet it. and we give away to the »>est plan advanced. no matter which one of us advanced it; and we also, outside of the milking, in which we all take a part, have fallen somehow to our parts of the work. This one hauls the milk off, that one looks after the milking utensils, etc. No ; we have no trouble about who is boss.’’ These boys, educated in German, yet have enough of it in translated into English to lie clearly “onto" themselves in all business trans- actions, and the farmer s nuisances, i.e., agents and peddlers, simply lose time in calling upon the .Marolfs with their schemes, clap-traps and fol de-rol. A two hours’ walk over the farm and talk with those boys will give the visitor an insight into the svstematic manner in which it is run. He may wonder at its seeming simplicity, yet he will wonder more why there are so many failures in running lar> e e F. M. LAMB, farms. 4 ' % ; - \ ' ; / - > , ‘ j > j t E i