22 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



regardless of quality. In the Channel Islands are found three 

 breeds of cows where quantity has been the secondary consider- 

 ation, and quality the main thing". No one can take a Jersey cow 

 and make her give Holstein milk except by extreme ill treatment, 

 starvation, or something of that kind ; and per contra, no one can 

 take a Holstein, giving ioo pounds of milk a day, and cause 

 her to put five per cent of fat therein. She was not bred that 

 way. Slight temporary changes following a change in ration 

 do occur at one time or another, but great changes do not. Now 

 I do not wish you to infer, by any manner of means, that you 

 should not feed well. Food makes milk, but so also does the 

 cow. Food alters the quantity of milk tremendously, but it does 

 not materially and permanently alter its quality. 



But you can alter the quality of milk through changes in the 

 environment of the animal and in' her treatment. Let me again 

 borrow an illustration from the apostle of the cow, Governor 

 Hoard. He had a pet heifer which for some weeks he had had 

 under close observation as regards the quality of her milk. One 

 day, when the milking was half finished, he raked her across 

 the flank with a hat pin. She was naturally highly excited and 

 it took some time to calm her down. Then the milking was 

 finished. Just before this act of intentional cruelty — done, how- 

 ever, with the kindliest intent and with a view of showing to 

 the dairymen of the world that such things hurt the pocketbook — 

 he took one quart separately, and immediately after it another 

 quart. That stroke of the pin eliminated a sixth of the fat. 

 Other experiments of a like nature have given a similar result. 

 It does not pay to ill treat cows. Viewing the matter purely 

 from the standpoint of dollars and cents, every time the milking 

 stool is used for anything except its legitimate purpose the user 

 pays for the privilege. 



Again, an animal kept under unhealthy conditions is not likely 

 to be a thoroughly successful animal, nor is her product likely 

 to be up to grade. Just what healthy conditions are is not 

 always entirely clear. At the Vermont Dairymen's Meeting, 

 held at Montpelier last January, two of our distinguished guests 

 and speakers, Hon. H. C. Adams, dairy commissioner of Wis- 

 consin, and Prof. G. M. Gowell from your own State, got into 

 a mild controversy as to the proper winter temperature of the 

 cow stable. Prof. Gowell advocated a somewhat low tempera- 



