126 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



The essential points in the production and handling of milk 

 are these, as I have stated : Good cows, good care, clean handling 

 of the milk, and instantaneous cooling. 



OuES. What breed are the heifers that you raise? 



Ans. They are from either registered Jersey cows or grade 

 Jersey cows by registered Jersey bulls. Several of these to 

 which I have referred were by our bull. Sir Michael Stoke 

 Pogis. He was by Stoke Pogis 5th, out of Angela Grand, large 

 milking strains. We are looking for large production as well as 

 for rich milk. 



QuES. Will you tell us about your system of feeding? 



Ans. When we have good ensilage we feel' that there is 

 nothing equal to it for a part of the feed. We usually feed 40 

 pounds a day. We have fed even more than that, but never 

 more than 45 pounds. We are furnishing this milk to a pretty 

 critical trade, and we never have complaints because of our 

 ensilage. I do not think any one will have any trouble with the 

 proper feeding of good ensilage. When the corn is well 

 matured, in the glazing stage, and goes into the silo well eared, 

 we get a product that I believe, if it does anything, improves the 

 flavor of the milk. W^e use the largest corn that will mature in 

 our vicinity, which is the Leaming, and we cut it all fine and 

 carry it into the silo, ears and all. With good ensilage we never 

 feed corn-meal. Our present grain ration, which is giving 

 pretty good satisfaction, is a mixture of 1200 pounds of bran, 

 550 pounds of middlings, 800 pounds of corn-meal, and 600 

 pounds of cottonseed. This mixture will weigh almost exactly 

 one pound to the quart, and the cost at the prices wt are now 

 paying is $1,177 P^^ hundred. The corn-meal is to take the 

 place of the corn in the silage, as there were no ears on the corn 

 this year. Wie have a car-load of gluten on the way, and as soon 

 as that comes the ration will be changed, but the proportions will 

 be kept about the same. We find that clover hay, the lowest 

 priced hay on the market, is by all odds the best hay that we 

 can feed, except alfalfa. I have made five experiments with . 

 alfalfa on our own land, but have failed every time, and I do 

 not know of any one who has succeeded in raising it except Mr. 

 Geo. Mixer in the town of Hardwick, Mass. He put in some 

 alfalfa a year ago last summer which this year has produced 

 well. How it will stand the second winter no one can tell. The 



