118 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



living rooms, the animals should be kept from fall until spring, 

 excepting the few moments daily in which the}- are turned to the 

 j'ard for water and exercise. Warm and clean, thej* are in condition 

 to make satisfactory returns for the food and care bestowed upon 

 them. One rule covers the whole ground of successful management, 

 viz : — See that no animal in the herd has a single uusupplied want. 

 As they come crowding from the pasture to the yard at night, see 

 that the weak as well as the strong have au opportunity' to take an 

 additional swallow of water from the overflowing trough, before 

 going to their stanchions in the barn for the night. Teach them 

 that you are their friend — they will readih' understand it, and come 

 crowding around for a friendl}' word and a gentle pat that will cause 

 them to chew the cud of contentment and peace. Of course the 

 cows are to be kept in the baru nights throughout the year, and 

 bedded with cut straw, sawdust, sand, or some convenient material, 

 sufficient to keep them clean. Thus provided for, a few moments 

 use of the card and brush daily, frees them from loose hair and 

 adhering filth. Of all customs so common, I might say almost 

 universal, there is none that calls so loudy for condemnation, as that 

 which compels milch cows to become encased in armors of their own 

 voidings, from which the}- cannot free themselves until the approach 

 of spring, when kind Nature gives them new clean coats in exchange. 



The average annual production of butter from each cow in many 

 herds is from two hundred and fifty to three hundred pounds or 

 over, and there is no good and sufficient reason wh}- a single cow 

 should be kept that falls below these figures. But the present actual 

 average production is far below this amount ; people Avith an oppor- 

 tunity to judge, claim it not to exceed one hundred pounds. With 

 this amount as the standard, is it any wonder that dairying is un- 

 popular, and the poorest paying business one can engage in ? 



Let us look for a moment at practices still too common, as show- 

 ing some of the causes of this low average. The idea generally 

 prevailing, that the profits of the business come mostly during the 

 grazing season, the cows are allowed to breed earl}' in spring, so as 

 to be fresh with the starting grass, and in the best possible condition 

 to convert the abundant growth of June pasturage into milk. Little 

 or no provision being made for the summer droughts, except a few 

 rods of fodder corn, they are nearly dry when turned into the 

 mowing fields in autumn, there to be surfeited with the surplus 

 growth of clover aftermath. As the cold fall rains come on, we 



