DAIRY MEETING. 95 



hay mow, and make it up, a wise one? I think it is better to 

 feed the cow well during this first period. Keep her body up, 

 keep up that reserve energy, and then you can hold her milk 

 flow through months better than you would if you let her go 

 down. But where to stop in your feeding no living mortal can 

 tell you. I cannot, and I do not think any one else can. Just 

 where the border line between profitable and unprofitable 

 increase of food is I do not know. That is a question for your 

 ■own study, and it is the beauty of farming that there are no 

 absolute mathematical rules which can be laid down, but it 

 requires always home observations and the use of the wits. 

 After all, your own common sense and your keen observation 

 of passing events must be drawn upon. I am down here at 

 perfect ease away from my herd because my cows are handled 

 in this way : I chalk up before every cow the amount of grain 

 that she shall have, and that amount of grain is according to her 

 milk flow. If she gives six pounds of milk she will get two 

 pounds of grain, if she gives 12 pounds she will get three pounds 

 of grain, and if she gives 45 pounds of milk she will get 15 

 pounds of grain. Now feed is very high, and when you see the 

 grain going at the rate of 12 or 15 pounds a day you begin to 

 shrink, but if you know that every cow that is getting that 

 amount is making good, you have no anxiety about the matter. 

 When it comes to feeding roughage I say to the man, feed your 

 roughage as you feed your grain. The grain indicates what the 

 cow is doing. If she is giving a small amount of milk as shown 

 by the figures, do not let her gorge herself, if she has a good 

 appetite. Your judgment must come in to quite an extent. 

 The matter of feeding is a large question. I will close with the 

 suggestion that I have found for myself another way out of this 

 shortage of hay problem, and partly out of the problem of the 

 purchase of concentrates. I found I could buy in Ohio and 

 Indiana clover hay so as to land it at my place for $13 1-2 a ton. 

 I believe it would be good policy to buy this clover hay for two 

 or three reasons : First, it is a better milk producer than tim- 

 othy hay, and I am buying clover at $13 1-2 and selling timothy 

 at $20. Second, clover is a rich fertilizer. It is nearly twice 

 as rich in protein as timothy, and if I get the protein the cows 

 must have part in clover hay. and I will not have to buy quite as 

 much in concentrates. 



