DAIRY MEETING. 115 



trouble with it that farmers have with red clover, but it is 

 coming. The alfalfa plant comes from the West to the East. 

 I notice more of it in my tra.vels than I used to five or ten years 

 ago, and it will not be long before you will see it all over the 

 dairy localities, and it comes as a splendid substitute for red 

 clover, with double the amount per acre. 



We have raised the clover, the corn and the grain, and now 

 must come the care. I said a moment ago that we could pro- 

 duce milk the cheapest in summer. That man who approxi- 

 mates the nearest to summer conditions as to feed and care, 

 other things being equal, produces his milk the cheapest. I 

 wonder if in the majority of the stables belonging to the men 

 within the hearing of my voice the conditions are like June 

 today? That is what we want, friends, June conditions. There 

 is no picture of contentment that so delights the artist as that 

 of the old cow filled with grass stepping up to a cool spring and 

 taking a drink of water, then lying down in the shade and chew- 

 ing her cud. making milk for her master. A picture of absolute 

 contentment. I have been in stables where the picture did not 

 look that way in any particular. In the first place, the cow 

 did not have enough to eat ; in the next place, she was in a 

 filthy condition ; and in the next place, the air was extremely 

 foul. I hope none of you that are here have those conditions. 

 So, I say, the stable should approximate June conditions, and 

 the cow should be tied with some kind of a tie so that she has 

 her liberty. Col. Curtis used to say, 'Tf a man thinks a rigid 

 stanchion is. good for a cow, my advice to him is to stick his 

 head between two pieces of board and keep it there twenty-two 

 hours out of twenty-four, and judge from his experience." 

 You can put two cows into a good stable with the conditions 

 exactly alike, and the cow with an easy stanchion and loosely 

 tied will give more milk than the one with a rigid stanchion. 

 Anything that aggravates a cow tends to lessen milk production. 

 We never appreciate as we ought the highly nervous organ- 

 ization of the cow that is giving a lot of milk. Her function 

 as a mother, her work as a phenomenal milk giver, what a tax 

 it is upon her ! And how we ought to care for her, almost as 

 one of the family! And yet the rank and file of men do not 

 appreciate that fact. But that is the lesson we have to learn 

 before we reach the highest success in this line. 



