DAIRY MEETING. 7I 



your herd. The offspring from this male derive one- fourth their 

 qualities from the father, one-fourth from the mother and one- 

 half from ancestors more remote, which are probably inferior. 

 That is the objection to the grade sire. You do not know the 

 history of the ancestors. There are probably many inferior' 

 ones, and he may transmit the qualities of those inferior ances- 

 tors with just as much certainty as he does the quality of the 

 dam. For that reason select a pure bred sire, one whose ances- 

 try is known. I think as dairymen we fail to appreciate the 

 great amount of good that the breeders of pure bred cattle have 

 done for the dairy industry. You cannot measure in dollars and 

 cents the benefits that we owe to the Jersey and Guernsey 

 breeders for producing animals with these qualities. We should 

 take advantage of these qualities which it has taken generations 

 to produce, and graft them on to our working herds. 



In relation to warming water for our cows, theoretically it 

 looks good. You will say that a cow is a great consumer of 

 water. A fresh cow giving a good flow of milk will drink 100 

 pounds of water in 24 hours. If the water is at 32 degrees 

 one might think that food would be required to warm it up 

 to the temperature of her body. Yes, a certain amount. But 

 the cow has a large amount of waste heat which she has got to 

 get rid of, if she could not she would be uncomfortable. That 

 is the trouble with a steer when you confine him in a close stable. 

 He is too warm ; it affects his appetite. There must be a point 

 where if you expose a cow too much to cold weather and give 

 her too much cold water she begins to use her food to produce 

 heat. I cannot tell you whether it will pay to warm water or 

 not. A few experiments have been made where it did seem to 

 pay ; others where it did not. I should say that if your cows 

 are forced to drink ice water it would pay to warm it, but it 

 would not pay so much as you might think at first. 



Ques. In speaking of the matter of ventilation you said that 

 the heat from a cow's body would be sufficient to warm the barn. 

 Is it not a fact that the excretions from the pores and the lungs 

 are poisonous? Are not the excretions from the pores loaded 

 with germs and the excretions from the lungs loaded with car- 

 bonic acid gas? 



