24 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



such COWS now, I believe, on most of your farms and the}- have not 

 cost you so high that a'Ou cannot afford to sell their progeny at 

 living prices, nor so high that you cannot be honest enough to send 

 an inferior heifer to the butcher just as soon as she can be fattened 

 after her inferiority has become known. 



I am not addressing these remarks to the few, so styled, fancy 

 farmers, scattered here and there over the country who complain of 

 o^reat -'sacrifice" if their animals are knocked off bv auction for 

 less than a thousand dollars per head ; but the thousand real, prac- 

 tical working farmers who do not on the average make ten dollars 

 per head clear profit on the stock the}' now raise and sell. To 

 such farmers of northern New England the milk producers around 

 the large cities ai-e looking for their supply of cows, and the}' ask 

 that you shall raise cows better adapted to the wants of the milkman 

 and that 3'ou shall raise more of them. You can improve your cows 

 for our use without injuring them for yourselves, and I believe you 

 can raise enough to suppl}' the wants of both. I have not a doubt 

 that by judicious selection and the use of the best bulls 3'Ou can get, 

 you can so improve the character of your cows that they will readily 

 sell at an advance of twenty-five per cent above present prices, and 

 that such cows while retained in your own hands will pay at least 

 twenty-five per cent, more profit than the average cow pays now. 



Never let a promising heifer calf, born of a superior cow, go to 

 the butcher for veal, but keep the best and so treat them that the}' 

 will orow to be the best cows in vour herd. Let them have new 

 milk a few days, or so long as yon think you can afford it. If you 

 must leave them in the care of boys or thoughtless men, the longer 

 they are fed new milk the safer they will be ; but if you will take 

 the entire care of them yourself, and will watch them closely for the 

 very first indications of indigestion, you may get them to taking 

 skimmed or partly skimmed milk quite early, especially if your cows 

 are very rich milkers. Be very sure to give a young calf its 

 mother's milk or the milk of cows that have recently calved during 

 its first month. Farrow cows' milk is not safe to feed to very young 

 calves. See to it also that the milk is fed at the same temperature 

 that it would be if drawn by the calf from its mother in the natural 

 way. A thermometer is as indispensable in the calf nursery as in 

 the churning room. Thousands of calves are annually spoiled or 

 seriously checked in their growth by being fed when young with 

 milk that is either too hot or too cold. 



