22 BOARD OF ag:uculture. 



competition with those farmers who live near the hirge cities and 

 who make a si)ecialtv of producing milk for the city or village 

 trade. The milkmen do not as a rule keep their calves till the}' are 

 old enough to make decent veal, but sell them the second or third 

 day for the first offer they can get. I suppose, too, that this annual 

 slaughter of the innocents may be carried on upon many of the 

 dair\' farms here. 



You are furnishing, it is true, a large number of cows every year 

 to our milk farmers, but I want you to become convinced that it will 

 be to your interest to make this trade in new milch cows more of a 

 business, more of a specialty if you please, or at least one of your 

 specialties. You have all the facilities, while we in Massachusetts 

 have comparativel}" none. Remember that I am not speaking for 

 myself personally, but for the milk producer. I became heartily 

 disgusted with the new milch cow trade some ^-ears ago and com- 

 menced breeding them for my own use, and hope never to be com- 

 pelled to purchase another. I found that I had to buy about five 

 cows to get one good one, and I can do better than that b}- breeding 

 them. The cows you are sending us now are too often the animals 

 you are most willing to spare, and I think you sometimes neglect to 

 inform the dealer why you let them go, or, if you do give a reason, 

 it is apt to be, " short of hay," " more cattle than room to keep 

 them in," " want mone}' to pay taxes," or, "to pay interest on a mort- 

 gage." The best cows we ever buv are those which happen to come 

 in at a time of the 3ear considered by you unseasonable, as in the late 

 fall or early winter. Cows that you are anxious to sell in spring I have 

 not much confidence In. They probably kick, or milk hard, or give 

 poor milk, or little of it, or they have had the garget and partly 

 lost the use of a portion of the udder, or they have aborted, had 

 trouble in calving or an attack of the "horn-ail," or they like to 

 practice jumping over or tearing down fences. You do not sell 3'our 

 best cows just at the beginning of the dairy season, nor do 1 blame 

 j-ou for it. I would not advise you to sell your best cows at any 

 time so long as they can profitably be kept as breeders. 'We want 

 you to keep your best cows to raise other good cows from for sup- 

 ])lying our never ending demand. We willingly will take a few lots 

 of your inferior animals, such as 3'ou know ought to be weeded out 

 of every good breeding herd, provided you will save all the prom- 

 ising heifer calves from your best cows and raise them for us. Your 

 inferior cows if bought for what thev are worth, and fed high and 



