92 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Mr. Oilman. The farmers ought to know how much hay they 

 are feeding to their cows, and they ought to find out by experi- 

 euce whether tliey are feeding too much or too little. 



Mr. Work. When I used to feed three quarts of shorts a day, 

 I got nine quarts of milk. Now, if I don't get fifteen quarts I 

 think the cow isn't a good one. [In answer to questions.] I 

 water twice a day in cold weather. Almost any breed of cows will 

 give milk the year round ; there is a good deal in the training. I 

 should prefer to have a cow go dry two months before calving. I 

 don't use the milk for four or five weeks after calving. 



Mr. GiLBKRT Woodward. I have never done much in the dairy- 

 ing business. I agree with what these gentlemen have said about 

 feeding cows. I prefer to have my cow go dry about two months. 

 I don't think it profitable to have cows give much milk in winter. 

 It is a good deal of work to attend to it. I keep a small number 

 of cows, preferring to sell my hay rather than manufacture it into 

 butter. I have good facilities for dressing — use marine dressing 

 mostly, and some commercial manure, and I can sell three-quarters 

 of my hay and keep my faim up by so doing. 



Dr. Tuck. There is a question whether the same rule is appli- 

 cable to the keeping of all dairy cows. I have seen a great deal 

 of difference in the effects of the same kinds of feed on different 

 cows. I have seen cows that fed on corn meal would dry up milk 

 and take on flesh. I had a cow that yielded twenty-nine or thirty 

 pounds of milk per day without meal. I commenced to feed three 

 pints of meal, and not getting the increase 1 thought I should 

 have, I thought I would try shorts. I dropped one pint of the meal 

 and fed two quarts of shorts without any increase in the quantity 

 of milk. That set me to thinking that my cow didn't dispose of 

 her feed very well, and I think if that was the case with that cow 

 might it not be with many others? Why doesn't each cow re- 

 quire a particular food ? 



Mr. Farrington of Orono. I heard a mau sa}'' once, that the 

 best thing he could get for his cow was hemlock boards. Pretty 

 hard feed — but of course he didn't mean to be understood literally. 

 Three years ago, when we kept the cattle in the old barn at the 

 college farm, we used to give a heavy feed to our cows. We felt 

 obliged to because lots of people go there, and unless our cattle 

 are in good condition, of course they find fault with us. We fed 

 three quarts of meal and shorts. Last wiriter we kept the cows 

 in our new barn — doubtless you have heard of that barn. The 



