IMPROVEMENT OF DAIRY STOCK. 203 



a coarse and fine card every day, (the common wood card is just 

 the thing for the fine one). Take them carefully to the place 

 where they are to be tied. Don't scream at them, talk in a low, 

 kind way, and above all do not strike or kick. They very soon 

 appreciate kindness, and after two or three times tyinj^ up will go 

 to their places. Water twice a day, unless they are allowed to 

 run out where they have access to it. Feed regular what they 

 will eat up. Feed breeding cows with just such feed as you would 

 while in milk. In this way you are developing milking organs of 

 the calf. For this, roots are of great value, especially the sugar 

 beet — shorts or bran — one of the best feeds. Cut your hay, mix 

 and wet with hot water if convenient, and let it stand a few hours. 

 If no cutter, sprinkle the hay with water and put the bran on it. 

 This is much better than feeding separate and dry. Where cows 

 are fed in this way, the calves will eat bran at three days old. 

 When bran is freely used, the calves are more intelligent, and will 

 learn much quicker than when the. cows are kept in the ordinary 

 way. A calf from a cow that has always been kindly treated, is 

 worth much more than from one that has been ill used. Be kind 

 to the little calf, and all the way along until it becomes a cow, 

 don't abuse it any way. Look out for the hired men. It has been 

 their practice to kick and thrash the cattle, and many of them 

 think it all right to do so. It is an easy matter to spoil a young 

 high-strung cow. I will relate one instance : 



A neighbor raised a nervous cow. He treated her very kindly, 

 80 that she was gentle. At five years old, on account of a short 

 crop of hay, he sold her. He told the purchaser that he must be 

 very careful and kind, for she would be wild if badly used. This 

 advice was not heeded. The cow was driven home, tied up, and 

 when the man went to milk he yelled out, and gave her a slap 

 which frightened the creature, and as he grabbed hold to milk, her 

 hind feet flew up. On that the milking stool was broken to pieces 

 over the cow. She held up her milk, and dried off" in a few weeks. 

 This was the last of a good milker, which was fattened and sent 

 to the shambles. 



In the first of this paper it is said that the cows in Maine are 

 not worth fifty per cent, of a first-rate cow; and why should we 

 be surprised at that ? Twenty seasons' trading in cattle from this 

 State to Brighton, Mass., gave me an opportunity to observe that 

 the farmers generally would sell their best heifers, because they 

 could get a dollar or two more for them than for a mean one. The 



