392 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



Mr. Holston : I think the impression that a great many 

 dairymen get is that you had better give a cow all she will eat 

 of grain. They get it from the people who are feeding for high 

 records. I think that is one thing that ought to be talked down 

 among dairymen. 



Mr. Stetson : Any one who reads Hoard's Dairyman or any 

 other good paper will find that it is not stated that you should 

 feed a cow all she will eat of concentrates. They may say that 

 they usually feed a cow all the roughage she will eat. They 

 mean all she will eat right away. They do not mean that 

 you shall feed a cow what she will dawdle over 48 hours. 

 I do not claim that I am an expert feeder. I feed my cows 

 all they will eat right up clean, of roughage, and I feed a bal- 

 anced ration. If you cannot balance it yourself and haven't 

 anybody at hand who can do it, buy a Unicorn ration ; but you 

 can buy just as good material as they put in and you know 

 what you are buying, and you can mix it according to the 

 formula that can be obtained from the State College. And then 

 if you will make this as a standard, — to feed one pound of this 

 concentrate in addition to your roughages to 3J pounds of milk 

 if it tests 5 or 6 per cent, or one pound to four pounds if it tests 

 3 or 4 per cent, I think you will be somewhere near right. 

 Then you w^ant to do another thing, which usually comes in to 

 the cow test association, though not necessarily, and that is to 

 weigh at every milking the milk of every cow and write it down 

 just as soon as you weigh it. Study that sheet and try your 

 individual cow by increasing the amount of grain that you are 

 feeding by half a pound for three days, and if she answers to it 

 increase another half pound for three days or six days, until you 

 get up to the height of increase, and then drop back a little and 

 feed that amount as long as she is giving that flow of milk. 

 When she begins to decrease in flow of milk, decrease in pro- 

 portion. AUvays watch your record and watch your cow to see 

 how much flesh she has, what her droppings are, etc. A dairy- 

 man, in order to be successful, must use his brain and his eyes, 

 and all there is in him. Then you will not fall into the same 

 error and have the same loss that the owners of the cows that 

 make the world's records do ; nor the loss that those men have 

 who do not feed at all scientifically or with any system. 



Ques. In this association are the cows tested for tuberculosis ? 



