214 AGRICUI.TURE OF MAINE. 



HOW I INCREASED MY DAIRY PROFITS BY 



FEEDING. 



By W. G. HuNTON, Readfield. 



We dairymen realized years ago that there were good cows 

 born and good cows made, and as a practical man, I believe 

 that there are more poor cows made out of good cows born, by 

 insufficient feeding than in any other one way. In other words, 

 I believe that many dairymen have cows today that they have 

 unnecessarily condemned because the fault was with them, in 

 not judiciously feeding and caring for those cows. The major- 

 ity of us are in the dairy business for the dollars and cents that 

 are in it, and those of us who are in it for that reason recognize 

 two distinct propositions that we must ever hold before us if we 

 are successful in our busiiiess. One is to feed our cows so that 

 they will produce well, and the other is to feed them so that 

 their production shall not be too expensive. Incidentally other 

 things contribute to these : whether the feed which we give them 

 is expensive to us, or whether we by our own efforts produce it 

 upon our farms at the least possible expense. But these are 

 the two main propositions. Are we feeding our cows so as to 

 produce the greatest number of pounds of milk or butter from 

 them and does that great number of pounds cost us as little as 

 it is possible for them to cost us? 



In feeding cows I believe that you all have had the experience 

 that I have, and that is that we feed differently today from what 

 we did even six years ago. In other words, experience and 

 teaching have led us to believe that we can feed a much wider 

 ration than we thought it was possible to do some few years ago, 

 and this is much to the advantage of the average dairyman for it 

 gives him the opportunity to produce feeds upon his own farm, 

 while if he was bound to the original narrow balanced ration, 

 he would be obliged to purchase much of it from other states. 



One other point I wish to emphasize, and that is that we have 

 proven by experience that we must know the individual animal ; 

 that it is only by feeding for the individual, whether you have 

 one cow or twenty-five cows, that you can gain the most success. 

 With cows of the same size, cows standing side by side, as near 



