354 lilKKAU OF I'AK.MKU'.s' I NSTITUTKS. 



Do you think it advisable to uiilk a cow right along like that? 



Answer. — No. If I could have my way about it I would have 

 her g"o dry about one month; but if you ask me why, 1 shall say 

 " I don't know." But one thiuj^ is sure, the cow that milks right 

 along and drops her calf every year, will not have milk fever. 

 It is the big milker that goes dry awhile and is fed large rations 

 of concentrated foods, which make a surplus of blood, or the 

 one that runs in rich June pasture when she freshens, that has 

 milk fever. 



Two weeks before the calf is dropped, give the cow three- 

 quarters of a pound of Epsom salts and a teaspoonful of pow- 

 dered gentian. Repeat the dose every five days till after the 

 calf is born. This medicine thins the blood and stimulates the 

 liver so that it will not become torpid. This treatment is fol- 

 lowed by my neighbors and have heard of but one case of milk 

 fever in the neighborhood in eight years. 



Mr. Converse. — I should never feed a cow to dry her up. If a 

 cow has been bred to give milk the year round, it will be hard to 

 dry her off. If, however, she has been bred and fed to go dry 

 four months it will be hard to prevent it. But I should not fuss 

 with a cow that wants to go dry four months; let some other 

 fellow fuss with her; milk her right along, if she persists in 

 giving milk. 



Is it any particular sign that the digestive apparatus of a cow cannot 

 find any particular element in a food because a chemist cannot do it? 



Mr. Cook. — I don't know. But a cow will find in some 

 foods that which the chemist does not. As a rule, however, 

 the cow and the chemist agree. But the two differ in succulent 

 foods. The chemist finds water; and the cow finds it, but 

 gets a benefit from it that she could not from separated 

 water. This difference the chemist cannot find. But, when 

 the chemist and the cow are consulted as to the analyses 

 of dry foods, such as gluten, bran or corn meal, they fully 

 agree. June grass has a feeding value, which, if the grass 

 were cut and dried into hay it would not have. The differ- 

 ence is caused by the water or juice in the grass being partly 

 dried out. When this moisture has been dried out, the grass 

 loses in feeding value, nor can it be restored by wetting it with 



