Thirty-sixth Annual Convention 1007 



joii add cottonseed meal and it gives you good response, add a 

 little more on another day. I would not feed a cow over a couple 

 of pounds of cottonseed meal. Then if you want more protein, 

 put in perhaps a little gluten feed — whichever feeds give you 

 the best response on the individual cow. That is the best way to 

 determine the amount and character of the ration. 



Voice : Does it pay to raise beets to put in with the feed you 

 mention ? 



Prof. Van Pelt : It depends altogether on conditions. I do 

 not think that beets are much superior to corn silage. Which- 

 ever is most cheaply raised on each farm is the most advisable.' 

 For feeding cows for large records it is well to grow beets and 

 feed in conjunction with the silage to give variety, but under ordi- 

 nary circumstances it is only a question of which is the cheaper, 

 silage or beets, or whether you could buy beet pulp for less money 

 than you could raise beets. 



Mr. Egan : Have you found many of the milking machines to 

 be successful? 



Prof. Van Pelt : Many have been placed in herds of cattle 

 and many have been again taken out of the barn. There are 

 machines on the market to-day, however, that seem to be proving 

 a success. I believe that if they are operated intelligently, they 

 are successful, especially for commercial dairies. Milking ma- 

 chines are like other machines — successful in the hands of some 

 and unsuccessful with others. It is a question of operating. 

 There are men mechanically inclined who can run machines very 

 well ; other men can get good production and take good care of 

 the cow, but it is seldom that you find a man at once a good me- 

 chanic and a good man with the cow — such a one would be suc- 

 cessful. It seems to me the present machines which cater to the 

 individual cow — that is, milk one cow at a time — will prove a 

 success. 



Voice: No machine is reliable unless you strip the cow out. 

 The young cows that are brought up with the machine will give 

 it all down J the others will not. 



