578 BOARD OF AOKICL'LTUHE. 



A\:iui'. and no matter wb.it kind of weather the cow is kept housed for 

 three or four days after she calves, and now milk fever does not possess 

 ih(> terror for us it once did. The heifer calves are left with the cow not 

 more than three days, and are then given the mother's milk for a week 

 or two, and are afterwards fed warm skim milk until they are as much 

 as six months old. We seldom feed anything in the milk, though at 

 present we are giving a little well-cooked corn meal and sometimes we 

 have used linseed. They soon learn to eat clover hay and grain, and we 

 have had little trouble with scours. 



Our cow barn is a very ordinary affair, but by the use of whitewash, 

 cemented gutters behind the cows and daily cleaning we keep it in a 

 fairly sanitary condition, and by using building paper along the inside 

 walls and other aids we manage to keep the cows comfortable during 

 the cold weather. At the end of the first year we built a stave silo just 

 outside the barn and the cows are fed ensilage from November (often 

 before) until they are turned on pasture in May, with clover hay, corn 

 stover and bran to make up the winter ration. All of the feed with the 

 exception of wheat bran is grown on the farm, and no grain is sold off 

 except wheat. We give salt daily and bed with wheat straw. We allow 

 a little bran or corn at milking time all through the summer. When the 

 grass gets short in July we generally feed some clover hay and an added 

 allowance of grain until the second crop of clover is ready to pasture. 

 We also feed some green corn in its season, but here we must confess 

 that too often our cows are let shrink- in their milk giving before the 

 gi-een feed is ready, even more than the heat and the flies are excuse for, 

 and it is our intention to put up a smaller silo next summer and fill with 

 corn for summer feeding. In this way we think we will be able to pro- 

 vide for our cows better than any other, as well as materiallj' reduce the 

 summer grain bills. The manure is drawn out and spread on clover sod 

 as often as convenient. We have always kept a registered Jersey sire 

 to head the herd and we save the heifer calves from what we judge as 

 our best cows. Two-thirds of the herd is at present composed of young 

 animals of our own raising, and we now expect to raise all the cows we 

 may ro<iuire. While more of our cows freshen in the fall and ■nnnter 

 months, we have some of them to bring their calves at different seasons, 

 for the reason that it helps to keep the butter good and also to keep up 

 a certain supply the year round. The heifers iisually freshen when 20 to 

 24 months old. The skim milk left after calves are fed, as well as the 

 buttermilk, is fed to the pigs. Of these we try to rear 25 to 35 twice a 

 year and sell when 6 to 7 months old. These are, we find, a profitable 

 combination with the dairy. A\'e have a weigh scale banging in the barn, 

 also sheet of cai-dboard and pencil, and the milk of each cow is weighed 

 at every milking and a note made of amount, "feo we know just how much 

 milk each cow gives in a week or a year and we test the milk occasion- 

 ally— to find the percentage of butter fat it contains, which enables us to 



