186 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



them ferocious ; and so you will find that the law of kindness will 

 have its influence upon breeding animals. 



Mr. Ellsworth, of Barre. As Mr. Flint spoke about heifers 

 coming in at two or three years old, I will say, that we can- 

 not afford, I think, here in Massachusetts, at least, to wait for a 

 heifer to come in at three years old ; we want them to come in 

 at two years and a few months old. I agree with Mr. Flint in 

 regard to the time of coming in. The animal should calve 

 before she goes to grass and fills up with milk-producing food. 

 After that we may stretch her milking capacity. I am con- 

 vinced that we can teach a heifer to give milk ; I have no doubt 

 of it at all. I generally raise what I use, say half-a-dozen a 

 year, and I invariably use the full-blood for ipy males, and 

 sort out what I call the best qualities ; so, with half-a-dozen a 

 year, I hardly ever fail of drawing perhaps one prize, three 

 good ones and one blank, — the blanks will come in once in a 

 while. 



But I merely rose for the purpose of saying that the time for 

 a heifer to come in is two years old rather than at three, for it 

 makes fifty dollars difference in the cost of the cow, and you 

 will get a better cow by teaching her to give milk. 



Mr. Converse, of Palmer. I would state, in reference to this 

 milk fever, two cases that have come under my notice within 

 about a year. In one case a man had just bought a cow, for 

 which he paid a hundred and fifty dollars, and he came to me 

 and said his cow was going to die. I went to see her, and found 

 her all in a tremble. There were one or two physicians there 

 who said she must die. I asked him if they had bled her, and 

 he said they had not. I said that, in Germany, the old rule was 

 to bleed a cow with milk fever, but they all now condemned it, 

 but if the cow must die, there would be no harm in trying it. 

 I took his fleam and bled the cow pretty thoroughly. One teat 

 was entirely bound up. I whittled a little pine stick down 

 round and small, and bored out that teat. It was perfectly dry. 

 I did it carefully, and washed the cow's bag pretty thoroughly, 

 or, rather, his man did, with flaxseed oil. The next morning, 

 I went to see the cow again, and bled her a second time. That 

 cow got well, and gives milk to-day out of every teat, and is a 

 good cow ; I don't know but as good a cow as she ever was. 

 That was the result of that experiment. 



