212 ANNUAL REPORT. OF THE Off. Doc. 



My first and basic lesson was entitled "The Farmer's Cow; Her 

 Care and Feeding." As an introductory to the talk, I generally draw 

 attention to the desirability and advantages of animal husbandry on 

 the farm. This I do by practical illustrations, showing the value 

 to our land of the by-products, left on the farm in the production 

 of the commodities of animal industry; and more particularly do I 

 try to show that the field for selling ability, skill or ingenuity is 

 greater here than in almost any other line of farm work. (I always 

 increase or decrease these illustrations through all my talks as time 

 and circumstances seem to demand.) I then follow by trying to im- 

 press ray hearers with the importance and necessity of every one, 

 individually, studying himself, his environments, markets, etc., with 

 great care before deciding on the particular line of animal husbandry 

 he will give his best attention to. v 



Next, I hold up, very briefly, some of the advantages of beef pro- 

 duction ; and there I try to score a point by showing from experiment 

 stations findings, intelligent farm practice and observation that the 

 farmer who secures and uses the variety or breed of animals that 

 will produce the cheapest, largest amount, best quality, and most 

 salable beef is the largest profit-maker. I insist on this for a minute 

 to make an impression, not that I want to speak along beef lines, 

 but it will help me to make a deeper. and more lasting impression 

 when I present the other side. I now drop the beef cow and speak, 

 by contrast, showing and illustrating the vast difference between 

 the cow that makes the best and cheapest beef and the one that 

 makes the most and cheapest butter. I then drop the contrast and 

 briefly give the main distinguishing points and features of the dairy 

 cow and recapitulate, briefly, the origin, development, breeding and 

 caring for her in her native home. Eight here I am always partic- 

 ular to pay my respects to the fellow that is always kicking about 

 the weakness of the pure breds in general and the Channel Island 

 cattle in particular, and saying: "We want the common or cross-bred 

 cow because she is hardy and can take care of herself, etc." I at 

 once admit that those high bred cattle, that have been cared for like 

 children for many generations, can not be expected to be as hardx 

 and robust as Rocky Mountain goats; but we are not keeping 

 our dairy cows to draw a premium on their sinews and physique, but 

 on their acquired power of food digestion, assimilation and trans- 

 formation into dairy products. This point generally needs develop- 

 ing; it is one of the stumbling blocks with many farmers. 



A few homely illustrations will best remove this delusion or pre- 

 judice: For example^, I take my hearers for a few minutes to Hol- 

 land and show them how, by patient, constant care, intelligent feed- 

 ing and selection for a few centuries, one of our most noted breeds of 

 dairy cattle was evolved. Then I might say, suppose we with our 



