No, 7. DEPARTMENT OF AGraCULTURE. 297 



the variation was as great. While there is a greater or less num- 

 ber of good cows in every dairy, they are continually going the 

 way of all the earth. Where are those coming from to take their 

 place? Eight here 1 want to call attention to the scarcity of milch 

 cows. When one stops to think of the increased amount of milk 

 each year, which is diverted from manufacture in butter and cheese 

 and sold as crude milk and considers that milk selling usually means 

 no more calves raised, we understand why this scarcity. With a 

 milk train starting from the St. Lawrence and drawing milk from 

 hauling distance on either side until it reaches the Mohawk, whence 

 it goes through the valley of the Hudson to Greater New York, 

 there is left in its wake an army of farmers who are annually in 

 the market buying cows. Men who formerly raised their own stock 

 and had a surplus to sell. This process is repeated all along the 

 southern tier, as well as in tlie Catskill district and through New 

 England, Penns^ylvania and New Jersey, as I can personally testify. 

 AVhen one speaks to these men of the importance of raising calves 

 of the right sort, as the only sure way to get these good cows, he is 

 met with the objection, "We sell our milk, and consequently can- 

 not raise our calves." I contend that the only sure way to get this 

 good cow economically is to raise her, and to this end I would 

 have you who are still selling the milk to the manufacturer and re- 

 taining the by-product think more than twice before you dispose 

 of your entire product lured by the extra ten cents a hundredweight 

 in cash. Further, I am also sure that it will pay the milk seller 

 to raise his own stock, although he must needs feed them whole 

 milk for the first four or five weeks. A calf worth raising is well 

 worth this outlay. Incidentally, it means better stock, for a man 

 will not hesitate to so feed a pure bred or high grade calf, which is 

 bound to have a value from its youth up, when it is an open ques- 

 tion if it will pay to grow an inferior one, even on skim milk. This 

 emphasizes the value and importance of the mature pure bred bull. 

 Lacking such parentage, ninety-nine out of every one hundred calves 

 will not pay to raise to make milch cows under any circumstances. 

 The time is when there is a good business in raising good milch cows 

 to sell. 



FEED 



As I see it, the next important factor in economical production 

 is the feed. If the cows are allowed to become reduced in flesh 

 at any time because of insufficient or innutritions feed they cannot 

 possibly produce the full quantity they otherwise would be capable 

 of doing. Too often during the summer the pasture is such that 

 even with supplemental green foods — even though the milk flow is 

 kept up — the cows lose flesh. I am satisfied that a small amount 

 of grain in such cases will be in the line of economy, even though, 

 as is usually the case, the increased milk scarceh'' pays for the feed. 

 The cow will produce enough more when she freshens to more than 

 compensate, and will require less food to keep her than if she must 

 be built up as well as sustained. Again, when dry, during the last 

 two months of pre^Tiancy, too often the protein food is withheld that 

 she needs to build lier calf, consequently she freshens without filling 

 her udder, is thin, and again fails in what she would be capable 

 of doing had she some reserve to draw on. 



