622 ANNUAL. RjpPORT OF TiiE Off. Doc. 



practice. How powerful has been the reflex effect of this law of 

 association. Let us be careful of the company we keep. ''Birds of 

 a feather flock together." When a man buys a registered sire he 

 gives notice to the world that he is on an up grade himself in his 

 ideas of cattle. It will not be long before he will think towards 

 improvement in other things. 



Keep the Calves Dry and Clean. 



Every human mother, that is fit to be a mother, knows that if her 

 baby is allowed to remain wet and uncleanly, it will soon grow 

 sickly. The bovine baby is strictly amenable to the same law. 

 Every calf raiser must have seen the ill effects of allowing calves to 

 lie in their own voidings and urine. A farmer was once showing us 

 his stock. His horses were bedded down with an abundance of 

 straw. His calves were lying in filth and moisture that made us 

 indignant to behold. ''What are you raising those calves for?" we 

 asked. "To make cows of them," he replied. "Oh, no, you are not. 

 You are raising them to be weak sickly failures," was our answer. 

 He confessed to us that he had lost a good many calves, but he never 

 had thought that the way he kept them was the cause. 



Turn a calf or a pig out in the woods and it will find for itself a 

 bed of dry leaves in a clean place, and they will keep healthy, if they 

 have food enough. 



In my own calf stable every winter are from 25 to 30 calves. 

 Around the outside, next to the wall, is a feeding alley. Then comes 

 a row of stanchions, the only place on the premises where I use a 

 stanchion. Then comes the open ample room with a dirt floor. This 

 is covered every day, and if necessary, twice a day, either with bright 

 dry straw or shavings. This floor is sprinkled night and morning 

 with a good disinfectant. The calves are fed in these stanchions, 

 with skim milk, fresh from the separator, in clean tin pails twice a 

 day. Then they are given a feed of oats or barley meal, followed by 

 alfalfa hay. All this consumes an hour, say. Then they are let out 

 of the stanchions to run at will on the floor. Twice a day they are 

 let out in the big barnyard to have a run and play. Fresh water is 

 kept standing before them, on the floor of the stable, all the time. 



Now this care takes a little time and thought. But you can never 

 have skill and good judgment, nor the rewards of sldll and judg- 

 n'.ent, unless you invest time and thought. All this care has great 

 effect on the future cow. I have raised but one heifer, pure bred 

 or grade, to cowhood in 15 years, that would not produce 300 pounds 

 of butter and over a year. It is this careful developing, care and 

 feed, I believe, aided by good breeding, that has given me these 

 results. 



Don't you think I have made a good deal more money with my 

 cows by this method, than I would have if I had pursued the com- 

 mon neglectful way? Farmers have not yet begun to think on the 

 fine possibilities there are in the production of valuable cows. The 

 demand for dairy products, all over the Union, is far ahead of the 

 supply. And the cleaner, sweeter, more perfect Ave make that pro- 

 duct the more does the demand increase. 



Think of the demand there is, today, for good cows. A few weeks 

 ago Mr. F. B. Fargo, of Lake Mills, Wis., placed a five-line ad. in 

 Hoard's Dairyman, offering to furnish Holstein cows by the car- 



