No. 7. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 327 



suitable for your purpose, is a pretty dilficult thing to get, but it 

 can be done. There are two methods of getting them; you can 

 either buy or raise them on the farm. Sometimes we must go back 

 from the railroad where they can be raised more cheaply. The 

 health of the cow must be watched over very carefully. You can 

 ■easily learn whether she is sound, by making the tuberculin test. 

 There are some localities in the state where they are perfectly free 

 from tuberculosis, and others where it is very prevalent. Where 

 cows are shipped in iu large numbers, and where they congregate 

 in large numbers, it is probably very prevalent, but in country dis- 

 tricts it does not, as a rule, prevail to any large extent. 



Feeding the cow is too long a subject to take up this morning, 

 so I will speak of it only as it affects the milk for sale. We can 

 feed them a balanced ration, or anything of that kind, but I only 

 want to refer to it as it affects the flavor of the milk. Our ordinary 

 feeds of corn and oats and bran, have no pronounced effect on the 

 odor of the milk, and are not detrimental, but iu the Eastern part 

 of the State, perhaps it is not so out here, we are troubled very 

 much with the garlic, which grows largely in our pasturies, and 

 which the cows eat in large quantities. It contains a volatile oil, 

 which affects the flavor of the milk. Then, they are using a great 

 deal of ensilage, which becomes moi',e or less acid, but this acid is 

 absorbed in the stomach, and does not affect the milk in any way 

 whatever, unless it is fed in such a way and at such times that it 

 fills the air with the odor about the time the milking is being done. 

 Then the milk becomes tainted with it so that it has become a little 

 difficult to decide that matter, simply because of the difficulty of 

 feeding it under these conditions. To feed a cow ensilage, and not 

 saturate the stable atmosphere at the same time is a little difficult, 

 but experiments have proven that if the ensilage is fed at a timje 

 when it will not saturate the atmosphere, it will not affect the milk. 



The care of the cattle is a subject that I hesitate to speak of. It 

 is so long; so I will only speak of cleanlinetss. The stable should 

 be constructed in such a way as to make it easy to keep it clean. 

 Troughs should be so placed as to render it possible to keep the 

 posterior parts of the animals clean, and that the cow when she 

 is lying down is not in the cold and dirt. The ceiling should be 

 so constructed that it can be frequently swept and whihe-washed, 

 and leave no room for cob-webs there. This is not a condition that 

 requires much outlay of money; simply a little bit of work, but, 

 as Prof. Van Norman says, it is work that has to be done twice a 

 day every day in thte year. I have in mind one or two of these 

 stables, that have been allowed to deteriorate, and they look worse 

 in some ways than if they had never been fixed up. I know a barn 

 that was fixed up and put in nice condition, and the farmer kept 

 it in shape for a while, but it has gone to pieces; the ceiling is 

 dropping down, and it looks like, well, I hardly know what it tookg 

 like. If you cannot begin to keep up the eternal vigilance, don't 

 begin to keep it clean. 



This sanitary improvement is here to stay; the people are going 

 to have better stuff and pay for it, and the man who is going to keep 

 cows, and not keep his stables in sanitary condition, had better get 

 out of the business. 



