No. 7. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 451 



needs what Ave may call the ''er" (one who does) qualifications. He 

 must be a thinker, reader, worker, breeder, feeder, buyer, seller — 

 in a word, he must be a farmer. 



In these modern times it requires more brains and skill to farm, 

 than is needed in any other single calling; and of all the different 

 kinds of farming, dairy farming furnishes most scope for the display 

 of intelligence and skillful work, 



A study of soils, crops, animals, machinery, proper direction of 

 labor, wise investment of capital — all these need the highest type 

 of man. No one need fear that his mental or physical activity will 

 suffer on the farm. There is room for the brightest minds on the 

 dairy farm. A knowledge of geology, chemistry, botany, biology, 

 and many other ''ologies" is needed, if a man would obtain the best 

 returns from the soil, and from man's agents (plants and animals) 

 for converting soil, sunshine, air and water into food. 



The A (Alfalfa) B (Bran) C (Corn) feed problem is one deserving 

 of special attention at the hands of the dairy farmer. The growing 

 of alfalfa and other clovers has been a means of materially reducing 

 the cost of milk production. Bran, oats, oil meal and cottonseed 

 meal furnishes the concentrates, a certain amount of which are 

 essential for the cow to produce a large flow of milk, in an easily 

 digested form and at a price within the reach of most farmers. How- 

 ever, the tendency is to reduce the meal bill to as low a point as 

 possible and aim to produce milk on less expensive roughage, in the 

 form of corn, roots and clover. I need not dwell upon the import- 

 ance of clover corn and the silo for cheap milk production both 

 summer and winter, when talking to an audience of American far- 

 mers, where corn is King and clover is Queen of plants on their 

 farms. 



A combination of good corn silage (30 to 40 lbs.) clover hay (8 to 

 10 lbs.) mangels or sugar beets (20 to 30 lbs.) and meal or concen- 

 trates (8 to 10 lbs.) will make a suitable and economical ration for 

 a cow in winter. Grass, corn silage, or some soiling crop together 

 with 2 to 4 lbs. meal daily per cow will maintain the milk flow in 

 summer. 



In this connection we need to study very carefully the individual 

 capacity, and profit producing power of each cow. A calculation of 

 the cost of feed per cow and a study of the milk record, will enable 

 the cow owner to calculate whether or not his individual cows are 

 making sufficient profit to warrant the owner in keeping them in the 

 herd. Cow owners need to study individual cows more and not rely 

 too much upon returns from the herd as a whole. Study cows singly 

 — not in masses. 



Coming to the cow herself, w-e believe that a standard is advis- 

 able. Different owners have different ideas as to what constitutes 

 a standard of production in a cow. We should say that the mini- 

 mum of production should be G,000 lbs. of milk or 250 lbs. of butter 

 and the dropping of a healthy calf every twelve months, throughout 

 a period of eight to ten years. While this may seem a somewhat 

 low standard, when we compare it with the record of the American 

 cow Colantha 4th, 27,432 lbs. milk and nearly 1,000 lbs. fat; or that 

 of the Canadian 4 year old cow Boutsje which gave in one year 

 20,778 lbs. milk containing 782 lbs. milk fat, yet this minimum stand- 

 ard suggested, is about double the production of "average" cows in 



