86 Thikty-Sixth Annual Report of the 



you should strive to get them up to that point if possible. Be 

 sure she has a shelter from severe storms, and has shade from 

 the sun; and if you have the right kind of a calf, when she 

 is about a year old, take away her corn and make her satisfied 

 on roughage. I say this because if she gets in the habit of sat- 

 isfying her appetite on grain, she won't develop the barrel we 

 want, and which Prof. Dean doesn't like to see. We want her 

 to develop a barrel so that she can put plenty of roughage into it 

 and turn it into^ milk, and on roughage we can make the cow last 

 longer than we can if we feed her heavily on the concentrates. 

 So let us teach her to consume large quantities of roughage. Be 

 sure that the pasture contains this roughage, and induce her to« 

 eat all that you can. She may safely measure her own roughage. 



Now, with these early maturing breeds, and it is the only 

 breed I know anything about, I would say to you that if you are 

 satisfied with a beautiful type of cow, if you are cjuite satisfied 

 with hundreds of years of careful breeding and selection that 

 have been given this animal, and are pleased with her yield of 

 cream and don't care to increase the flow of milk to any great 

 extent, then I would ask you to have her become a producer at 

 the age of 20 to 22 months. But if on the other hand you are 

 a grasping American and you want a big bulky frame, a big, 

 big flow of milk, then you may wait a while, and you will not 

 have the Island type, but you will have distinctly an American 

 type, and you will raise the quantity of your milk at the expense 

 of the butter fat, and you will also be apt to have some shy breed- 

 ers in your herd. There is the warning. You can do as you 

 like. I prefer then to be producers at the age of 20 to 22 months. 

 If you wish to rest them, rest them between the first and second 

 calf, because we wish to prolong that milking period. Give the 

 dairy cow special care, — of course you have petted her all this 

 time ; that is a big part of the bringing up of a dairy animal ; 

 you have petted her ; when she sees you coming, she runs to meet 

 you ; you are always speaking to her kindly and she knows you 

 are her friend. 



And now I am going to ask a few other things of you. 

 I am going to ask you to give her a stall ; make her feel her 

 importance ; let her see that she has a place in your af- 

 fection. And now I am going to ask you another thing and you 

 will say "That is a woman's reason." I am going to ask you to 

 curry her, groom her. I hear someone say "That woman thinks 

 that we men have nothing on earth to do, — we can't get our 

 horses curried half the time we are so busy and here she asks us 

 to curry our cows ; I suppose she wants to see them look nice 

 and slick." Yes, I do; but I am going to give you some good, 

 hard reasons for this. I am going to give you the dollars and 



