No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 331 



ImiI .\uu must make that provision for her, and therefore you must 

 watch her at every stage. If she is approaching the time when you 

 expect her to give birth to a calf, if you keep on feeding her as when 

 she was fresh in milk, you will ruin your cow. I don't know when 

 I have sent a man out with a bucket of hot water to sponge a dairy 

 cow; we don't ever bother with that; we watch the cow while she 

 is making her udder, and we always try to make a cow go dry at 

 least four weeks before she becomes fresh, and as soon as she is dry 

 we give her timothy hay and water. We found that was the best in 

 our artificial way of handling the cattle, and what is there to-day 

 that is worth anything that is not artificial? We get the most out 

 of them that is possible when we do our duty to them. We should 

 be very careful to see that the cow is thoroughly dry, so that you 

 cannot get a drop of milk from her. If you leave the least bit of 

 milk in the udder, you are almost sure to have garget or some 

 disease when your cow comes in fresh. We should be sure to have 

 her thoroughly dry. Then we commence to prepare her for ma- 

 ternity. If we think she is putting on fat too fast, we keep her on 

 bran and hay and if we find that she is not making an udder ten 

 days before she should be fresh — we count 285 days for the period 

 — and then we take care of the cow ten days before she is fresh; 

 we watch her carefully and notice whether she is making an udder. 

 If not, we give her a handful of linseed meal with the bran, and if she 

 does not make an udder in six or eight days, we increase it — give her 

 a little more linseed meal, until we will bring her up to a pint or a 

 pint and a half of linseed meal if necessary, or to even a quart. 

 There must be an udder; we have got to have an udder. Her bowels 

 must be in a good, loose condition; just as long as the cow is fresh 

 we use so much creolin and so much water. We rub the cow off 

 with some brushes and put the calf away in blankets and then give 

 the cow one quart of bran and two or three quarts of cold water 

 several times a day. If you give a cow all the cold water she wants, 

 it will make her bag as hard as a brick, but if you give her cold 

 water as stated, tbere will not be any trouble; the bag will not get 

 hard. We gradually increase the feed. 



MR. ORR: Doctor, do you object to telling us what you mean to 

 do with those fifty-five cows we saw the other day at Mr. Kates' 

 farm? 



MR. DETRICH: We have made no calculations on breeding those 

 cattle. They were simply picked up in New York. We will never 

 breed these cattle. I would not be bothered with such cattle, gen- 

 tlemen. You have got to reduce breeding to a science; you must 

 reduce it to a science as you reduce feeding to a science. You must 

 use it to such an extent as to simplify matters and keep you in the 



