No. 6. DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE. 741 



cow, figures out proper rations for each dairyman and gives such 

 advice as he may need. At the end of the year the dairyman has a 

 reasonably adequate record of every cow in his herd, and he knows 

 what it has cost to keep them, and he can easily discard the unprofit- 

 able animals. 



I was interested in going through a barn a short time ago where 

 the dairyman took much pleasure in showing me his herd, and he 

 stated that he thought his conditions were almost ideal. While 

 there was some improvement noted over other barns in the vicinity, 

 such as the swing stanchions, a fairly good floor for the animals to 

 stand on and a gutter behind the cows to permit of easy removal of 

 the manure, on looking at the conditions more critically it was noted 

 that there was not more than one small window to every dozen 

 cows, that the ceiling was low, allowing less than 200 cubic feet of 

 air space to each cow, that the mangers were heavy wooden struc- 

 tures with decaying feed in the corners, that cobwebs were hanging 

 from the ceiling and the wall in the rear of the cows was coated 

 with manure. This dairyman was willing to receive instruction and 

 have undesirable conditions pointed out to him. He had seen but 

 few dairies outside of his neighborhood and really didn't know that 

 there was anything better. 



THE MAN BEHIND THE COW. 



Among the factors which enter into the economical production of 

 milk, the man who handles the cow is the most important. The 

 man who naturally likes sheep or who -would rather feed steers 

 than cows or who has not a keen interest in dairying will not pro- 

 duce milk economically and will not keep his cows up to their 

 highest production. Then a man should select a breed which he 

 likes, a breed which he is ready to advocate to his neighbors and 

 to stand up for on all occasions. There are men who would rather 

 have specks in their butter than spots on their stock. The man 

 behind the cow must be a man who treats her kindly, a man whom 

 the cow likes to have around. If she chews her cud during milking 

 time you may know that all is well and that she is doing her best 

 at the pail. We must see that the cows are comfortable all the time. 

 The Kansas station in a recent test found that cows exposed to a 

 temperature ranging from 18 to 50 degrees for several days at a 

 time lost 12 per cent, in quantity of milk, and 11 per cent, in butter. 

 These animals were fed three pounds more of the grain ration, 

 but their weight was approximately the same, the loss, including 

 feeding, amounted to $.07 per cow per day. (There were 52 days 

 when the thermometer registered 32 degrees below.) Accordingly, 

 the total loss for the year per cow is $2.21, or $18.80 on a herd of 20 

 cows. We see here how much depends upon the cow. 



THE MILKING MACHINE IN MILK PRODUCTION. 



The contentment of the cows is very noticeable where some of the 

 milking machines are being used that have come the nearest to per- 

 fection. I have seen a whole line of cows that were being milked 

 with machines chewing their cuds as if nothing was going on. 

 Where the test cups are carefully adjusted to each cow to her satis- 

 faction and comfort and the same size used on the same teats at- 



