No. 7. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, 307 



FEED, BREED AND CARE OF THE DAIRY. 



By DR. J. D. DETRICH, West Chester, Pa. 



Speaking of the care of the dairy cow, the first thing is, undoubted- 

 ly, the feeding of the dairy cow. Of course you have to have your cow 

 before you have to have your feed. We understand that grass was 

 created before the animal, so that we consider that as a matter of 

 course. Afterwards comes breed, second, and the care of the animal 

 next. 



There is another phase to this business of dairying which belongs 

 to the handling of the milk and to the marketing of the milk, a ques- 

 tion which belongs to the commercial side. You can dispose of it 

 through a milkman, or if you are conveniently situated to do so, you 

 can market your own product. Not every farmer is situated in that 

 matter so as to send his milk directly to the consumer; therefore 

 it is the duty of every farmer to become a business man as well as 

 a dairyman. 



FEED. 



In speaking for the dairy animal, and believing that the grass 

 was created before the cow, we likewise have to take hold of the 

 subject of the feed for the purpose of handling the dairy business 

 properly. There are several systems that have been in vogue, looked 

 upon as more or less extravagant, and usually conducted more or 

 less on an extensive scale. First, there was the system of pasture, 

 the roaming of cattle out on the plains where there were no fences, 

 and then coming down to the day of fencing and to the keeping of 

 animals within certain bounds, and they have calculated that it 

 takes five acres to keep a cow within the borders of civilization and 

 advanced society. The position which society occupies to-day as re- 

 gards the variety of the products and its demands has driven the 

 dairyman upward all the time. It will not do to feed the dairy 

 animal on mullen stalks and weeds and all kinds of trash, and then 

 expect her to produce a good product. This animal has to have the 

 very best of food, and to this subject we direct the attention of the 

 twentieth century dairymen who are looking to agriculture as well 

 as to the dairy to-day for a business as well as a profit, and in such 

 a way that they are endeavoring to grasp all the conditions of the 

 question of producing milk and the various stages of its production; 

 and they must not only consider it from the point of view of the 

 dairyman, but also that of the sanitarian. 



Well, there were millions of acres of range that animals were 

 permitted to roam over in the past, yet every year as civilization ad- 

 vances and the population of the earth becomes greater, the condi- 

 tions change. You would think that the dairy animal would be 

 driven further and further away from society instead of drawing 

 nearer to it. 



Now as to the question of food, instead of having one kind of 

 food, we have to-day a whole multitude of foods, scarcely an in- 

 dustry opens up to-day that we do not have a benefit derived from 

 it in the way of a by-product. Look at the oil mills to-day, linseed 



