No. 7. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 313 



and jou will make a complete ration for the dairy cow and make it 

 really palatable "for her. Don't say, "I salt my cows twice a week." 

 How would your pie taste if your wife should say, after you had 

 eaten it at dinner, "G-o out and lick some salt in the kitchen." You 

 are touching the animal on a very tender point. Yuu let a little 

 bit of grease get into that ration and see how quickly she turns her 

 head away. You say the old cow won't eat that. No, and she ought 

 not to eat it. You must adapt the ration to the cow. The ration 

 may be splendidly digestible, but not palatable for the animal, and 

 that is just what you ha.ve to test, and find, and choose, something 

 palatable for the dairy cow. 



You may take an animal in a certain condition, and you have 

 a certain problem before you to learn the peculiarities of that 

 animal. I know there are some people who think they are smart, 

 and who shake their heads violently when this is suggested simply 

 because they think that a cow is a cow, but you can't make a cow's 

 milk rich on corn meal. The whole truth is this: You can do it 

 in some instances. 'Some cows are in such a condition that you 

 could not do very much with them until you get them in proper 

 condition, and then when they are in proper condition, you talk 

 about the lazv old cow, and vou talk about the eight-hour man and 

 the sixteen hour-woman. Why, they are not to be compared with 

 the work of the cow, milking fifteen or twenty quarts of milk a day. 

 She uses up more nervous energy than the horse on the street. She 

 is using all her power. She gives us her power. 



The trouble is the milch cow has usually had too much exercise 

 for the profit of the dairj'. When properly fed and watered, she 

 won't go around ex'ercising. Why? From nature and constitu- 

 tion and her four big stomachs, and she wants to chew her cud, and 

 she rolls that over and over in her mouth. She wants quiet. A 

 cow has that advantage that after she swallows, she commences to 

 chew it over and over again. There is no more peaceful sight in 

 the world than to see a cow that has been properly fed, with a real 

 glossy coat and a splendid circulation of the blood, with a nice pliable 

 skin, quietly chewing her cud, grinding it into the lacteal fluid that is 

 afterwards to supply food for all human life. When you see these 

 fine babies that have been nurished on her milk you begin to realize 

 that there is nothing like the dairy cow. You may talk about the 

 American hen, which is all right and proper, but there is no compari- 

 son to be made between the hen and the cow. You don't want a cow 

 for beef, half steer and half cow; you don't want a cow either that is 

 half cow and half goat. You want her to be a cow all over, the out- 

 side just as valuable as the inside and the inside just as valuable as 

 the outside. Unless you know both sides of your question, you will 

 never be a dairyman, and if you are a dairyman, you will find that 

 there is a constant problem presented to you for solution. Every 

 year that I have spent in the cattle industry has taught me that I 

 have more and more to learn. I get letters time and again from 

 people who want to take up dairying as a business. I got a letter 

 only a few weeks ago from a gentleman who is Professor in a Vir- 

 ginia Seminary, saying that he would like to place a young man 

 under my care and if I would receive him he would be very much 

 obliged. I wrote a letter saying that I would, and the young man 

 turned up shortly. When he came I asked him if he was fond of 

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