290 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



results were brought about by feeding a certain kind of a ration, and 

 I taught that for several years, thinking that I had practically solved 

 the problem, when tlie common cow gave me about 275 pounds of butter 

 per year, to put it in round numbers, while she was giving the farmer 

 only 150 pounds; but since that I have found that there are other 

 reasons, and probably that balancing the ration is only a small portion 

 of the problem. 



KINDNESS AN IMPORTANT FACTOR. 



In using the cow for commercial purposes, we are using a mother 

 that is giving milk because of her young, and this process of giving 

 milk is not a voluntary action, consequently any little disturbance, any 

 little lack of management will cause a diminution of the flow of milk, 

 the manufacturing process will decrease; and the more careful the farmer 

 is in handling the cow, the more regularly she is handled, the more com- 

 fortable she is kept, the more even will be this flow of milk. Now here 

 is the great trouble with the average farmer, he does not provide the 

 cow with comfortable quarters, he does not give her that combination of 

 kindness and care that she needs as a mother, and consequently there 

 is a strangeness so that she does not know whether her owner is her 

 friend or foe and consequently, when she comes in there is little atten- 

 tion paid to her or the calf ; she is probably allowed to be in uncomfortable 

 quarters, the calf is allowed to be with her for a few days, three or four, 

 or five — possibly two weeks, and during that time there is only enough 

 milk removed from her udder to satisfy the wants oT the calf, if there is 

 any surplus it is left in the udder and there is a back process. Then 

 comes the process of removing the calf. The cow is terribly agitated, 

 worried and fretted, and every bit of worry, every bit of discontent, every 

 uncomfortable feeling has an influence in decreasing the flow of milk, 

 so that after the average cow goes through with the process of having 

 her calf removed, when the farmer begins to milk her she is already giv- 

 ing about half her flow of milk. Here is where the difificulty is, the 

 farmer does not know the importance of being on good terms with his 

 cow. He should know every one of his cows and every one of them 

 should look upon him as her greatest friend, should know he is not 

 going to hurt her, as he never does, should follow him and look up to 

 him for support. A cow with that feeling toward her master is in a 

 position to give double the milk that she would give if she had not that 

 feeling toward him. The average farmer does not think anything about 

 whether he likes his cow or whether the cow likes him, and yet that 

 is the secret of getting a large flow of milk. 



