340 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



NECESSITY FOR GOOD COWS. 



I can hardly stop till I say something about the necessity of good 

 COWS, as almost all farmers will fool away valuable time and feed with 

 what they call "all-purpose" cows, thinking they must have a sort that 

 will bring a steer calf that the feeder and butcher will have. Try to get 

 cows that will produce good quality and quantity of milk. Never mind 

 the steer calves if you aim to make on dairy products. If you feed them 

 well you can make them good to butcher when a month to twelve months 

 old, even if he is a Jersey steer, and the heifers should be raised for 

 cows. If you get heifer calves from unprofitable cows, use them the 

 same as the steer calves. 



LESSONS FROM EUROPEAN DAIRYING. 



(Prof. 0. H. Eckles, Chief of Dairy Division, Missouri Agricultural College.) 



The American dairyman who studies dairy methods in Europe finds 

 much to criticise, but learns many lessons that will never be forgotten. 

 After such a study, one can see the strong and weak points of our dairy 

 methods far more clearly, and can estimate fairly accurately our present 

 state of advancement. We are not interested in a discussion of what 

 the European can learn from us, but rather what we can learn from 

 him. 



My impressions of European dairying, after a year's study, are more 

 g-eneral than particular. I have seen many dairy machines new to me; 

 many breeds of cattle I never saw before ; new styles of farm and dairy 

 construction, and new ways of doing things, but I can enumerate very 

 -few particular things that I shall attempt to introduce into our dairy 

 -practice. 



My general impressions are very strong. First of all, I have a 

 deeper faith in dairy farming than ever before. I appreciate now as 

 -never before that the dairy cow is absolutely necessary for the highest 

 development of our Agriculture. The most highly developed agricul- 

 tural regions in Europe are the noted dairy countries. The most intelli- 

 gent and most prosperous European farmers are dairy farmers. The 

 richest land and the highest priced fairly swarms with dairy cows. The 

 multitudes of farms there, that are more fertile today than fifty years 

 ago, have been made so by dairy farming. 



I was strongly impressed with the same fact, which so many Mis- 

 souri farmers have recently found out, that the cow, and not the steer, is 

 : the animal for high-priced lands. 



