116 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



THURSDAY FORENOON. 



The topics related to "Dairying" and Hon. Fred M. Warner, of Farm- 

 ington, president of the State Dairymen's Association, occupied the 

 chair. Papers were read upon "The Dairy Cow," "Building up the 

 Dairy Herd," "Feeding and Care of the Dairy Herd," also on "Practical 

 Suggestions Regarding the Real Property Law." 



THE DAIRY COW. 



BY PROF. C. S. PLUMB^ COLUMBUS^ OHIO. 



The subject of 'The Dairy Cow" allows a wide discussion, but it is my 

 purpose to consider her from a rather limited point of view relative to 

 certain phases of conformation and production. The importance of type 

 in general has an application among cattle, and they have generally been 

 arranged in recent years in three groups, according to their purpose. 

 Tnese are dairy, beef and general purpose. While it is true that there 

 are exceptions to these types, in results produced, as a rule, a good dairj 

 cow is lacking in beef producing capacity to a high degree. We of late 

 have heard much of the general purpose or "dual" purpose animal, that is 

 midway between dairy and beef type, which yields fairly well of both 

 milk and beef. Hacker of the Minnesota Station and Beach of Connecti- 

 cut have made careful studies of the relation of form to milk and fat 

 production, and they have brought forward much evidence to show that 

 animals angular, spare of flesh, deep bodied, wedge shaped, being more 

 fully developed behind than in front, perhaps, with good udders made 

 better and more profitable producers of milk and butter than beefy, 

 thick-fleshed, block cows. In his experiments. Hacker, in 1895, tested 

 12 cows at the Minnesota station, that were divided into two groups, 

 viz., angular and fleshy. The angular cows produced 6,720 pounds of 

 milk per head, yielding 446 pounds of butter, giving a net profit of |38.11 

 each, while the fleshy cows produced 5,077 pounds of milk and 229 pounds 

 of butter per head, giving a net profit of |10.37 a head. In 1896 this ex- 

 periment was continued on 13 cows and while the results were not so 

 wide in their difference, they were in favor of the dairy type. 



Referring to this matter of type as affecting the dairy cow, in a copy of 

 Hoard's Dairyman for February, this year, Mr. C. P. Goodrich gives a 

 most interesting study of the dairy cattle of Fond du Lac county, Wis- 

 consin. This deals with the herds of 48 patrons of creameries, including 

 637 cows. Special note is made in the report of the class and kind of 

 cattle fed. The best record was made by a herd of 25 cows of dairy type, 

 consisting of grade Guernseys and Jerseys. This herd averaged 5,809 



