122 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



performer with a pedigree of good performers behind her. The sire 

 should have a similar pedigree and a great mother behind him. 



Now we have a start; the process of grading up is the work of years; 

 however good the herd is there will always be a ''poorest cow." A 

 better one must be raised to take her place. Dairy calves should be 

 raised on skim-milk, bran, clover hay and pasture, feeding liberally but 

 not of any fattening food. Breed not younger than fifteen months 

 and not older than twenty-one months, varying according to the size 

 of the heifer. In my experience, the three* months preceding the birth 

 of the first calf is the time to make the cow. During these three months 

 I feed all the grain they will eat up clean and plenty of roughage. 

 The young heifer must at this time develop her calf, her udder, and 

 keep up her own growth. Never does she need as liberal a feeding 

 as at this period and as milk fever never occurs with first calf, there is 

 no danger. 



Having got the herd in milk, the next thing necessary is a pair of scales 

 and a Babcock tester. Every cow's milk should be weighed night and 

 morning and a record kept of the same. Get a spring balance that weighs 

 30 pounds, set back the dial the weight of the milk pail, make a black- 

 board at the barn ruled to accommodate a week's milk record. The 

 milker has then only to hang his milk pail on the scales and record the 

 result on the board; not two seconds of extra work. Each week remove 

 the record to your dairy account book. You will be surprised how the 

 cows will vary from your estimate of them. At the end of the year many 

 a cow that required two pails to hold her milk when fresh, will be 

 found behind her more modest sister who kept everlastingly at it. 

 Now you can begin to cull; discard every cow that goes dry on her own 

 motion; while every cow should be dry six or eight weeks previous to 

 calving she should be forced to dry; she ought to be giving at least 

 16 pounds per day when you start in to dry her up. Discard the cow 

 with short teats; she takes too much time to milk; likewise the cow 

 with a dainty appetite. The profitable dairy cow should eat every- 

 thing in sight. Every year select the two most promising heifers to 

 bring up to take the place of the two poorest cows. Sires may be bred 

 to their own daughters, but not to their grand-daughters. A change 

 of sire is necessary at this time. Get the very best you can buy. Re- 

 member he is half the herd and if he is only common your herd will go 

 backward instead of forward. Never breed to anything but a thor- 

 oughbred sire and, above all, don't cross breed. Think a minute of 

 what you are doing by cross breeding. Here stands a Jersey; for 

 seven centuries the farmers of Jersey Island have been breeding her 

 to produce milk and butter. Think of it, seven centuries of brain and 

 labor in that little animal to get the blood running to milk and butter. 

 Here stands a Shorthorn, bred for a like period to produce beef. How 

 thoughtless the farmer is who at one fell stroke destroys the work of 

 seven centuries. How egotistical to think that one man in a year could 

 improve the thought and labor of centuries. Select your dairy breed 

 and stick to it. If you cannot afford thoroughbreds, then get grades 

 of the same breed, but avoid scrubs and cross breeds. Feed grain 

 every day in the year; the benefit will come not so much at once in 

 extra milk as it will in the succeeding years from the extra condition 

 of your cows and the effect on their offspring, which is your future 

 herd. 



