142 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



All over the State of Michigan men are beginning to learn from the 

 experience of others that there is money in dairying, when properly con- 

 ducted. But if you embark in the dairying interest, you must go into it a 

 level headed man, and not try to serve two masters. You must select a 

 model and work up to it. There are certain animals that my friend here, 

 who is a beef producer, has stated to you were dairy breeds. In the 

 islands of the English channel, where land is scarce, the cow became the 

 main support of the family. It was taken charge of by the wife and 

 daughter, and made almost one of the family, and here comes in his 

 theory of kind treatment. It was taken into the very household, treated 

 kindly (and there is no animal on the face of the earth but which, if 

 treated right, will serve his master and return compensation for what 

 is given). You have got to raise dairy men and dairy maids, as well as 

 a dairy herd, before you can get cows that will perform as the cows of the 

 Channel islands perform for those who love them, and express their love 

 by proper food and care and kindness and gentleness and housing. 



What was the native animal that you propose to make the general pur- 

 pose cow? You remember it, as it ran wild. Two were kickers, three 

 hookers, five jumpers, and three had perhaps three teats, and the other 

 two, two teats. You turned them out upon the commons, didn't you, 

 and if you had a pony, you sent a pony with a boy, because the boy 

 couldn't run fast enough. You milked them when the gad flies and 

 insects were prodding them, and the hired man, who had worked all day 

 plowing, was mad clear through, and the cow didn't act just right. Now 

 then, the cow didn't give any milk, did she? An animal must be used 

 right, in order to compensate the owner for the food and care given it, 

 and it will do it every time. When you get a theory and a practice 

 together, you are on the high road to success. 



The people of Canada have long been producing cheese. They ship 

 direct to the old world. Some of you know of the cheese industry in 

 Canada, where the markets are set apart for cheese, and the farmers have 

 bent their energies in the direction of producing good cheese and of 

 obtaining a profit from their cows, and they have had wonderful success. 



I have said that the dairying interestj however, is the coming interest in 

 Michigan; but, how to go at it. First, select your model; take a native 

 cow if you please or a Shorthorn, and you have learned this, that when 

 you buy a cow of your neighbor, and he selects the cow, you get the poor- 

 est cow he has. You have learned that you would rather give a higher 

 price and have your own selection. A dairy cow has certain peculiar 

 marks, which designate her as a good cow; all of you claim to be judges 

 of a dairy cow; in ten years you will be better judges, and you will all 

 agree upon what is the model for a dairy cow. 



Know what your cow is doing. Many farmers say, I have say seven 

 cows, and they are doing well. Do you know, gentlemen, that out of 

 those seven cows, five may have been excellent producers, and two almost 

 worthless, although the best producers of milk? Now come your appli- 

 ances to test the butter fat — your scales to weigh the milk, and your test. 

 You have got to do that, and the man who is judicious will take his Bab- 

 cock tester with him, and will test the quality of the milk, instead of the 

 quantity, and then if you get quantity and quality combined, you have a 

 cow upon which you may rely, in this process of breeding. 



