FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 143 



Mr. Lester: I want to ask this audience, how many there are here who 

 have a Babcock tester? About one in a thousand. I also wish to ask 

 Mr. Brown a question. How long do you propose to have those cows go 

 dry? 



Mr. Brown; We try to have them go dry four or six weeks; some are 

 persistent milkers, and won't. We always advocate our cows going dry 

 two months. 



My friend Clark gave us a nice talk here, but I told him there was one 

 thing he ought to ha\e said, ''Go slow." In this dairy matter, you want 

 to go slow. Which is the largest dairy — the one that is producing the 

 most butter in the United States today — isn't it Armour & Swift, over in 

 Chicago? Probably two-thirds of the families is this city are using but- 

 ter from Armour's dairy. Will it pay us to buy Babcock testers and test 

 our cows and sell them off at half price because they don't happen to fill 

 the bill? 



That is the trouble; go slow before you get into debt for Jerseys. It 

 is all right for a man to go into these things, but there is one thing a nian 

 wants to do — he must like the business he is going into. 



THE DAIRY COW— FEEDING AND CARE. 



PROF. C. D. SMITH, AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE. 



To treat properly this important branch of the general discussion of 

 the dairy cow, in the time allotted me, necessarily limited, is, of course, 

 impossible. I shall therefore attempt nothing" more than to outline a 

 few general principles and emphasize several details which seem to me to 

 be of especial importance at this time. Concerning the usefulness of 

 tables of food analysis and of the theoretically balanced ration, I have no 

 time to speak, important as these topics are for discussion. 



It may be well to remember at the outset that the cow is a machine, 

 and, more than a machine, she is a living animal. Her function in the 

 farm economy is to convert such forage and grains as the farm may pro- 

 duce into milk, butter and fertility. It is well in this great State, so com- 

 pletely given up to grain raising, to recognize the dairy cow as an 

 important factor not only in increasing the wealth of the State, but in 

 restoring to the soil its pristine fertility. The dairyman who would 

 make a living, and at the same time maintain the fertility of his farm, 

 must not only know how to feed cows to produce a profitable yield, but 

 he must know in addition how to so compound his rations as to purchase 

 the food stuffs which will best supplement the crops he raises and will 

 bring on the farm the fertilizing elements which the soil needs. If he 

 raises com, timothy hay. oats and wheat, both from the point of view of 

 the greatest yield of milk and butter and the maintenance of soil fertility, 

 wisdom will dictate that he should purchase oil meal, cotton seed meal, 

 pea meal, or wheat bran, because these foods, besides being rich in those 

 food materials which are lacking in com, timothy hay and wheat straw, 

 contain the nitrogenous elements and ash constituents which will aid 

 him in enriching his fields. No dairyman can therefore expect to succeed 



