144 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



wlio is not a good all round farmer, blessed- witli nature's greatest gift, 

 common sense. 



The successful dairyman will remember that his best dairy cows are 

 not the product of nature alone, they are the final results of centuries of 

 breeding; they are not cows in their natural condition, they are abnor- 

 mally developed and hence are abnormally sensitive. The highly bred 

 cows which give him the greatest and most jirofltable yields are, on 

 account of this abnormal sensitiveness jjeculiarly liable to lose the qual- 

 ities that have been bred into them through the. centuries to make them 

 most valuable. By the law of breeding, universal and well known, they 

 tend to revert to their natural condition. The first general principle 

 then should be that if we would maintain and elevate the present high 

 standard of our best dairy cows they must be fed and cared for accord- 

 ing to the dictates of their changed and abnormal natures, and not 

 according to the nature of an undeveloped animal. 



WELL BRED COWS MUST HAVE CARE. 



In nature a cow is bred with the ability to resist hardships; by art 

 those hardshiiis are removed, and hence the energies which, in the 

 natural cow are directed to a thick coat, strong neck and big horn, are 

 now diverted to the production of milk and butter. By nature a cow 

 consumes but a moderate ration ; by art her capacity is increased three- 

 fold. By nature she yields but a small mess, and that for a short time; 

 by art her daily yield has been increased ten-fold and her period of lacta- 

 tion indefinitely protracted. Xow I repeat that it is the constant ten- 

 dency of the highly developed modern dairy cow to lose these qualities 

 bred into her by art and to revert to the original state of small capacities; 

 and it is the business of the dairyman to prevent this reversion by pro- 

 tecting the cows from winter storms, by furnishing constantly good feed- 

 ing and care from one's year end to another, and by careful and thorough 

 milking to keep up the yield. 



Protection from the winter's storms is given for the purpose of making 

 the animal comfortable and to allow the food to be devoted to the produc- 

 tion of milk that would otherwise be required to keep the animal warm 

 or make it possible to endure hardships or discomfort of any kind. The 

 attempt must be made to keep the animal under conditions at which she 

 can do her best. What are these conditions? We notice that The 

 largest messes are yielded by cows usually in the month of June. This 

 suggests that it might be wise to attempt to continue the June conditions 

 throughout the year. 



VENTILATION IN THE STABLES. 



We know as one of the most important of these June conditions that 

 the cow gets plenty of sunlight and fresh air. The temperature seems 

 a little too high, and as we watch the cow quietly chewing her cud on 

 the hot days she gives us evidence that to be perfect for her the weather 

 ought to be just a little cooler. It is my observation that the most 

 highly civilized cows enjoy best during the winter the temperature 

 between 40 and 50 degrees, and we try to keep the cow stables as near 



