THE DAIRY. 259 



grades, or common cows, test the milk of every cow as to quantity and quality. 2. The 

 next important step is care and feed. Nothing pays better than kind treatment. Cows 



should have clean, comfortable, well- ventilated stables. They should be driven leisurely 



never faster than a walk; never whipped or beaten under any circumstances; they should 

 never be worried or fatigued by dogs, and a uniform kindness should be shown, extending 

 even to the tones of the voice. Let the attendants pet the animals daily, handling them 

 tenderly, and gaining, if possible, their entire confidence and affection. Harsh treatment, 

 neglect, and want of care not only lessen the quantity of milk, but not unfrequently render it 

 unwholesome, and even poisonous. Numerous instances can be pointed out where cows that 

 have been whipped, frightened, or in other ways abused, have yielded milk that has caused 

 disease and death to persons using it. 3. Cows, to make good returns in wholesome and rich 

 milk, must be fed well. The sweet and nutritious grasses growing upon old pastures are 

 among the best of all foods for the production of good milk. When ground grain or meal is 

 to be fed, one of the best mixtures is ground oats and bran, or ground oats and peas. Pea 

 meal and bran mixed promote a good flow of milk of excellent quality. 



When pastures are inferior or scanty, rations of the above may be fed to advantage, 

 while the cows may be soiled with fodder corn, green clover, and the like, as supplementary 

 to pasturage. The use of corn meal in summer is not so well adapted for feed as it is in cool 

 weather. In fall or winter it makes an excellent ration with ground oats and bran. Roots, 

 in their season, are also valuable carrots, mangolds, and parsnips being among the best for 

 good-flavored milk. 



4. As milk is composed of eighty-seven parts water, with its other constituents, it is of 

 the utmost importance that clean, fresh water be supplied to cows in such abundance that the 

 animals can obtain it at will, and are not required to travel long distances to slake thirst. 

 Stagnant water, or that from sloughs, cesspools, or other filthy places, injures the milk of 

 cows partaking of it; and, if such water is mostly depended upon for the dairy, neither first- 

 class butter or cheese can be produced. When springs and streams cannot be had, wells 

 should be dug for supplying stock with water; and, by having pumps worked by wind 

 power, good, clean water can be kept before the stock at small expense and trouble. 



6. Having made provision for obtaining good milk, the all-important requisite to be 

 considered is cleanliness. Everything about the dairy, the pails and utensils, must be kept scru 

 pulously neat and clean. In washing dairy utensils, something more than cold and warm water 

 will be required ; the use of steam, or water boiling hot, must be employed to kill the germs 

 of ferment that will accumulate from day to day in the corners, seams, and other parts of the 

 utensils and implements. The milking must be done in the most cleanly manner. Immense 

 quantities of bad-flavored goods result from careless milking, whereby droppings from 

 unclean udders, particles of manure, and other filth are allowed to fall into the milk while 

 milking. 



Again, the milking stables are often badly ventilated, and are foul with emanations of 

 decomposing filth; and, as milk absorbs these gases with great facility, good milk is often 

 injured before it leaves the stables. Milk should at no time come in contact with offensive 

 odors, and care should be taken where the dairy buildings are located, so as to escape the 

 fumes of the stable, the pig-sty, or other decomposing form of vegetable or animal matter. 



These few points are the stepping-stones to success in the dairy, and cannot be ignored 

 with impunity.&quot; 



Stock fanciers have done much towards the promotion of agriculture and its interests 

 throughout the civilized world, and consequently the increase of national wealth and pros 

 perity; and such men as Bakewell, Ceilings, and their congeners may be regarded as public 

 benefactors, for they have devoted their means, time, talents, and energies towards the 

 improvement of domestic animals of all kinds, and to their untiring devotion to this cause 

 the farmers of to-day owe their fine stock and the profits thereby derived. 



