The Normal Dairy. 149 



When we turn to the question as to which breed of 

 cows will be the most economical for the production 

 of the normal infants' milk, we must bear in mind 

 that the constituants of the milk we should produce 

 are fixed quantities, and that no considerations of 

 preference for any particular breed should interfere in 

 the decision. 



Considerable controversy has also arisen over the 

 physical condition of the cow, in respects to her 

 ability to produce a pure milk, unimpaired by such 

 changes as arise from the collateral functions of the 

 generative organs, the strictest doctrinarians advocat- 

 ing the exclusion of all animals in a state of preg- 

 nancy, and this exaction has been and can be fulfilled 

 by dairy farmers situated in localities where cows 

 may be advantageously disposed of to the butcher 

 after finishing their period of lactation, but this con- 

 dition does, more generally, not prevail in the neigh- 

 borhood of those populations that stand in the most 

 urgent need of a normal dairy establishment and, 

 where the exactment of such a stipulation would 

 mean a loss of, perhaps, fifty per cent, on the value of 

 the cows and, correspondingly, demand the reimburse- 

 ment of this loss by an advance on the selling price 

 of the milk. 



As to feeding the cows, it should be made the rule 

 to feed only morning and evening and to avoid feed- 

 ing dry roughage during the time of milking. 



Although the size and manner of construction of 



the stable, or barn, in which the cows are kept is not 



n 



