THE DIVERSIFIED FARM. 



FACTS ABOUT COWS. 

 BY J. LAWSON SMITH. 



The Spokane (Wash.) Daily Chronicle 

 recently published the following excellent 

 article relative to cows and milking, writ- 

 ten by J. Lawson Smith, of the Hazel- 

 wood Ranch : 



Cows are raised for either of two pur- 

 poses to produce beef or to give milk. 

 The different kinds of cows probably 

 came originally from wild stock which 

 has been changed and developed by 

 various kinds of care, of feeding, of sur- 

 r&undings and by cross-breeding. These 

 changes took place long ago, and so 

 though we have today a great many sorts 

 of cows which are known to experts, they 

 may be divided roughly into the two main 

 classes beef cows and dairy cows. 



The beef cows are heavy, large, square 

 framed animals, which turn nearly all the 

 food they eat into meat. They weigh from 

 1000 pounds to 2000 pounds, and some 

 even run over that weight. The principal 

 kinds of beef cattle are the Shorthorns, a 

 red and white variety; the Herefords, 

 which have a white face; the Polled An- 

 gus, a short haired, black, hornless animal, 

 and the Galloways, a long haired, hornless, 

 black sort. The Shorthorns and Here- 

 fords come from England and the Polled 

 Angus and Galloways from Scotland. 



Some kinds of beef cows are better fitted 

 for looking out for themselves than others, 

 and so we find special breeds in the parts 

 of the world like Montana, where large 

 herds are kept and are obliged to get 

 along as best they can during most of the 

 year. It pays to keep good, well-bred 

 animals, as they will fatten better than 

 what we call the scrub cattle. The high- 

 est price ever paid for a cow was given 



several years ago in New York, when 

 $40,000 was paid for one cow. Unfortu- 

 nately for the buyer the cow only lived a 

 year after this fancy price was paid for 



her. 



The dairy cows are smaller animals than 

 the beef cows. They often look thin and 

 almost scrawny, as the food they eat goes 

 principally to produce milk and not meat. 

 They are usually more nervous, more ex- 

 citable and crosser than the beef cows. 



The principal breeds of dairy cows are 

 as follows: The Jerseys, the Guernseys, 

 the Alderneys. All these breeds are a 

 sort of fawn color, or fawn-color-and-black, 

 or some modification of these colors. The 

 Channel islands, between France and 

 England, are where these cows originally 

 came from. The Holatein, a black-and- 

 white cow, came from Holland, and the 

 Ayrshire, a red-and-white dairy cow, came 

 from Scotland. 



As the dairy cow is nervous and excit- 

 able, it is necessary that she be treated 

 well, if she is expected to do well and 

 give rich milk and plenty of it. It has 

 been proven time and again that if a cow 

 is chased by dogs and worried by boys she- 

 will not give as much milk as if she were 

 in some quiet pasture. It is a curious 

 fact that milk from a cow that has been 

 worried will sour quicker than that from 

 one which has not. So dairy cows ought 

 to have quiet quarters wXere they are not 

 likely to be disturbed. 



Cows must also be milked regularly. A 

 cow that is milked so will give more and 

 better milk than one which is only milked 

 when the owner feels like doing it or gets 

 time to attend to it. 



It is necessary that the barns should be 

 warm, clean and comfortable. You can 

 not expect a cow to be healthy, nor her 



