130 BOARD OF AGRICULTUEE. [Jan. 



one who has noticed the progress of this discussion must 

 have seen that here is a wide field for thought and investio:a- 

 tion. I know of no business where there is such opportunity 

 to do brain work as in this. There are so many conditions 

 that may come in to influence the result, that we need to 

 guard every point. Take this matter of warming the water 

 for our cows. What are the facts? Professor Cooke and 

 I have met before in the discussion of this question. He 

 knows that when he says, without qualification, that it does 

 not pay to warm water, he is holding out a red rag to me. 

 I contend that under some conditions we want to warm the 

 water that our cows drink. In my own case I have a spring, 

 but my herd is so large that it does not furnish water enough 

 for them, and I have a reservoir from Avhich to water my 

 cows during the day. In the coldest weather of winter the 

 water will be much below thirty degrees, and at such times 

 I warm the water. Now, reason teaches me, experience 

 teaches me, that I get more milk and more butter with 

 warm water. So I say, under certain conditions we must 

 warm the water. Under the conditions in which I am 

 situated I must warm the water. I enjoy going to the 

 house where the furnace is, and looking at my cows. The 

 cows will stand so thickly about the trough as to crowd 

 each other. Let that water get cold, and some of the cows 

 will go away without drinking, will not drink once in forty- 

 eight hours. Now, shall we take stock in the statement 

 that under no conditions should we warm the water that our 

 cows drink? 



Professor Cooke. I did not state that in my paper. I 

 said that if cows were watered outside, if they were kept in 

 a cold l)arn, anything in the nature of warmth which we 

 could put inside of them was an advantage. 



Mr. Douglas. Another point I want to touch upon. 

 When I commenced dairying, some twenty or thirty years 

 ago, I was foolish enough to change ray cows from dry feed 

 in winter to green feed in spring. I found an increased 

 flow of milk, but I found it took more milk to make a pound 

 of l)utter. I doubt whether a dairyman can aflbrd to feed 

 his cows with a view to gettino; an extra flow of milk. He 

 may do it for a short time, but in the end I do not think it 

 will help him. 



