1890.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 4. 145 



for in all respects, will often give milk through the entire 

 year when in calf annually, and at maturity reach a produc- 

 tive capacity of three hundred pounds or more of butter per 

 annum. In dairies thus bred and developed, one of the 

 most important duties of the herdsman is to attend to 

 the matter of drying oft' such heifers at least a month 

 before they are due to come in ; otherwise their vital 

 energies are overtaxed, and they may thus be permanently 

 injured. 



The same animals, submitted to the treatment bestowed 

 upon young dairy stock upon many of the dairy farms of 

 New England, would go dry three months of the year and 

 would not reach a productive capacity of over two hundred 

 pounds per annum. 



The wide difference in the productive capacity of herds 

 often results, in my opinion, as much from difference in 

 early development and care, as from any inherent difference 

 in the stock itself. Dairjanen who have neglected this 

 proper early development in their herds, cannot reasonably 

 hope, b}^ spasmodic effort, to raise their standard of produc- 

 tion to a high point. Development, whether in man or 

 brute, is the work of time and favoring conditions, and can 

 only be accomplished in accordance with nature's laws. 



Difference in Cost of Keeping. 



It is often argued that it costs much more to keep a herd 

 of cows producing three hundred pounds of butter per 

 annum than one producing one-third that amount. While 

 practically it usually does costs more, yet this is not neces- 

 sarily the case. The difference in amount of butter product 

 may result from a difference in adaptation alone. 



The cows in my own herd, of which I have spoken, giving 

 but six per cent of cream, I have reason to believe would 

 not yield one hundred pounds per annum by any ordi- 

 nary process of cream raising, while those giving thirty per 

 cent would yield more than three hundred pounds ; yet they 

 stood side by side in the stable, and were fed and cared for 

 the same. 



