192 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



With all these great number that have been bred at three 

 } r ears of age, there is not a single instance of tuberculosis. 



Ex-Governor Hoard. The reason is, you have kept it 

 out. You don't think the breeding has anything to do 

 with it ? 



Professor Powell. Only from the stand-point that there 

 is the tendency, and if you breed with too much immaturity, 

 you may weaken the animal and render it more susceptible. 



Ex-Governor Hoard. I have in my barn 20 young 

 Guernsey heifers, a couple of years old this month and the 

 next month. Those 20 are an object lesson to me. They 

 are, I should say, 100 to 150 pounds heavier than the usual 

 heifer at their age. They were reared with exceedingly 

 good care. Ever} T da}' they were fed warm skim milk fresh 

 from the cow, for I use a separator in the barn and make the 

 bull furnish the power. I strive to get the best start I can 

 in the young cattle. I use about $1 worth of ground flax- 

 seed meal in the year and about $1.50 to $2 worth of oats to 

 each calf, and I never have seen that system beaten. They 

 had warm skim milk twice a day, and all they needed, and 

 they had the oatmeal, and when they went out to pasture 

 last summer they were given their skim milk, as much as I 

 could give them, and then every two or three times a week 

 a man went into the lot and turned into the trough some 

 oats, and they have made bone and muscle, they are strong, 

 they are fine, promising specimens. If you weaken calves 

 the first year, they will never recover. I think it would be 

 safer to breed these at fifteen months than some that are 

 weaker. 



Professor Brooks. I would like to ask if the flax-seed 

 meal is mixed with the skim milk? 



Ex-Governor Hoard. Boiling hot water is turned on, 

 and it is mixed with skim milk. Don't use the ground flax- 

 seed continuously, or it will be too great a laxative ; but it 

 is a splendid thing. 



Dr. Learned (of Northampton). In relation to the 

 question of tuberculosis following the breeding at two } r ears 

 or three years, in my judgment, there is but one opinion to 

 be given with reference to this. The principle is the same 



