94 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



THE COW AND THE MAN -THE TWINS OF THE 

 DAIRY INDUSTRY. 



BY PROF. H. H. DEAN^ ONTARIO AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE^ GUELPH^ CAN. 



Dairy problems of whatever nature resolve themselves at 

 the final analysis into one or both of the two factors which we 

 have chosen for our heading, viz., '' The cow and the man." 

 We have chosen to call them the " twins " of the dairy 

 industry. 



The Cow. 



When we consider that a cow is able to produce from ten 

 to twenty times her own weight of milk annually, and more 

 than half her body weight of milk fat yearly, and that the 

 milk and the oil so produced are among the best and most 

 healthful of human foods; and, further, when we consider 

 that she can easily produce in a year her body weight of 

 cheese, — one of the best of known foods for building muscle 

 and furnishing human energy for work, — when we think 

 of these things we marvel at the power and capacity of the 

 dairy cow. 



We may inquire at the outset whether or not she always 

 possessed this wonderful power of transforming coarse feed 

 into human food, or if it be an " acquired characteristic." 

 We have every reason to believe that the cow in the early 

 stages of her history produced no more milk than was required 

 to give the young calf a start in life. After this was accom- 

 plished she weaned the calf and gave attention to the recupera- 

 tion of her own body and vitality. At this point man stepped 

 in and became a partner of the cow. It is a question whether 

 the man took in the cow, or the cow took in the man. We have 

 reason to believe that both have been " taken in " at various 



