118 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



Question. Does using hard or soft water make any 

 difl'erence ? 



Ex-Governor Hoard. Hard water always contains lime. 

 I never could see any difference. We have a creamery that 

 uses soft water almost entirely, and another that uses hard 

 water, and I do not see any difference in the quality of the 

 butter. 



Mr. Bull. Does heating the drinking water of cows in- 

 crease the flow of milk? 



Ex-Governor Hoard. An excellent thing to do is to give 

 a cow warm water. I will illustrate in this way. My wife 

 taught me more about this question of how to handle mater- 

 nity than any other being on earth. If men would consult 

 their wives more, they would know more, particularly about 

 things that a woman knows. I was riding with my wife 

 when she was nursing our youngest son, a sturdy, lusty fel- 

 low (he came fairly by it), and he was calling on her for 

 more than she had to give him. She was delicate, and felt 

 very chilly. Mother-like, she said, "I am so sorry I 

 have taken this chill." My curiosity was aroused, and I 

 said, < ' Why do you say this ? " " It means less for the baby," 

 she said. " A chill means less for the baby, does it? What 

 will you do? " She turned upon me and said, " You ought 

 to know." "I suppose so." I suppose a man ought to 

 know a heap, but sometimes he does not. " What will you 

 do to restore your condition, which is at present unfavor- 

 able for the child?" " I will try to restore bodily heat, and 

 take warm drinks." That was twenty-seven or twenty-eight 

 years ago. "Well," I said, "warm drinks." Out I went 

 to the barn and turned my little Jersey cow out in the freez- 

 ing cold, and I let her stand there until her thighs were 

 shaking. Many of you know what that means, when you 

 brino- a cow in from drinking ice-cold water from the brook. 

 I noted the effect on her. I exposed her on purpose. Then 

 I gave her warm drinks, and I kept experimenting with her. 

 It passed on two or three years, and then I came out with a 

 great deal of confidence, and said I had discovered some- 

 thing. I thought I was mighty smart, but when I came to 

 look it up, there w T as not an old woman in the land but who 



