86 BOAED OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan. 



miser-like, she will lay it away. But if you feed this 

 Guernsey cow or this Holstein cow in that manner, you will 

 very soon impair the action of the nervous system, and 

 then you have destroyed the maternal function. You can 

 take a very finely bred Jersey heifer when she is a year old, 

 and proceed to feed her corn meal, and absolutely spoil 

 her, destroy all the maternal machinery and nervous action 

 of that animal. I took three Jersey heifers bred by me 

 from one cow. The first one was a beautiful heifer, and 

 made a famous cow. The second I laid out one side for 

 the purpose of seeing if I could spoil her in this way, and 

 I fed her in this manner and made her absolutely useless. 

 The third one became a very fine cow, like her older sister. 

 The old cow gave me three heifers in succession. The 

 middle heifer I fed with corn meal, and destroyed the 

 entire action of the nervous machinery. Now, if you are 

 feeding a cow for maternity, you must give her nerve-sup- 

 porting food, because the action of this function is based 

 upon the nervous machinery. You 'must handle her con- 

 ducive to her work ; you must feed her conducive to her 

 work ; you must breed her conducive to her work. 



But there is another side to this question, gentlemen, and 

 I am done. A dairy cow based upon the nervous tempera- 

 ment, fed upon the nervous temperament, handled upon the 

 nervous temperament, is susceptible to nervous diseases. 

 Now, remember thut she becomes more susceptible as you 

 more largely develop her nervous machinery, and she is 

 particularly susceptible to milk-fever, and this, as I have 

 shown you, follows nervous channels. Some men claim that 

 miik-fever is a disease of the blood, some men claim it is a 

 disease this way and that way; but I know that it follows 

 these nervous channels that I have spoken to you about, 

 and I believe it to be essentially a nervous disease, a disease 

 of the nervous system, and lying right in this sympathetic 

 plexus and following it to the spine. Now, as you enhance 

 the power of the nervous system of a dairy cow, you are 

 subjecting her to enlarged dangers, and you need to con- 

 sider this always in relation thereto. I thank you for your 

 very kind attention. 



Dr. Loring. I desire to offer a vote of thanks to the gov- 



