300 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan. 



9,856 pounds and 14 ounces, — an average of 27 pounds 

 per day for the year. The dairy commissioner of Iowa is 

 reported as saying that the average cow in that State gives 

 but 3,000 pounds of milk annually. Statistics show that 

 in the State of New York, with its 1,500,000 milch cows, 

 they produce on an average less than 3,000 pounds of milk 

 per year ; while this cow has given an average of more 

 than 7,000 pounds per year — more than the average cow — 

 for the past three years. During these three years whose 

 record I have given she dropped a calf every year. 



During the two years prior to my purchase she had 

 flip best of pasturing, one and a half quarts of corn meal and 

 three quarts of bran, and in the winter the pasturing was 

 supplemented with the best of hay and rowen. A fact in 

 connection with this cow is that she is not only the greatest 

 milker in my herd, but she is also the greatest eater. Thus 

 it is that her value as a milch cow lies iu her ability to 

 convert a large amount of fodder into a large amount of 

 milk, and this milk is rich in solids and fats. I have stated 

 that it was not until she had come into her seven-year-old 

 form that she gave indications of being a superior milker, 

 neither did this happen until she had changed owners. 

 Now, the query with me is, did not this cow possess the 

 ability to yield as much milk prior to as she did after becom- 

 ing the property of another owner, but did not for the 

 simple reason that her owner through ignorance failed to 

 give her enough to eat? If this latent development was 

 hereditary, she most assuredly has transmitted this trait to 

 one at least of her offspring, a two-year-old heifer, which I 

 had the good fortune to buy when it was a calf. This heifer 

 calved some eight months ago, and is now giving 25 pounds 

 of milk a day. I believe she bids fair to make even as good 

 a cow as her dam I also own two more of her heifers, and 

 by these statements you will perceive that I propose to make 

 her progeny the basis of my future herd. 



The sanitary conditions of our barns and stables and the 

 health of our cows should be zealously looked to. As 

 already said, the water should be pure and clean, and their 

 food substantial and wholesome. No cow showing the germs 

 of disease, however latent these may be, should be retained 



