42 THE COMPLETE FARMER 



obstruction puts a stop to their thriving, and sometimes 

 proves fatah For this reason it is best that calves should be 

 fed with the milk vi^hich first comes from the cow, which is 

 not so rich as that which is last drawn. 



Mr. Russel Woodward, in the Memoirs of the New York 

 Board of Agriculture, says, ' I have found that young cows, 

 the first year that they give milk, may be made with care- 

 ful milking and good keeping to give milk almost any 

 length of time required. But if they are left to dry up 

 early in the fall, they will be sure to dry up of their milk 

 each succeeding year, if they have a calf near the same sea- 

 son of the year ; and nothing but extraordinary keeping will 

 prevent it, and that but for a short time. I have had them 

 dried up of their milk in August, and could not by any 

 means make them give milk much beyond that time m any 

 succeeding years. '^ 



A writer in the Bath and West of England Society^s Pa- 

 pers, states that if at any time a good milch cow should go 

 dry before her milk is gone, get a young calf and put it to 

 her in order to preserve her milk against another year ; for 

 it is well known, if a cow goes dry one year, nature will 

 lose its power of acting in future. 



Cows should be treated with great gentleness and soothed 

 by mild usages, especially when young and ticklish, or when 

 the paps are tender ; in which case the udder ought to be fo- 

 mented with warm water before milking and touched with 

 great gentleness, otherwise the cow will be in great danger 

 of contracting bad habits, becoming stubborn and unruly, 

 and retaining her milk ever after. A cow never gives down 

 her milk pleasantly to a person she dreads or dislikes. The 

 udder and paps should be washed with warm water before 

 milking, and care should be taken that none of the water be 

 admitted into the milking pail. 



The keeping of cows in such a manner as to make them 

 give the greatest quantity of milk, and with the greatest 

 clear profit, is an essential point of economy. Give a cow 

 half a bushel of turnips, carrots, or other good roots per day, 

 during the six winter months, besides her hay, and if her 

 summer feed be such as it should be, she will give nearly 

 double the quantity of milk she would afford if only kept 



* I have two cows now that were milked the first year they had calves 

 till near the time of their calving again, and have continued to give milk 

 as late ever since if we will milk them,' 



