194 BOAED OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



Making Milk for Private Trade. 



BY MR. N. I. BOWDITCH, FRAMINGHA.M. 



Secretary Sessions asked me to talk to you a few minutes 

 about making milk for Boston private trade. I do not mean 

 private family trade, but private hospitals, which use from 

 100 to 450 quarts daily, where clean milk from tuberculin- 

 tested cows is demanded. 



I have onl}' been in the business for the past three years, 

 but have found out a few things that are very essential, the 

 most important of which is to acknowledge to one's self that 

 one does not know everything, and that there is something 

 new to be learned every day about milk raising. 



I will endeavor to tell you, in the few minutes allowed me, 

 what I have determined, up to the present time, are the best 

 ways of raising and caring for milk. I do not claim they 

 are better than the methods of others, but they have proved 

 most satisfactory to me. In l)uying the cow, I want a cow 

 with all the good dairy points, and a good large frame, so 

 she will make good-sized beef when she gets through the 

 mill, as I force my cows all they will stand. 



I have much better results buying springers or cows diie 

 to calve in four months than I do buying new-milch ones, 

 unless they be from my neighbors ; for, if they are left on 

 the cars and l)ecome " bagged," it gives them a set-back they 

 do not get over until they come in fresh next time. Then, 

 again, springers are cheaper, and it does not cost much to 

 keep them at pasture or on ensilage, according to the season 

 of the year. As soon as the cow calves I make it an iron- 

 clad rule to give her a dose of epsom salts (from one and 

 one-quarter to two pounds, according to her size), simply as 

 a precaution against milk fever, and after the fifth milking, 

 she is put in the string, if all right in every way. She is 

 then fed very sparingly for ten days, after which she is given 



