196 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



time a cow is not paying her way, she is sold at once to the 

 butcher for what she will bring. 



Another point in keeping cows up to their milk is by 

 giving them water warmed to a temperature of 65 to 70 de- 

 grees in cold weather. This was very forcibly brought to 

 my notice last winter, when my boiler l)roke down, and each 

 cow dropped from a pint to a pint and a half in her daily 

 milk yield. They will shrink a like amount, too, if, when 

 freshly bedded with sand or sawdust, the same is wet and 

 damp. I am a firm believer in turning them out for an hour 

 or two in the middle of the day during the winter, for exer- 

 cise. I think it is contrary to all laws of nature to keep 

 them tied up and made a perfect machine of from November 

 to May. It stands to reason that they want a certain amount 

 of moderate exercise to keep up their appetite and keep in 

 healthy condition. I feed them all summer in the barn, but 

 turn them out for four or five hours each day in a lot near 

 by, unless the weather be stormy. A cold north-east storm, 

 while it does not lessen the flow of milk very much, does 

 lessen the butter fat. I have seen it make a difiference of 

 two spaces in a Cooley can of milk. 



Before taking up the care of the milk, I would like to add 

 that I have al)out decided not to bother with a cow that does 

 not throw off" her after-birth properly, or one that will not 

 carry her calf the full time. When they do not clean 

 |)roperly, they do not do well for a long time, and they are 

 quite apt to drop their next calf before time. 



I will sum up the care of the milch cow in the following 

 words, — regularity, cleanliness and gentleness. Milking 

 begins on the minute of ten minutes past five in the morning 

 and twenty minutes of five in the evening. Each cow's 

 udder is brushed clean before milking ; and as soon as each 

 cow is milked her milk is taken at once to the milk house, 

 where it is strained through five thicknesses of wire and 

 eight of cloth, then run over a Star cooler and aerator, 

 reducing the temperature to about 50 degrees, into 20-quart 

 cans. These cans as filled are put into a tank of ice water. 

 After all the milk has been cooled it is poured into a big 

 mixing vat and drawn off as rapidly as possible, every fourth 

 can being emptied back, to insure a thorough mixing. 



