No. 4.] FEEDING OF DAIRY COWS. 121 



This afternoon I am to speak on summer and Avinter feed- 

 ing of dairy cows. Why do we feed cows? A great many 

 men feed cows for the sake of having company in the stable. 

 I know no other ade(iuate reason in some instances, — on 

 the other side of the imaginary line, that is. Those who 

 feed cows with any measure of good judgment, feed them to 

 obtain food of a fine quality which they cannot get otherwise 

 out of what they feed the cows. The primary object of feed- 

 ing cows is to obtain a fine, delicious food of concentrated 

 quality. The object of our agriculture is to obtain food and 

 service out of the numerous plants that grow on our farms. 

 If I had another chart in addition to the series which I am 

 going to exhibit (for my object will be to teach through 

 your eyes as much as I can), I would show you that the 

 man, the farmer, must l)e on top and all the forces of nature 

 under him, — all the agents and agencies of farm work and 

 farm products under him. But in many cases on this conti- 

 nent the farmer has been under everything and everybody, 

 trying to carry that big load on his back, instead of putting 

 those things under his feet with his own intelligent head on 

 top for management. 



We feed cows to obtain food of fine concentrated quality, 

 which we cannot get otherwise, or get so economically, 

 or so much to our taste. That is my first proposition. 

 When a man feeds cows by the use of his head, he will get 

 far more milk and more profit from his cows than if he feeds 

 them in a less intelligent way. 



We feed cows perhaps for another reason, — because we 

 have made some progress in agriculture. Primitive agri- 

 culture in all lands was concerned with getting a primitive 

 product, — the corn stalk, the wheat plant, the bean stalk 

 and grass plant ; but as men made progress they learned to 

 put the living domestic animal between the primitive prod- 

 ucts and themselves, and made the cow elaborate for them 

 something finer and richer for their taste or their stomach. 

 We follow dairying and feed cows because we cannot eat 

 corn stalks with much enjoyment, and we cannot eat wheat 

 with much relish unless we have butter for our bread, or oats 

 with entire satisfaction unless we have milk or cream for our 

 porridge. We feed a portion of the coarse farm products to 



