30 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



ing less than G,000 pounds of milk a year ; nor for him who 

 will not keep records, or study the cost of feed and compute 

 the profit on individual cows ; nor for him who allows careless 

 milking by men with dirty hands, sends milk to the market 

 from tuberculous cows with inflamed udders, or milk contain- 

 ing excrement or dust, or which has or has had hair in it 

 (straining the hairs out does not remove the pollution they 

 have caused, — one hair may carry 10,000 bacteria), or which 

 has been put in unclean pails or cans, — but for the business 

 dairyman, who conducts the dairy business as a business, 

 studies details and investigates sources of profit and sources of 

 loss as carefully as the manufacturer or city business man, 

 employs help fitted for the work, and pays them their due. 



Physical labor is easier and cheaper than brain labor. The 

 proprietor or manager of a large dairy cannot afford to do 

 too much physical labor, though he may enjoy it, and the temp- 

 tation to lead his men is strong. A mistake in planning oper- 

 ations, or poor judgment in some of the many decisions he has 

 to make daily, resulting from a tired brain, will lose for 

 him much more than he has earned with his hands. 



Cow. — The dairyman, to be successful, nnist have the 

 dairy cow. The dairy cow is a highly developed machine, 

 capable of converting hay, silage and grain into large quanti- 

 ties of milk, rich in butter fat. The more food she will trans- 

 form, the greater her value. There is a wonderful chance to 

 improve our dairy cows. While the average production of 

 this State is about 4,000 pounds per cow, and that of your 

 best dairies about 8,000 pounds, there are individual cows in 

 this State that have produced over 20,000 pounds, and there 

 arc cows that have given 27,000 pounds of milk, making 

 1,200 pounds of butter, in a year. Of the cows with Avhich 

 we arc Avorking, why is the great mass so far below the few 

 phenomenal cows ? What folly, and waste of time and feed, 

 to breed and raise the scrub, which will never sell for what it 

 cost to raise, and which is a loss to the keeper as long as he 

 keeps it, regardless of the price paid ! T care not what breed 

 one chooses, but if you start out to breed a dairy cow, take 

 advantage of ages of breeding, and breed better. It is not 



