13S THE DAlRYMAN^S MAI^-ITAL. 



careful and repeated tests. While all the facts given in 

 this work are vouched for by the author, when related as 

 his own personal experience, and may, therefore, be taken 

 as a guide by the reader, yet this guidance can only be 

 general and not specific in its nature, and it may not 

 answer in every case. A noted and most successful 

 breeder of fine dairy cows was apt to say to an intending 

 purchaser : " This cow has done, is doing, and will do, 

 with me, thus and so ; but I cannot guaranty that she 

 will do the same with you or any other man. If she is 

 managed as I have been in the habit of doing, she will 

 probably do as she has done ; but I cannot promise any- 

 thing after she leaves my hands.'' The author feels 

 much the same way in regard to the results obtained in 

 his dairy. He has had twenty-five years' experience in 

 feeding cows and in practical dairy work ; obtained a 

 scientific education, in which animal physiology and 

 medicine bore the greater share ; and has followed dairy- 

 ing in preference to any other pursuit, because it was a 

 work of pleasure and a favorite object for study and ex- 

 periment. The results which were reached have been 

 carefully noted, after repeated observations and tests ; 

 and while, therefore, every confidence may be given to 

 what is written in this work, yet every dairyman should 

 make tests for himself as an important part of his busi- 

 ness, lest difference in circumstances might mislead. 

 This is for his own interests and conducive to his own 

 profit. 



Every cow eats, and there is not much difference in 

 the consumptive ability of good and poor cows. To feed 

 a cow costs at least twenty-five cents daily, and the labor 

 costs ten cents more. If a cow then makes one pound 

 of butter per day, and the butter is sold for thirty-five 

 cents, the manure left and the calf are the only sources 

 of profit. If a cow makes ten pounds of butter a week 

 there is a gain of seventeen cents per day, a very satis- 



