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she freshens at any other time. This is due not so much to any one 

 circumstance or condition as to a combination of influences which 

 might be summarized in part as follows: More equable temperature 

 throughout early or heavy milking part of lactation period; freedom 

 from extreme heat and flies, two enemies of big records that are very 

 hard to combat; more time for the attention and care conducive 

 and, one might say, essential to <the making of extra good records. 



DRY PERIOD. 



Observation and experiment have shown that while, as already 

 indicated, long lactation periods (10 to 11 months) are advantageous 

 and desirable, a short period of idleness, or non-production between 

 lactation periods, is very desirable. Cows that milk through from 

 calving to calving seMom do well in the period subsequent to such 

 unnatural performance. The cow should be dry from 3 to 6 weeks 

 between periods, if best results are desired. Some farmers claim 

 that the calf dropped when a cow milks through is likely to be 

 weakly or small. The writer has been tunable to satisfy himself 

 that such is the case and is, on the contrary, led to believe by his 

 observations that the mother, rather than the calf, is the one likelj 

 to show evil effects from the practice. 



DRYING OFF. 



In the case of heavy, persistent milkers, it is sometimes rather 

 difficult to dry the cow off before she should begin to show 

 signs of ' springing ' or ' freshening.' If, however, the dairyman 

 will go about the thing in earnest, not much real difficulty is likely 

 to be experienced. A good line of action, we have found, is as 

 follows: Cut off all meal or grain; give only dry feed and not even 

 a superabundance of that. As soon as yield is perceptibly less, 

 start to milk only once a day; somewhat later, milk every other day 

 and shortly thereafter, stop entirely. The judder may get hard for 

 a few days but will almost certainly go back to normal soft emptiness 

 characteristic of dry cows in a very short time. 



MILKING BEFORE CALVING. 



When cows are in good flesh and in shape to milk well, it not 

 infrequently happens that the udder becomes abnormally distendbd 

 and hard before parturition. The question naturally arises whether 

 it would not then be advisable to milk out before the cow drops her 

 calf. This should, in the writer's opinion, be done only when there 



