280 Transactions of the American Institute. 



decrease of the dairy products in proportion to the number of cows, 

 says : " The improved stock we now have on our farms requires better 

 treatment than our native cows. And a practical dairyman from 

 Herkimer has told me that there was no assurance of more than two 

 out of five heifers making good cows, and as it is customary to try 

 them two seasons before discarding them, I think it is another high 

 recommend for the improved breeds, as among the natives four out 

 of the five could be depended upon. The same state of things exists 

 in Ohio, although our native cows are not so good as were formerly 

 the cows of the Mohawk valley. The Devons make indifferent cows, 

 but, as far as my experience is concerned, a dozen of them wintered 

 at a straw stack will give as much milk as an equal number of Dur- 

 hams kept at the highest point. Although rather nervous, the Devons 

 make good, hardy oxen, while the Durhams have neither nerve, activity 

 nor power of endurance ; and, if any of their admirers think differently, 

 let him turn a Devon native bull with a brigade of Durhams, and see 

 which will rule. In the year '69 we broke in six heifers, four natives, 

 one Durham from a noble Durham cow and sired by a bull that cost 

 eighty dollars when a calf, and one Devon. Five of these were good 

 cows ; the other, being full-blooded and just such a milker, and having 

 just such an awkward shaped bag as most of that breed have, is not 

 now on the farm. I don't dispute but that there may be occasionally 

 a first-rate cow among the Durhams. It would be strange if there 

 were not. I have never practiced feeding cattle for beef to any great 

 extent, but I have never had any trouble in selling fat beef at the 

 highest prices. I think it folly to discard a tried and good race of 

 cattle for one that is fit for neither cows nor oxen." 



Dairy Cows ra Northern Ohio. 

 Mr. J. J. Jones, Ashtabula county, Ohio, gave it as his opinion that 

 " the Western Reserve is probably as good a dairy country as there is 

 in the world ;" and then made the following statements with regard to 

 the management of the cows, most of whose milk goes to the cheese 

 factory : " The cows are wintered on hay alone, if they do well ; but, 

 if a cow begins to get reduced in flesh at any time, she is immediately 

 fed grain, beginning gradually, that is, feeding light at first, and 

 increasing ; but the main part of them receive nothing but hay until 

 a week or ten days before calving, when they begin feeding light at 

 first, not feeding very much until after coming in, which they prefer 

 to be about the first of April. After this they are fed rather heavy, 

 usually on corn and oats mixed in equal quantities and ground. Some 



