PREFACE 



This little book does not pretend to be a text - 

 book nor a treatise on dairy husbandry, for there 

 are plenty of such books already. It is simply an 

 effort to set down the ideas o f a dairyman concern- 

 ing his own business and to view the cow as a very 

 interesting animal who after all these thousands 

 of years of close companionship with man still re- 

 tains many primal instincts and many hereditary 

 tendencies. So we may ask the meaning of old 

 winding cow-paths and little calves hidden in. the 

 bushes and the tragedy of the herd bull condemned 

 to spend his days tied to a post by a ring in his 

 nose (like Sampson, old and blind, grinding meal 

 for his conquerers) when his place is to march 

 proudly at the head of his obedient herd. 



Dairying has grown into a vast and complex and 

 exceedingly modern business, conducted in great 

 manufacturing establishments with white tile and 

 steam sterilizers and pure cultures and bacterial 

 counts ; yet there ought to be a place to reviv j e at 

 least the mem ory of old i^rm house s under great 

 trees and herds winding down the road at milking- 

 time, and farm women making butter in cool spring- 

 houses or shadowy white-washed cellars. Such 



