48 THE COW 



ory of many living men. Yet, with the coming of 

 May and balmy days and springing grass, these 

 same cows gave birth to their calves and under the 

 very favorable conditions of pasture won back 

 flesh and strength and vitality sufficient to carry 

 them through another winter and incidentally to 

 give considerable mUk and brought to their owners 

 what in that day was deemed substantial dairy 

 prosperity. Had those cows been human instead of 

 bovine they might, when filled with grass and a 

 great content in the golden month of June, have 

 moralized in the words which Shakespeare puts in 

 the mouth of Gloster, "Now is the winter of our 

 discontent made glorious summer." 



From those bad old times the science of cow- 

 keeping has changed so radically that the best 

 dairymen have come to make milk in winter rather 

 than summer. Warm and sunny stables, comfort- 

 able stalls, silage, early cut hay and liberal grain 

 rations have made the cow and her owner inde- 

 pendent of weather conditions. So far as milk 

 production is concerned, June is hardly more fav- 

 orable than December. Indeed, in the making of 

 Advanced Registry records, where the aim is to 

 force a cow to the last possible ounce of her milk 

 yield, it is generally agreed that the winter is the 

 most favorable season of the year. So also we feel 

 sure that the well-cared-for cow that "comes fresh" 

 in October will yield more milk in the next twelve 

 months than if she calved in April. 



