cows THAT ARE MILKED BY HAND 189 



Management at parturition. — As the time of par- 

 turition draws near some modifications in the food of 

 hand-milked cows may be necessary, especially with 

 those that are free milk producers. The exercise of 

 judgment is called for in adjusting the food to the needs 

 of the cows. Two things are to be specially guarded 

 against, viz., constipation and excessive stimulation of 

 the milk-producing functions. Trouble from the first 

 source is chiefly liable to occur in winter, when the cows 

 are on dry food, and from the second, in summer when 

 they are on pasture, but it may also occur in winter 

 when stimulating foods are fed too freely. The first 

 condition may lead to trouble in various ways at the 

 time of parturition, the second is very liable to produce 

 milk fever. The remedy for the first is feeding a suf- 

 ficiency of field roots, wheat bran, or oilcake to correct 

 such a condition if present or to prevent it if absent, 

 without feeding enough of either to incur hazard from 

 the second cause mentioned. 



To avoid the hazard of milk fever it may, in some 

 instances, be a wise precaution to put the cows on a 

 partially dry diet when the pastures are abundant. This 

 will involve keeping them confined at night and feeding 

 them some palatable dry fodder before allowing them 

 to go on pasture for the day. Another plan, but prob- 

 ably not so good, would confine them to paddocks where 

 they could not get a full supply of grass and to feed dry 

 fodder in addition. Of course it is only when the grass 

 is possessed of much succulence that the hazard from 

 unrestrained grazing is present. To the methods of 

 putting such cows wholly on a dry diet, as practiced by 

 some dairymen, there is the objection that the equilib- 

 rium of the system may be too much disturbed thereby. 



When the udder becomes very distended before the 

 birth of the calf, the withdrawal of part of the milk has 

 been resorted to, in some instances, as the time of par- 

 turition draws near, and without results apparently 



