■^^^ Illinois State Dairymen's Association. 



year's work, and we keep on hand the milk fever outfit ready 

 just as soon as the first indications appear; We fill her udder 

 with air and inside of two or three hours everything is over. 

 In feeding the cow at parturition time, it should be remembered 

 that she is feverish at this period and liable to bo in a bound up 

 condition, and one should govern the foods in order to keep the 

 cow in a laxative and cooled out state. You should also remem- 

 ber that she has practically passed through a period of hard 

 work, a severe campaign we might say. Her digestive apparatus 

 has been taxed to the limit, she has been fed all she could con- 

 sume and make milk out of. You should try to rest her diges- 

 tive apparatus as much as possible, feed her cooling foods, and if 

 this period occurs during the summer months there is nothing 

 better than good green grass and plenty of it; durmg the winter 

 months there is nothing better than corn silage and bran; both 

 are laxative and cooling to the digestive organs, flaxseed meal 

 is also good, and by feeding those you will keep your cow cooled 

 out, so to speak, and she will not be so susceptible to milk fever 

 as she otherwise would be. In case these foods are not sufficient 

 to keep her in a laxative condition, it is well to give her either 

 a pound of salts a day or two before calving or a quart of raw 

 linseed oil. I favor linseed oil because you are supplying the 

 cow with nourishment at the same time. I do not think we 

 need worry any more about milk fever if we have on hand a 

 milk fever outfit and I think the gain we make by having the 

 cow fleshy overcomes the dangers which we are likely to incur. 



Mr. Gregg: — The man on my farm uses a bicycle pump. 



Mr. Van Pelt : — -That is all right but there are precautions 

 and that is we must be careful not to affect the udder. The first 

 time my attention was called to this was at St. Louis, it really 

 happened before I went there. At that time we did not know 

 about the air treatment and one of the men inserted a milk tube 

 into the cow's udder, filled her udder with oxygen, which re- 

 lieved her; but in a few days her udder swelled up, got hard and 

 sote. ' He had infected the cow's udder, probably from his hands, 

 and in inserting that milk tube into the cow's udder the germ 

 went with it and started to work up there and ruined the cow. 

 So that is a thing we need to be careful of in using the bicycle 

 pump or milk fever outfit. The outfit is somewhat safer because 

 in the middle of the tube there is a piece of steriUzed cotton 



