188 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION 



As I say, the farm is the manufacturing plant and the cow 

 is the machine that converts raw material into a finished prod- 

 uct ; but you want a genuine dairy cow. Take the breed you 

 like the best. We keep the Holstein cows up there in the Elgin 

 District altogether. This cow machine is a sensitive piece of 

 machinery; she responds readily to good care and good feed, 

 or she will go just as quickly the other way if she doesn't get 

 good care and feed. It is up to the man as well as the cow — 

 you Avant to give her the right kind of care. 



In handling the dairy cow, according to the way we do it, 

 the frost should never come down on a milk cow's back. In 

 the fall she ought to be in a good warm, comfortable barn and 

 well bedded. We make our barns there 36 feet wide, two rows 

 of cattle down through, and the rows as long as we want them. 

 Have the cows face outward and a wide enough place behind 

 them to give room to take out the manure. Each animal has 

 its individual stall. You can stable a dairy a good deal quicker 

 Avhen the cows become accustomed to their stalls. The milker 

 should commence on the same cow each time and follow through 

 without change. Regularity is essential in the milking and 

 feeding. We have a water trough for each two cows auto- 

 matically filled and we feed cows salt every day. You don't 

 salt your potatoes once a week, — you want the cow to learn 

 to eat salt. The more salt she eats the more water she drinks, 

 and the niore she eats and drinks the greater the milk flow, 

 and the greater the milk flow the greater the profits. The cow 

 is a wonderful machine and you should be working that machine 

 to its full capacity. Feed the cows all they can eat, but do not 

 overfeed them for that is worse than not feeding enough, — 

 feed them so that they relish their food and feed them what 

 they like, so that when the herd is through eating they leave 

 the feed boxes licked up clean — that is economical milk pro- 

 duction. 



We turn the cows out a half hour each day until the 20th 

 of May or first of June and I keep them stabled during the 

 day in summer out of the heat and away from the flies; they 

 will do better in the barn than elsewhere. In the barn it does 

 not freeze in cold weather, and the cows are protected from the 

 hot sun in summer, it is always comfortable there. That is the 



