3G ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION 



You must have plenty of windows. There are three ele- 

 ments that you must have: sunshine, pure air and water. You 

 must have lots of windows. When I built my barn I thought 

 I put in enough, but I have not more than half enough. I put 

 them high so as to throw the sunlight clear across the barn. 

 Then, too, we must have ventilation. 



I expected that I would find my cows drop off during this 

 cold weather. Yesterday I weighed them and to my surprise 

 they had increased from I to 3 or 4 pounds to the cow straight 

 through since the 5th of January. They are comfortable and 

 have plenty of straw. 



Now we must find out what kind we have — find out which 

 is the boarder and which is the one that is paying her bills. At 

 first we tried weighing once in seven weeks ; that was not satis- 

 factory to me, yet I could not bring myself to weigh twice a 

 day. Then I considered weighing three times a month, the 

 first, the tenth and the twentieth, and in that way I got the 

 weight once in ten days. It is not exactly accurate, but it gives 

 a pretty good record. Of course it is a very much better way 

 if the farmers will go to the trouble of weighing every day. I 

 tried it for a while with five of my cows ; I weighed my milk, 

 set down the weight and took a sample. How long do you think 

 it took me to do this? Just two minutes for five cows, and I 

 had to take my glasses out and put them on, too. I have 

 weighed six years now ; ever since I was here and got an in- 

 spiration. 



Member : Don't you forget your weights ? 



Mr. Irish : No, I do not. A farmer came in my barn one 

 day and said in a sneering way, "Does weighing your milk 

 make your cows give more?" I said, "Yes, because it has its 

 effect on me. It makes me interested." One clay an Irishman 

 came along and said he was financially embarrassed, and I guess 

 he was. He had a bad habit and he could not get the kind of 

 work he wanted to do. That little fellow was a tramp, yet he 

 wanted to do something. I sent him to take care of the horses, 

 but he hurried and got through with these duties because he 



