ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 



47 



But you may have the best bred and best fed cow, and then not get 

 much milk out of her. She has got to be taken care of. To do her best 

 she must be absolutely comfortable all the time. She must have a good 

 comfortable stable with a good bed. You don't know how it makes me 

 feel to see cows lay down on a hard floor and no straw. I always feel as 

 though it makes my bones ache. They want a good bed, a good made 

 up bed. See that it is level. Then what? If well fed and otherwise han- 

 dled right, she will be chewing her cud and making milk. In the sum- 

 mer time too they have got to be comfortable to do well. Then along 

 in the fall, when the cold, stormy weather comes, it makes my heart 

 ache to see cows out in the cold. 



I will tell you what happened on my place one time. I had one of 

 my boys, about 21 years of age, running the form. Well he thought he 

 was running it, but the old man was there. He was getting the proceeds. 

 Now, of course, the young fellow had been well instructed in these 

 things. We had 20 cows giving milk and they were making just 28 

 pounds of butter a day right along. In October, kept the cows in the 

 stables night, because it was uncomfortable outdoors. One morning the 

 boy turned out the cows and pretty soon it commenced one of those driz- 

 zling rains. We were in the house, could not work. I wondered if he 

 was thinking of the cows. "It is rather bad for the cows," I said to him. 

 "I guess it will clear up pretty quick," he said, I said no more, but it 

 kept on that slow rain. Every little while he would mention that he 

 thaught it wasn't going to rain much longer. As sorry as I felt for the 

 cows, I really hoped it would rain all day just so he would learn a les- 

 son. It turned out that way, and what was the consequence. The but- 

 ter dropped right down from 28 pounds to 25 pounds. There was a 

 chance for him to figure at 30 cents a pound. They never was brought 

 back and never could be. Do the best he could, didn't turn them out 

 any more, but only got to 26 pounds a day, and that was all he could do. 

 There is no use in telling Low much was lost. Suppose he had gone on 

 and left them out another day, there would have been another drop. And 

 then suppose added to that some of the milkers raised a row in the 



