ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 55 



hair, thin skin, long face, long tail or any of those things, 

 just let them all go and simply measure the distance with 

 your eye as stated. This is the idea. I look at the thigh 

 to ascertain what disposition the cow makes of her food. A 

 cow that has such a cat-ham as that is not in the meat busi- 

 ness. Then I say that is my cow, because she won't convert 

 the food into meat. Then the next question is, How much 

 per day can she eat over her own individual wants? Because 

 then she begins to work for me, and the deeper she is through 

 the middle, the larger per centage of the food she eats will 

 go to dairy products. 



Mr. Larkin: What do 3'Ou do with that class of cows 

 when they get to be old? 



Prof. Haecker : I bury, them and raise up a tombstone. 



Mr. Ford : I notice that in your later rations you did not 

 mention ensilage. Don't you consider it good roughage? 



Prof. Haecker: Yes, I do; but I feed also hay in con- 

 nection with it, and I think with better results. I cannot 

 get my cows to eat as much ensilage as some people can; the 

 very largest amount of ensilage that I could feed to a cow 

 was to this Topsy; she took 30 pounds, but she gets 21 pounds 

 of grain. 



Mr. Ford: My whole dairy is eating an average of over 

 40 pounds of V ensilage a day. Now, speaking about balanced 

 rations, ordinary farmers cannot figure out the matter as you 

 do. I wish you would give us an idea of it as we would mix 

 it with the scoop shovel instead of your pencil. 



Prof. Haecker: I would be delighted to send any one 

 this table that gives the amount of protein in each kind of 

 food. 



Mr. Ford : I have the full table that comes with Hoard's 

 Dairymen, and I have the German standard. I think we could 

 get at it better if we rcould do it with the scoop shovel. 



Prof. Haecker: I don't do it in that way; I can't afford to. 

 I can better afford to hire a man to mix them. We are feed- 

 ing more bran now because it is cheaper in proportion to the 

 food value; we give the cow all the bran she will take, but we 

 have to put a little barley and corn meal with it to make it 

 palatable and not quite so bulky. Our ration still retains the 

 ratio about 1:6.9. 



