88 ILLINOIS DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 



means be kept as long as she is profitable, because of the great 

 difficulty with which a good producer is obtained.. 



Three essentials to successful milk production are : 



1. An excellent individual obtained by good breeding. 



2. Feed of the proper kind and quality, supplied in a well 

 balanced ration. 



3. Care of the animal. 



This paper is devoted exclusively to the third essential. 

 If the first two requisites are present in the highest degree and 

 the last is not supplied, the efficiency that should be gained from 

 a good individual, well fed, is largely lost. For this reason the 

 care of the animal is of great importance. A cow that is a good 

 producer does a large amount of work, and since the milk is 

 secreted from the blood and is such a delicate product, the cow 

 must be properly cared for that the milk shall be in the best 

 possible condition. To obtain such milk the cow must have an 

 abundance of fresh air and light, as much comfort as possible, 

 and a reasonable amount of exercise, not alone for humane rea- 

 sons, but that she may produce the most that she as an individual 

 is capable of on the food supplied, as this will mean more dollars 

 and cents in the owner's pocket. 



It is a well known fact that cows cannot endure as much 

 exposure as steers and this has given rise to the too common prac- 

 tice of keeping dairy cows shut up in a tightly closed stable, 

 cramped on a platform, and crowded among other cows with 

 their heads fast in rigid stanchions for nearly twenty-four hours 

 in the day for six or eight months in the year, usually with no 

 system of ventilation and with very little light, yet the majority 

 of cows in Illinois are kept in this manner. 



The existing state of affairs led to an investigation concern- 

 ing the best method of keeping dairy cows, and the question this 

 paper wishes to raise is : Are we caring for our cows in the 

 best manner possible, and if not, how can present methods be 

 improved ? 



Keeping cows properly in a stable, involves much labor, as 



