ILLINOIS DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 233 



BREEDING AND CARE OF THE DAIRY COW. 



By N. P. Hull, Diamondale, Mich. 



Ladies and Gentlemen : 



I have to leave on this 4 :12 train. I am advertised to speak 

 in Michigan tomorrow morning. This gets me to where I have 

 got to quit on time. 



I have a few suggestions I would like to give you. A cer- 

 tain farmer went to Chicago and while there saw a boy working 

 a slot machine. The boy dropped five cents in and kept taking 

 three cents out in return. The gentleman went back to Michigan 

 where he told that the boy kept dropping five cents in and only 

 got three cents back each time in return. That same man was 

 feeding five cents worth of feed and got three cents worth of milk 

 and never knew he was doing the same thing as the boy. The 

 trouble with the man and the boy, they were both mistaken, badly 

 mistaken. 



I am thinking there are too many men in Michigan and Ill- 

 inois who call themselves dairymen, who are only cow keepers. 

 They are also mistaken. Mr. Mason has given a part of my talk. 

 If you run a machine, run it to its maximum capacity. It costs 

 from 18 to 20 dollars just to keep the cows; in summer $15.00 

 just to run that machinery. When I commenced the dairy busi- 

 ness it cost me $20.00 to convert $100.00 worth of feed into milk. 

 I wasn't running that machinery up to its maximum capacity. To 

 do that a man must feed in a certain way and feed certain stuff 

 and take proper care of his cows. 



Cows get in the habit of expecting their feed the same time 

 every day. They will give more milk that way. When getting 

 155 cans of milk a day, if I feed regularly, I notice the difference 

 in the pail. Feed regularly and feed a variety of feeds, because 

 a cow will do better. She is like a human being for that. Take 

 it home to yourselves. Won't you do better with a variety of 

 feed, and won't a cow do better? I have seen my cows in the 

 eovered yard near the manger waiting for an invitation to come 



