THb: GARDEN AND IHELD. 



2G6 



® XKe Farm ® 



Securing the Best Cows. 



^he dairv cow has been described 

 as a machine, the object of which 

 is to convert the foraj^e raised on 

 the farm into money by means of 

 milk, butter, and cheese. Bnt 

 while the owner of a piece of ma- 

 cliinery knows exactly of what that 

 particular tiiachinerv is capable, 

 few farmers can say the same of 

 their animals. The^• inav form es- 

 timates more or less accurate, but 

 thev seldom reduce it to a test, 

 ^len have been known to refuse 

 the means of €nli<>ht€ning- them- 

 selves as to which of their cows 

 yield profit and which scarcely 

 pay for their feed, i^ref erring to 

 linoner in the groo\ c in which their 

 forbears travelled, but they adopt 

 an attitude which is at the same 

 time unreasionable and unprofitable. 

 To attain the greatest success, we 

 must be. abreast of the times, and 

 when a man has placed within his 

 power means of ascertaining the 

 exact value of each of his cows it 

 is surely to his own advantage to 

 put those means into practice. 



— The Best Cow. — 

 The best dairy cows are those 

 that will return in milk the great- 

 est Value for the food consumed. 

 It is easy for the farmer to ascer- 

 tain how much ■ butter-fat a cow 

 produces in a year for a given 

 amount of feed by weighing her 

 ~mtlk at every milking, or at fre- 

 quent intervals, and testing it with 

 the Babcock test. It can be 

 done with little labour providing 

 proper arrangements sere -made. 

 The names or numbers of the cows, 

 together with the days of the 

 month, should be placed on a ruled 

 sheet,! and with a pencil and a 



The ii^Uitor will be pleased to receive 

 correipondenc* and answer quoations. 

 Thesa replies will, for the most part, be 

 sent by mail, unless received just prior 

 to date of publication. 



.s])ring-I)ahince handy in the milk-» 

 ing shed, the amount of milk given 

 by each cow at every milking 

 can be recorded in a few seconds. 

 It would be best Ho total the 

 liguros at the end of each month, 

 and at the year's end the farmer 

 woukl have a comiilcte record of 

 the e.xact amount of milk each 

 cow has produced. Compared with 

 the knqwledge it gives, the trouble 

 is infinitesimal. 



— Testing. — 

 Testing, of course, is another 



matter. It should be done about 

 the middle of each month. A day's 

 milk, both I morning ' and evening, 

 should be tested, and if this is 

 takten.foT the average each month, 

 it will approximate at the end of 

 the year very closely to the actual 

 amount of butter-fat produced by 

 a cow. Every farmer can tell 

 pretty nearly the value of the food 

 his cows consume, and when this 

 is compared with the value of the 

 butter-fat furnished to the cream- 

 ery^ by each cow, it is ' easy to dis- 

 cover which cows return a profit 

 and "which are not worth keeping. 



The value of this s}'Stem is so 

 obvious that it ought nat to re- 

 quire any argi'iment to convince 

 the farmer of its necessity, but it 

 does. One man who was urged to 

 adopt the Babcock test replied, 

 " I'm afraid I should find too 

 many poor cows in my herd." It) 

 would be difficult to conceive a 

 more ridiculorts answer, and it 

 would seem that argument is fu- 

 tile with such a man, but other 

 men with similar ideas have been 

 converted to saner views. ^ Many 

 have confessed that, prior to using 

 the test they were grievously mis- 

 taken in their estimiates of the 

 capacity of individual cows. 



— Selection. — 



The selection-- of a good dairy 

 cow requires much discrimination, 



and even gn expert cannot , always 

 select one with unerri.ng certainty, 

 and even an expert cannot always 

 his own discernment, of course, but 

 he should always aim to secure a 

 cow from a dairy breed. Ucca- 

 b^ionallv an animal of excellent 

 qi'iality might Ije found among 

 some of the beef breeds, but it is 

 safer to himt among the ' dairy 

 breeds. The cow's head is the 

 first thing to examine, and every 

 indication of a strong brain and 

 strong nervous force, because milk- 

 production is the result of nervous 

 force, which starts from the brain 

 and runs along the spinal cord. 

 The moi'ith should be large, and 

 the jaws strong and muscular. 

 There should be a great depth of 

 body, a broad chest, large girth 

 round the heart, and plenty of 

 lung capacity. A broad, strong 

 loin, with hips wide apart, and 

 backbone rising high between 

 them, are recommendations in so 

 far as the organs , of maternity are 

 concerned. The thighs should be 

 thin, and incurved on the back 

 side, with plenty of room between, 

 and the flank arched up high just 

 in front to give room for a fine 

 udder. The udder should extend 

 well forward and well back, and 

 have four good-sized teats set well 

 apart. Large, full jnilk veins to 

 ca'rry the blood from the udder 

 to the heart through large " mUk 

 wells," or openings through the 

 walls of the chest, are signs of a 

 large flow of milk. 



Some farmers base their judg- 

 ment entirely on the size of the 

 udder, and providing it is large 

 they are satisfied. In many cases, 

 however, they have been deceived. 

 A cow may have a good udder, 

 but it must alsb have a good 

 dairy form — that is to say, her 

 " machinery " miust be capable of 

 filling her udder for a sufficient 

 time to make her profitable. The 

 buyer should carefully examine the 

 udder, to see that it has no para- 

 lysed quarters, and gives milk 

 easily and freely from each teat. 

 " Leaking " and " sucking " cows 



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