NEW YORK, JANUARY 9, 1904. 
$1 PER YEAR. 
Vol. LXIII. No. 2815. 
NOTES FROM THE DAIRY. 
Buying, Selling, Care and Feeding• 
OLD COWS.—A good many cows are kept beyond 
their profit-paying time because their owner hardly 
knows what to do with them. He does not like to sell 
them to the Russian Jew butcher for a song, and if 
they are well along in years he thinks it may cost 
more than they are worth to try to fatten them, and 
so they are kept on and on, eating their own heads 
off, and the profit on some other cow at the eame 
time. We have found out that just as soon as a cow 
has been decided unprofitable it pays to feed her 
hominy or cornmeal, all she can handle. Her milk 
flow will increase, and this addition will largely pay 
for extra feed used. The cow will fatten slowly at 
first, but later put on fat quite rapidly. Then if she is 
best cows yourself, and when you sell this kind you 
are getting rid of the most profitable machinery on 
the farm and that is very hard to replace. You may 
think you can go out and buy one to take her place at 
a considerably less price, but after you have spent 
quite a good bit of time you bring home a cow that 
you paid a pretty fair price for and then doesn’t 
turn out much. Your own cows are “wonted” to their 
home. You know them and their producing value. 
Why take so many chances for from $5 to $10, for 
that’s usually only the difference in price between a 
good and a poor cow? The good ones may be cheap at 
$60 to $80, while the $35 cow may be dear at any price. 
COLD AND COWS.—The weather was cold, but you 
were warmly dressed and exercising. You went into 
the barn and left the stable door open. When you 
came to milk some of the cows’ teats were colcl, and 
and with anywhere near proper means of ventilation. 
WATCHING AND FEEDING.—The condition of 
your cows can be told by simply walking back of 
them. Are the voidings hard as a bone, or very soft, 
with a strong and disagreeable odor? Both these con¬ 
ditions are to be avoided, and can be. If the bowels 
are fairly loose, the cow’s breath sweet, the mangers 
cleaned up, the cows will usually be found in good 
condition. On a good many farms where the haying 
season covers quite a period the early-cut hay goes 
into the bottom of the mow and the last put in, the 
poorest, is the first that is fed out. The cows come 
in from rowen feed or pasturage and they are put on 
this dried-up, late-cut hay, and many a farmer will 
tell you that November is the hardest month in the 
year to make milk. The cows are apt to shrink so 
much that even when they get to better hay they are 
“BELLE” AND “BEAUTY.” PROMISING JERSEY HEIFERS. Fig. 6. See Page 19. 
not inclined to dry off we do it for her. We butcher 
the cow ourselves, so as to get all there is in her, and 
sell the quarters to large-sized families, usually get¬ 
ting 5V 2 or six cents for forequarters and seven to 
eight cents for hindquarters. The meat will not be as 
good if cows are not thoroughly dry, but when well 
fattened this meat is often preferred to some of the 
trust’s western beef. The amount we get for the beef 
will go well towards buying a new milch cow. 
SELLING GOOD COWS.—A man comes into your 
stable and looks over your cows. He is a good judge 
of cows and picks out your best ones in his mind’s 
eye. He does not ask the price of them at first, but 
of some cow you wanted to sell, but later: “How 
much for this one?” You did not care to sell that cow 
and so put a good stiff price on her. He takes you up 
perhaps at once, or may make you an offer for her 
that seems like a big price and you are tempted to let 
her go. Don’t do it. You can only afford to keep the 
they shrunk in their milk yield, and you did not un¬ 
derstand why. The feed was the same. Cows do not 
like drafts any better than you do. We remember at¬ 
tending an institute on nearly the coldest day of the 
year, when the mercury was eight to 12 degrees be¬ 
low zero. We had to drive about four miles from the 
station to the hall, and practically every dairyman 
on the route had his cows out in the yard, or roaming 
through the fields. We found this was the general 
custom in the neighborhood. Many of these cows 
were standing hunched up, trying to get where the 
sunshine could strike them, and avoid the wind. A 
goodly portion of the feed fed to these animals was 
used in trying to maintain their body temperature up 
to normal. These cows, like all others, were going 
to take care of themselves before they took care of 
their owner. A good deal of that feed used to keep 
them warm might have been used to make milk had 
they been housed in a comfortable barn, well lighted 
unable to get back to their normal milk flow. Put a 
good lot of your early-cut hay where you can feed it 
first, and later alternate it with your late-cut hay. 
FEEDING SALT.—One of the most successful dairy¬ 
men we know about feeds his cows four ounces of 
salt per cow per day and says that it pays. “The cows 
give more milk, the milk has a much better flavor, 
and will keep considerably longer.” The salt is fed 
with the grain ration. Since hearing this man we 
have fed our cows more salt. Altogether we have not 
got up to the quarter-pound notch, yet we still believe 
that a good many cows do not get as much salt as 
they really need. Salting is one of the little things 
that are apt to be neglected, and a handful once a 
week is a too common practice. 
BAD DAIRYING.—You ask some farmers what is 
their principal line of farming and they tell you 
“dairying,” but this branch from which they expect to 
derive their principal income is treated as “chores/' 
