336 
WISCONSIN STATE AGRICULTURAL, SOCIETY. 
when they are allowed to run three years before giving 
milk. 
My cows, with the exception of a few half and quarter Dur- 
hams, are mostly native stock. I find that small or medium 
sized animals are usually the best milkers, and the most profit¬ 
able to keep. Ayrshire stock are highly recommended for 
their dairy qualities. In 1870 and 18711 purchased a number 
of this breed in Canada by way of experiment, and now have 
two full-blood cows, two bulls and two calves. The cows are 
excellent milkers, and the breed seems in every way to be 
adapted to this climate, being medium size, good feeders, tough 
and hardy. My object in getting this breed was to improve 
my dairy stock, and the result has fully answered my expecta¬ 
tions. 
The care and food of a dairy are of as much importance as 
the proper selection of the cows; for even good cows unless 
well fed and cared for are poor property, yielding little or no 
profit. They should always have good, comfortable stables in 
the winter, be liberally supplied with the best quality of hay, 
with a light feed (from one to two quarts) of meal each day. 
With this treatment, if fed and watered regularly, they will 
pass the winter in good condition, be fat enough for beef in the 
spring, and will not have to lay on flesh for a number of weeks 
before they come to their full flow of milk. 
To secure the most satisfactory results, good pastures should 
be provided; the tame grasses, timothy and clover, are the 
best. A daily mess of ground food through the summer will 
be found profitable ; and some provision (sowing corn or some 
other crop to cut up green) should be made for droughts or 
short feed in the fall. Pastures should have plenty of pure 
water in them, easily accessible at all times. Shade trees or 
some kind of shelter from the scorching heat of the sun are 
essential to the comfort, and consequently to the profitableness 
of the cows. When the weather is warm and the flies are 
troublesome, they should have a pasture to run in nights. At 
this season of the year they will feed more in the night' than 
during the day. 
