The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1857-02-25
DQlrY COWS.

Oulry COWS.
The COW is second in interest and inn
portance to no other one of our domestic
animals; she affords to US all many of
the luxuries and comforts of life, and to
the farmer much Of the profits Of the farm.
For milking purposes she differs in value
some failing to pay their keeping, while
others give large returns for the cost of
food consumed. How TO rid ourselves of
the worthless, and supply their place
with superior animals, is u question of
great interest to us all, and should be the
constant study and care Of the dairyman.
We should not, for small and present gains,
select, as many of us do, our best calves
from our superior COWS for the butcher, re-
serving inferior ones to supply our future
dalnes, perpetuating, by the process,
race OF cattle, certain, in three or four
generations, TO become nearly or quite
worthless. We should rear the best
calves from our best stock, regarding the
fact that 4 calf worth eight dollars at six
weeks old, on becoming COW, at three
years old, will be worth thirty dollars
while calf at the same age worth six
dollars, will not, on becoming a COW, at
three years old, sell for more than twen-
ty-five dollars. Thus, by rising our best
stock, we secure five dollars at three years
old for an outlay of two dollars at three
weeks old; besides continuing a race of
animals that will be constantly improving.
1t Is n wcll-established maxim in the
breeding OF cattle or growing of plants,
that like produces like. Cows for the
dairy should be selected from a long line
of good milking stock, and be fed, from
early youth, with abundance of food of
such quality as will promote health, and
the enlargement Of the lactcsccnt vessels,
and the consequent secretion of milk, and
keep the animals at all times in good con-
dition. High blood will avail but little
IN the veins Of an ill-fed, half-starved cow.
In keeping cattle, warmth and comfort
rs OF more Importance than many farmers,
from their practice, would seem to admit
The temperature of the atmosphere af-
fects the quantity of food the animal re-
qulrcs; the greater the difference of tenn
perature between the body and the atmos-
phere in which the animal lives, the more
food they require to keep up the natural
warmth of the body, and less of the food
will be converted into milk or muscle.
Hence the Importance of warm stables in
winter, and sheltered pastures in summer,
and sheds for milch COWS to rest under in
rainy and cold, dewy nights. In selecting
cows for the dairy, regard should be had
to the quantity and quality of food de-
signed for them. If the food is good and
abundant, large cattle may be selected
if poor and less abundant, small cattle
will prove most productive. In general,
in either case, small cattle give the larg-
est return in proportion to the cost. The
larger the bone and muscle the greater
will be the daily want, and greater will
be the quantity offood required to main-
tain it. Small COWS will therefore yield a
greater return of bone, muscle, or milk, in
proportion to the food consumed, than
larger ones. Cattle require, for daily
consumption, about two per cent of their
live weight Of good hay, or its equiv
alent, to keep them in present condition,
or to supply the daily want of their bod
les. All over this may be converted INTO
bone, muscle or milk. If, therefore, we
may have given quantity of food, say
thirty pounds of good hay, Or its equiv
alent, TO convert into milk, and feed it
to a cow weighing ten hundred pounds,
she will, after using two per cent. of her
weight, or twenty pounds of the hay, to
support her daily natural want have ten
pounds TO convert into milk, bone or mus
Gle. But if we feed the thirty pounds of
hay to a COW weighing fifteen hundred
pounds, she requiring two per cent. of
her weight, or thirty pounds of hay to
supply her daily want, or to keep her in
present condition, she will have nome re-
naming to convert into either milk, bone,
or muscle, and instead of yielding a profit,
will be nearly worthless for the dairy,
and valuable on ly as a machine to convert
her food into manure. Hence the fact so
generally observed, that small COWS give
the richest milk. They waste less of their
food in sustaining their own bodies. Good
dairy COWS convert less of their food into
flesh and more into milk, which gives that
lean and long appearance so generally
observed in our best milking stock. The
external marks characteristic of a good
dairy COW have been so often and so well
described, we will not name any of our
own. We, however, recommend TO farm
ers the study of Nj. Guenon's work on
milch cows, believing that if they will
make themselves familiar with the marks
therein described they will never be dis
nnnOinted in the nurchosa ur raa rino of
a COW for the dairy.-Eint'S Agriculture
Of Mass.
GIVE WANT PuBLlc Souls ?a-Such
was the exclamation of old Bishop Hack.