The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1886-06-18
FEED AND BREED.

1t is about time that the COW owners
of Wisconsin as well as other states
threw off the thick cloak of indifference,
and, inmany cases, OF stupidity, that they
have been wearing all these years, and
ask themselves, What is COW for?"
They have cursed bad luck and low
prices long and well, but cursing has
brought them no relief. They have
fooled away precious time, millions of
dollars worth Of feed, costly hired help
and their own time, with the average
COW that yields them less than $50 pounds
of butter or 800 pounds of cheese a
year. There are two chief reasons that
stand in the way of improvement and
the making of more money out of their
COWS. These may be named in two
words, Feed" and Breed" Before
the average cow owner can make any
money, even from his poorly bred cow,
he must learn the great fundamental
truth in dairying, thata COW must be
thoroughly well fed, housed and cared
for as dairy cow. The ignorance and
stinginess that prevails on this question
is appalling. It is strange that farmer
who knows that hog must be specially
fed for pork making, and who acts up to
his knowledge, should prove totally ig
norant of the doctrine that COW, in
order to be profitable, must also have
what is called milk-producing feed
and care. There is not one farmer in
thousand but knows that if he does not
happen to have corn to fatten his hogs
he must buy it or he cannot hope to sell
them at the best profit. Yet there are
thousands of farmers in the west who
would like to make money from their
COWS, yet who will stand perfectly aghast
at the idea of buying few tons of bran
or little oil meal, Tell them that the
dairymen in the vicinity of Fort Akin
son annually purchase nearly 100 Car
loads of bran for their COWS, and they
will tell you that the Fort Atkinson
dairymen must certainly be fools, yet
the Fort Atkinson dairymen make
double the profit from their COWS that
these men do. Tell them that they
must guard their COWS against exposure
to cold and the drinking of ice water,
and they will tell you they don't pro-
pose to have COWS around them that are
not hardy" Now the foundation for
such ideas as they express is blank ig-
norance of the true principles of dairy
practice.
Right here on the question of feed
and care there is a chance for an i'm
mense outlay of instruction and educa-
ton among the cow owners of the North
west. They do not yet see that they
must know and practice better things
before they can make any money from
their COWS.
BREED.
Here again we find our cow owners
| foolishly struggling to swim up stream
against the established current of dairy
thought, dairy wisdom and dairy ex-
perience. Nine out of ten do not be-
lieve in dairy breeds of cattle. They
really have no clear understanding OF a
dairy cow,-of what she is, how she is
bred or what she is for. They have
lived with COWS all their lives, only to
know less about them than they do
about dogs, for not one but knows bet
ter than to hunt prairie chickens with a
bull dog. Yet they will persistently
drive along. year after year, trying to
make money at dairying with beef ami
mails, or with class Of COWS that are
good for nothing either for beef or but
ter.
This shearing hog for wool is uphill
business. This wasting years of hard
work for comparatively rothing il very
| Encouraging. No wonder such men
gel discouraged. "The way of the trans
gressor is hard' all the same whether
he transgresses moral law or good dairy
ing sense.
Money is wasted in furnishing food,
labor and care on these cows that, no
matter how much you feed them, can
not be made to pay. Here is power
full stream of waste that would be stop
ped in few years if those farmers who
pretend to be dairymen would set
about at once to correct the evil by
grading up their COWS with thorough
bred dairy stock. If they are patrons of
creameries or private butter makers
they should lose no time in purchasing a
thoroughbred Jersey or Guernsey bull,
or bull from some of the butter fami-
lies of the Holstein-Friesian. There is
not one of these farmers who would
i hesitate to pay $500 for self-binder and
borrow money to buy it at that. Yet
when it comes to the improvement Of
his herd of COWS he hesitates. He
would not hesitate if he was better post
ed. 1t is evident then that he should al
once inquire into these matters. Lei
!, him visit dairymen who have diaries
made up of Jersey, Holstein-Friesian o.
Guernsey grades. IF he cannot afford tt
visit them, then let him take dairl
paper and read what they say. &c
their experience and not think that b,
knows it all.-H0Grds DGiTynsan.
Ill Rnttor r11ad firnaor of Eloin on Mon