Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1889-11-18
agricultural department,
A Cows Conclusion.

A cow OF mine mas Well-SettleC
convictions respecting the rights OF
animals. She firmly believes she is
as much entitled to meal as / am tG
milk. She has converted me to hel
opinion, or, rather, forced me tc
acquiese, writes III. L. Brooks to New
York Tribune. In the spring after
she calved / gave her night and
morning, at milking time, feed OF
bran and meal. When the grass i'm
proved / omitted the bran and meal.
but proposed to milk her all the
same She objected to this arrange
ment, kicked and walked away. My
man and 1 got into close quarters,
held her fast, determined to have
milk on our own terms, but Crumple
Horns was just as determined that
we shouldn't have it. We soon
| found that the COW controlled the
supplies she wouldn't "give down.
her milk. We took to coaxing and
patting her; persistently, but gently,
squeezed her teats; it availed little !;
we retired, worsted, thinking we
would get double portion in the
morning; but in the morning she
gave US little more than half her
usual quantity, and SO on for week.
| saw that without meal she would
diminish her milk and soon dry up.
/ said to my hired man, ''Bad luck
to the fellow that quarrels with his
COW: we should remember that in all
milking arrangements the COW is a
party concerned-in fact, the party
of the first part. Unless we can be
on good terms with our COW, we had
better not have one. Thinking it all
over, / believe the cow is in the right.
She gave US a good mess of milk for
a moderate feed of meal, and we
have no right to ask her to do better
than that; we will give meal night
and morning as long as we milk
her," This we did and she nearly
came back to her former quantity
cow allowed to fall away doesn't
entirely recover. l record the par
ticulars of this controversy with my
COW because it suggests several i'm
portant considerations. 1. A COW has
almost unlimited control over her
milk; she bestows or withholds it at
pleasure. 1t is therefore essential
that the cow have no cause for COM
plant; she should sustain amicable
relations with her mixer. Anything
offensive in his department., an angry
word, rough, uncourteous manners,
sharp finger-nails. any annoyance
whatever, such as sore teat, trou-
blesome flies, everything that is dis
agreeable, in greater or less degree
lessons the flow of milk ard prema-
turely dries up the COW. A COW ia
ken to a new place shrinks in her
milk and seldom RECEIVERS for whole
year. A COW should be uniformly
MIXED by the same person. 2. The
great liking COWS have for bran and
meal shows they are adapted to the
animals necessities. While no single
food is better than grass, fed alone
it does not give the best quality of
milk, nor the greatest quantity. A
little meal may be proftably fed,
even when grass is abundant and in
it's best condition-my cow demand
ed it and she was right. AS the
grass grows less in quantity and poor
er, l increase the meal and put it on
green corn-stalks cut fine. Some |
persons object to feeding COWS at
time because they are uneasy
and troublesome if the customary al
lowance is withheld. Then don't
it. 1t pays to feed meal to
COWS giving milk, and if COW insists
on having 1t every time, as mine did,
she does good turn by forcing us to
be regular. OF all losses incurred
Oy American farmers scarcely any
one is greater than that which comes
from allowing COWS to fail in their
milk for want of sufficient food of q
Kind that answered their require
nents.
Blood is the best egg-forming ma