The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1891-12-23
Exercise for Young COws---Is
Bedding indispensable?

The November number of The Ne,o
Dairy treats the question of exercise
for cows with great good sense.
Healthy young cows do very well, even
when tied to stick for seven months
in the year. None have experimental
longer on the matter, very likely, than
the French settlers in the Province of
Quebec. With steady, heavy cold for
months at time, il is with us a ques-
ton of permanent, warm stabling, or no
milk, aud this experiment has already
lasted for at least two hundred and fifty
years. Are our cows of Brittany and
Normandy descent degenerating in con-
sequence? would pity the man who
should try his lasting qualities by being
tied to the neck of one of our young COWS,
on free run, he after due training and
she after seven months of close prison,
and calving at that. AS to their milk
ing qualities, when well cared for, the
BAbcock tester shows an average of
over four per cent of butter fat in the
milk of two-year-old heifers. AS to
quantity, we can show two small heif-
ers, both in milk since February and
March last, giving over twenty pounds
each, now, and which gave thirty-eight
and forty-two pounds a day respec-
lively at their best.
So much for close stabling and degene-
ration. This stock, being kept within the
city limits of @ lebec, is open to inspec-
ton any day. 1t is stabbed the year
round, having two hours of free roam
in the yard for five months, and con-
slant stabling for seven months. Our
calves as a rule are penned in the
stable for the first year. The second
year they have free roam in country
pastures. We try and have them calve
at twenty-four months, after which we
want each of them to do its duty Jas
mother and mixer.
OF course our stables are we'll lighted,
thoroughly ventilated and kept scrupu-
lousy clean. But each COW stands
close to its neighbor, only three feet
space in breadth being allowed to each.
The climate being so cold, we must
count on animal heat to keep our sta
bles warm. The passages are as mar
row as possible with comfort and clean
illness.
Now comes the question: What is
good bedding for animals? In nature
the cow selects dry knoll. If straw
be left there, the cow very soon moves
away for dry spot elsewhere. Damp
ness is eschewed by most of animals.
Again, straw is usually the ordinary
bedding material of farmers. What is
straw? A fodder which, when well pre-
served and prepared, is worth half its
weight of similarly we'll preserved hay.
We may then well ask if hay is in ma
ture intended for bedding? Again, is
not straw or hay bedding, as generally
used, mass of dampness, just starting
into the rottening processY Can such
bedding help in the production of
healthy milk? AT all events here we
cannot afford to rot our hay, or even
our valuable straw. Not one pound
is used as litter the year round, in our
COW stables. The cows stand on short
dry boards and are kept perfectly clean,
all the manure falling in the manure
gutter below, in one stable, and through
steel bars direct into the manure cellar
in the other. Thus every pound of
feeding material is used for all it is
worth, and cool, healthy, rich milk
produced in abundance.
ED. A. BARNARD.
Ouehec Can