The advocate., 1897-08-18
For the Farmer. .
The Dairy Herd--Its Formation and Man
agement.
CONTINUED from last week)

them have 1t. At first the time daily
on pasture should be very short, for
the good of both pasture and cow The
latter should be gradually changed
from stable feeding to pasturage, es-
pecially IL the feeding has been Of dry
material or mostly So And the stable
feeding should continue unchanged,
undiminished, until the cow herself
indicates that she is getting enough
grass to replace a part OF the staDle
ration. Then, as the pasturage I'M
proves, indoor feeding may be les
sened and finally discontinued. II
pasture furnishes an abundance, ana
variety of grasses, there can be no bet
ter food found for the milk cow The
nutritiye ratio for mixed pasturage is
about one to five, which cannot be I'M
proved for succulent food. But the best
of pasture grasses contain from % 10
rs per cent. of water, sometimes more,
and the cow must procure large guam
nifty of this material, 100 pounds or 80
In the course of a day, to secure the
food material required. Shade and
water should be carefully looked after
In connection with pasturage, as well
as the grass In very large pastures
there should be watering places In diff
ferent parts of the inclosuTe, as well as
shade, that the cows may not be COM
PEELED to travel far to find either
Until flies become bad, COWS had bet
ter stay in pasture by day and in stable
by night or be left out all the time. But
in the worst fly time, and perhaps
when the suns heat Is greatest, 1t Is
good practice to stable the herd dur
ing the day in an airy but shaded COW
house, and turn it on pasture at night.
II the pasture has not abundant shade
and water this course should certainly
be followed. Heat and flies reduce both
quality and quantity Of milk product.
The trouble from flies eau be largely
remedied by spraying the COWS with
very weak mixture Of water and some
one Of the approved sheep-dip prepara-
tiOns. Such a spraying will last week
or ten days, unless there are hard rains
meanwhile. The entire interior Of the
cow house should be sprayed with a
solution of this kind and strong
enough for an inseCticide, weekly
throughout the summer,
There is ample evidence that, al
though milk yield may be increased by
feeding grain to cows at pasture, the
gain no more than pays for the extra
food, and seldom does that. There may
be in some cases small margin for
profit in improving the pastures by less
grazing and richer manure. But II pas
turage is short, even temporarily de-
ficient, the COWS should be fed enough
of grain, hay, silage or green crops to
supply the deficiency.
The dairyman who has most Of his
cows dry during drought fly time and
"dog days" appreciates the advantages
of bringing in" his cows in the fall.
The advantages of soiling over pas
turage are so great, especially where
dairylng on high-priced land, that
every dairyman should carefully study
the question Of adopting this system,
Much depends upon the supply, char
acter and cost of labor at ones COM
mand. 1t may be profitable to practice
partial soiling where it will not be to
do more. Careful trials have shown
that by feeding cows wholly on green
forage crops in the stable from two to
five times as much milk can be pro
duced from an acre as from pasturing
the same land. OF course, farms often
contain many acres of pasture land thai
cannot be titled, but for tillable lant
the profit in soiling is great Many
more cows can be kept on a given ares
and the productive capacity Of the lane
can be rapidly increased. The saving
of manure and its application to bes
advantage is one Of the great gains il