The Dupuyer acantha. [volume] (Dupuyer, Mont.) 1894-1904, 1900-02-15

COWS are very eccentric as to their
drinking habits. Some are naturally
big drinkers and some are small drink
ers, and it is doubtful if there are any
large mixers that are not large drink
ers. Some who have experimental
with COWS as to their drinking habits
assert that they vary greatly as to the
time when they want this water. Some
prefer to drink enough at n time to
satisfy them for twenty-four hours
while other cows want to drink often.
1t is a good idea to have drinking ar
rangements such that the sows can suit
themselves as to time of drinking.
Every man that mas a COW should
thoroughly inform himself on all ques-
lions relative to the dairy. Many a
scientific dairyman today says, "Oh,
that l had known these things twenty
or thirty years & when I first began
handling the dairy cow Yet. he could
not have known them, as many OF the
most valuable dairy truths either were
not known at that day or had begun
to penetrate but slightly the spirit of
the dairy world. The Babcock test
was ~uninvented, and the science OF
separating cream from milk by centri-
fugal motion was yet a theory in the
brain of the scientist. The whole field
of bacteriology was UNEMPLOYED, so far
as 1t related to the dairy. All these
things the scientists have placed at the
service of dairymen. But today there
are thousands of farmers handling
dairy cows, who are as deep in the
fog Of ignorance as were all dairymen
twenty years ago. Many of them have
not even begun to read about these
things, much less to practice them.
Herein lies the secret of COWS that give
less than 5000 pounds of milk a year
and that make annually less than 100
pounds of butter; for 1t is obvious that
If the average production of the Ameri-
can COW is only $50 pounds of butter,
as is reported by the department of
agriculture, a large number of them
must average very much less than 100
pounds, as we know that many average
a great deal more than that sum. To
the man that will not read and prac-
tice, the great inventions and discov-
cries of the last two decades do not
exist.
The price of milk in Chicago has
been advanced by the milkmen in that
city to seven cents per quart. At least
that is the price that the city papers
assert is being charged by all but the
largest dealers. The claim is made
that the dealers are paying 25 to 80
cents per 8-gallon can more for their
milk now than last month. One Of the
Chicago daily papers attempts to eluci-
date the situations and says that this
advance is due entirely to the short
age OF dairy cows, that the farmers are
selling off their dairy cows for beef,
and that already 25 per cent of the
dairy COWS of Illinois have been thus
disposed of, and that the same condi-
lions exist in other states. The state
ment shows about how near to the
truth the daily press gets when it tries
to treat of agricultural conditions.
Dairy cows have held their own in
numbers better than any other kind
of live stock during the great depres-
sion through which we have been
passing. During the last two years
they have been increasing IN the coun-
try at large. On the first day of Janu-
airy, 1898, there were in this country
1880, 800 mich cows, and on the first
day Of January, 1899, the number was
15,99O,115, showing a very material in
crease. On the first day of January
last year there were in the state of
Illinois 1,003, 218 milch COWS and on the
first day of January, 1899, 1,0O1, PIP.
This is a decrease of less than one
fifth of n per cent. So that the
scarcity of milk is not due to a scarcity
of cows. 1t is due, however, to the
fact that Chicago is growing at a mar
velous rate and so are the cities sit
uated near it and the hundreds of
small villages known as it's suburbs.
The amount of milk demanded for
daily consumption is increasing at an
enormous rate and the supply is not
increasing. We may therefore expect
to see one of two things, either the
supply increased by milk trains going
farther into the country or such an in
crease in the price of milk that the
consumption will be decreased to the
point where the present supplies will
answer. 1t is more to the interests of
the farmers to have milk at a moderate
figure in the cities and supply more of
it, as the volume of money thus going
to the producers of milk will be cir
culated more rapidly in the country.
Healthy Hogs.
Tho hoa1fh Of boUc dnoc not 5oDooJ