The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1901-06-11
HE MUST DEVELOP HIS HELPERS PROP.
ERLY.

handles her from calfhood to her
second milking year. She must
start with good dairy ancestry. That
is the foundation but not the super
structure. We have reason to be-
lieve that a large proportion of poor
COWS could have been made good
ones, if they had fallen into the
hands of men who knew how to de.
velop them rightly. Here are the
ways: Q) Prevent the growth of
fat and the development of beefy
tendencies. (2) Use constant gentle
tleness and frequently handle the
udder. (3) Breed at fifteen months
so as to start the development of the
maternal functions while the body is
easily moulded. () Feed literally
of milk-producing food so a to de-
velop the growth of the udder all
that is possiOle
An Arkansas man asked my neigh
Dor, G. F. Goodrich, the question
Chow are milk vessels developed in
heifers?" Chow is the milk flow
stimulated?"
Mr.. Goodrich has been a very suc
cessful producer of fine COWS, and
his answer was: bring them up
in the way they should go, and when
they are old they will not depart
from it, that u to say, if they are
we'll bred dairy heifers. By this l
mean, bring up the heifers to con
sumo large quantities of milk pro-
ducing food. There are some kinds
of food that will induce growth, but
no fat. Use such foods"
You can spoil a heifer for milk by
feeding her gross, f%attening foods.
Prof. Roberts aptly says, eff you
ask such a heifer to turn all herfood
into milk, she will say: 4 can't do
it; you taught me to make tallow.'"
There are lots of spoiled, wasted
COWS. Good COWS are too scarce for
even n to be spoiled in the making.
CONCLUSION.
Let me emphasize the matter once
more.
The first factor in the problem of
cheaper production of milk is the
cOw-a dairy COW, u good COW. Take
the first step first, and make a de-
termined effort to do business only
with the true dairy-bred COW. To
this end the dairy farmer must be-
come of a breeder.
This is the first step.
The next is the right sort of dairy
food, food that will bring dairy re-
suits the next, understanding and
skill in feeding the right food next,
the production of the right food (nOt
some other food) On our own farms,
as far as possible next, the right
care and handling of the COW.
The nearer we come to perfection
in all these points, the greater will
be our profit. We must make milk
for a less cost per 100 pounds. There
is no help for it.
The inevitable growth of the bust
ness must bring that result. We
must produce butter and cheese at
less cost if we expect a good profit.
We no longer control the output.
Other countries are reaching for our
markets. Our own production is in
creasing. Every line of human effort
is in the same category.
We must make milk "by the acre."
Shy the cow" and ''by the hundred
pounds"
It is stupid for US to persist in
using double the number of acres
and COWS to produce what one-half
of these forces might just as we'll
produce. We must learn to make
just as much profit with milk at 65
cents per hundred as we once did
with milk at 81 per hundred. We
can do it if we address ourselves to
a reformation of our COWS and our
ideas and methods. To this end
the dairy farmer must wake up and
spend a little money in his own dairy
education. There is not a farm in
all this section that cannot be made
to keep good COWS at d good profit, at
present prices for dairy products, it
modern ideas about breeding COWS,
modern ideas about growing food
crops, modern ideas about soil cul-
ture, and modern ideas about stables
and dairy care r followed out. All
this lack of profit which prevails is
caused by following ideas which will
not and cannot answer to modern