Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1901-07-23
NV FaIeNo. THE DAIRY COW.

The mission of the dairy cow is to
turn the cheap roughage of the farm
into condensed, readily salable and
profitable commodity. Inasmuch as
she does this, we may consider her a
machine (but don't forget that she is
also mother, and upon her mother
hood hinges our profit), and the one
that turns out the largest product at the
lowest cost is the most profitable COW.
| Combined machines never were a sue
cess, not even in cows. The COW that
makes you handsome profit by the pail
will not be a success along beef lines.
A first-class dairy COW is one trained
from calfhood up to utilize large quanti-
ties of roughage and put all surplus feed
by way of the udder into the pail. Two
of the most prominent points in the
feature of the dairy COW are her very
large abdomen and large udder. The
former is necessary to enable her to con-
sumo, digest and assimilate large quanti-
ties of cheap, coarse fodder; the latter
to enable her to elaborate and store
large quantities of milk. Decently and
respectfully to feed an ordinary cow on
the farm one year will cost from S25 to
S35. The average COW produces less
than $50 pounds of butter per year. The
average net price the farmer receives for
it is about 16 cents per pound. Now
take your pencil and figure. But yOu
say that these general averages are de-
ceptive; so they are indeed. When |
started purchased such cows as could
pick up, in fact, the best | could get.
Profit seemed meager. / invested in a
scale, little $40 platform scale, and
Babcock tester. | placed the scale very
conveniently in the stable, with a ruled
monthly milk sheet and half dozen
lead pencils. Each cows milk was
weighed and noted daily, and a careful
ly taken sample tested weekly, and to
my astonishment, onerthird of these
cows were not average cows, but below
the average. They were boarding ut my
expense. Some others made me a hand
some profit; they were rough-boned and
unshapely animals, and | had not held
them in very high esteem but since | dis
covered that they were not only paying
their own way and that of lot of loaf
ers, but still had a little left over for my
share, their beauty increased wonder
fully in my eyes. Before testing them |
named one Bare Bones, another Bank
rupt. promptly changed their names
to Bonanza and Sterling.
A scale and Babcock tester are won
dcrful eye-openers. Mine cost me $11.
have not time to make calculations,
but believe it worth nearly as many
hundreds to me. In an average herd,
such as is usually found on the farm,
there are nearly always enough really
good cows to lay the foundation for a
future herd that will repay the work and
thought put on it. Better start with a
few really good cows built on dairy
lines, than have large number of such
as just about pay for their feed and keep.
1t repays us over and over again to use
a sire that we are sure comes from the
best purebred dairy stock. Take very
little notice of the fancy points, dots or
spots on the skin, black or white tip of
the tail, ETC., but if his dam, and grand
dam, and his sire's dam and other
progcnitors were heavy mixers with
high butter test, we can safely bank on
him. For more than half the good
qualities in the future herd we must
depend on the sire. If we give our
thought and attention TO this line of
work we can really do wonders in a
short time. Let me cite an historical
example. In 1876, in Northern England,
the Ceilings brothers purchased bull
for Si2, and with him some fairly good
COWS such as that section of country
then afforded. This bull is known in
history as Hubback. For quarter of
century they worked along definite,
carefully planned lines. They put a lot
of brains into their work October 10,
1890, at a public sale, they sold a direct
descendant of Hubback, the bull Comet,
for little more than $1,000. This is
simply one of many examples that might
be cited. With good sire those best
common COWS have given me within one
decade herd that averages above $50
pounds of butter per year. Any farmer
can do as much by little patience and
intelligent perseverance.-L. w. Lightly,
in Turf, Farm and Home.