The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-11-10
FARM AND
GARDEN n
INTERESTS
The Farmers Cow.

Correspondence Agricultural Epitomist.
Within an area of ten miles each way
surrounding the home of the writer there
is only one dairy herd, properly speaking.
This one herd is kept for cheese-making;
all others can be spoken of as farmers
cows, kept to furnish the family with
milk, cream and butter, with the surplus
butter going to the stores or hucksters.
There is not silo within the area spoken
of, to the writer's knowledge. Yet this
is not a poor country, as the number of
export cattle sent out, and the fat hogs
and sheep sent to the great markets, will
attest. Besides the purposes used for, 1t
is an ideal dairymans country. Why ii
is not developed along this line is simply
for the reason that the farmers are salts
fed with other lines of farming, or else
have not had their attentions turned to
dairying. When feed is short, pasture or
other foods, the cow is usually the thin
cold blasts. are abroad in the land she
comes, by custom, heir to the poorest
shelter on the farm, which is usually the
unobstructed canopy of the heavens, with
irregular feed and feeding. The meaner
the weather the more apt the feeding time
to be at uncertain hours, followed with
greater degree of suffering for the animals
1 well remember the saying of an old
farmer, who had grown rich by old-time
methods. that with five cows and as many
broods sows as capital he could pey for
farm. Then the cows raised calves and
helped the sows rear their pigs, and We're
accorded the treatment described above.
But the day has gone by when the general
farmer can keep cow for these purposes
according to old-time treatment. The pig
still thrives on skinned milk, but more
must come from ii than formerly before IL
goes to the pig. Most farmers keep cows
under the same conditions that they were
kept generation ago. and many of them
have made no advancement over the
toms of their fathers, and would be much
better off with one-half the number kept
according to improved modern ways.
Even in this time of improved customs,
practiced by advanced dairymen, it is no
trouble to find cows that never see shell
ter except from the outside of buildings.
Their owners sleep we'll and have no
twinges Of conscience on account of the
uncomfortable conditions that surround
their cows. These owners are up TO the
examples under which they grew up, and
think they are doing well; that the farmer
practicfng modern ways gets no more out
Of life than they do. hence they are sat-
listed. NO thought is given to the comfort
that the cows should be given shelter in
winter, If for no other reason than personal
comfort while milking; yet there should
be a feeling other than SelfshneSs in the
matter, for 1t Is a warped. contracted soul
belonging to a herdsman that has no
though in the care of his animals beyond
personal comfort. For the few cows kept
on a farm, to meet the demands of the
house, little room for shelter is required,
and good shelter at that. No animal on
the farm goes more readily to its accus-
toned place than the COW. She does not
| forget her place, though absent from ii
for months. Wind protection. If made only
with fodder, is hundred times better
than none; and no man who owns q cow
and can feed her is so poor that he cannot
have it. Men who are working up to date
at dairying need but little urging to do
| better things; ii is the army of farmers
who are still wabbling about among the
old ruts who need to be started in better
| and more profitable ways. There is great
| trouble in reaching most of this class;
| they do not read farm papers much, and.
when they do think a theorist is behind it
| all. The world in which they live is sur
| rounded by close boundaries, and what
| they see does not prove to them among the
| good things that belong to dairying are the
| things which give comfort to the COWS.
| as well as profit to the owner Actual
facts, in practical operation every day
| elsewhere, do not appeal to them as evil
| dence that no animal on the farm is de-
| serving of better treatment than the cow.