The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1904-03-25
From Saturdays Daily.

From Saturdays Daily.
The farmers institute session was
continued today at Mankato Theatre.
The audience was large and the usual
amount of interest was displayed in the
addresses.
One of the addresses delivered today
was on Selecting the Dairy Cow" by
A. w. Litchard, who said: When one
wishes to replace COWS he has sold or
to increase his dairy; what is he to do?
There is no use asking the breeders or
fellow farmers as to which are the best
in their herds, for they will only reply,
they are all good, and so far as poor
ones are concerned they have none.
There is no use seeing the COW milked,
for the milking tells but little. So you
are compelled to use your own judgment
by being governed by what you can see;
Some rules are reliable in selecting a
good cow. l care not what the breed
NAV be, as we will not enter into the
question of breeds farther than to say,
all breeds of cattle like all nationalities
of people have in them good qualities
and bad qualities.
In selecting a good dairy COW, 1 want
to start in with the head. Her head
should indicate quality; she should be
broad between the eyes and the eye
full and "snappy" Someone has said
the eye is the window to the soul. The
ment and without high nervous organ
cation, no COW can be good producer of
milk. Her mouth should be large, her
Jaws strong so that she may consume
large amount of food. The nostrils
should be large which is always an in
dication of great lung capacity, so highly
essential to a good mixer. Her skin
will indicate much as to the quality of
her milk, which should be soft and not
too thin nor too thick, but rich in secre-
lions and velvety to the touch of the
hand. Her organization should be open
with fiat ribs set well apart, and the
longer she is between the last rib and
hip the better. Her thighs should be
thin and incurving, to give ample room
for the udder, which should extend well
forward and high up behind, with the
teats of good size and uniformally
placed.
If l were to select dairy COW on one
consideration or characteristic only, it
would be the udder, and yet too many
men have completely failed by making
their selections from this one feature.
A well balanced udder with large milk
veins generally indicates good perform
er, yet other faults unseen may overbal-
ance entirely both the others. More men
have been fooled in large milk veins
than any other feature of the dairy cow,
still in the main they have held good.
The milk-wells (where these veins enter
the body forward) should be large and
the more of them the better
Now we come to the most important
part las it seems to u.s. of them all
which is the constitution and vigor of
the cow We use her as a milk produc-
ing machine, and if the machine is weak
in its construction, the work of trans
forming food into milk will be imperfect
and the result more or less a failure.
Don't let us forget what may seem a
few minor points but very essential in
making this selection, viz: Be certain
she does not leak her milk. If conven-
lent milk her yourself before you make
a purchase. And be very guarded against
another very serious fault (yet not often
found) of the cow sucking herself.
Have the cows milk tested; for some
times she may be excellent in all the
points have mentioned and utterly fail
in this most important one yet good
judge can generally satisfy himself on
this point
would never attempt to select a gen.
eral purpose cow, as I would expect to
fail at both ends. Select the breed best
suited to your condition and the breed
you are most in sympathy with, and
with proper care and plenty of food; if
you fail (nine times out of ten) it will
be your fault more surely than that of
the COW.
In proof what good care will do and
whether the butter-fat in the milk can
be increased or decreased by feeding, L
submit the following: A few years ago,
the college of Agriculture at Ithica, N
Y, purchased the milk from eight cows
of a farmer out in the country and
weighed it every day for twelve months,
and at the close of the years test, the
College purchased these cows, put them
in comfortable quarters, and fed them on |
good balanced rations for the second |
twelve months, with the results below |
The farmers methods and feeding the |
first year and that of the college the |
second year.
Cow Pounds Pounds Per cent
No. milk butter. butterfat.
/ Farmer 3l,42S III 5.64
l College 48,98l 3O2 61S
2 Farmer 4O,5o4 l22 4.27