Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1904-10-25
The Dairy Problem.
PROF. sANBORN GIVES JOURNAL READ
ERs A LESSON ON THAT IMPORTANT
SUBJECT.

Many prominent dairymen advocat,
and practice close confinement of cow
during the cold season from October Il
April. These men claim good milk rec
ords for their herds and their data veri
fly their claim. They also have for man!
years in succession, kept them in con
finement during winters and state tha
their progeny is vigorous. One famOu!
dairyman, who soils, having neither pas
lures nor yards, keeps his in the barr
the year round and has for years. W.
must accept these statements as facts
and admit that cows can for quite a pc
riod maintain a fair degree of vitality
and impart it to their young, though
having but limited amount of exercise
But is the fact that for period they
can be confined without fatality proof
that can be made continuous and a,
successful as wise blending of protec.
ton from inclemencies of weather with
the natural exercise of the unconstrain
ed exercise that animals are prone tC
take?
| Common observation is greatly at fault
if exercise does not conduce to health
and vigor. All young, very young ami
NAL life take it and continue it. All OBJ.
servation shows that it adds to both
vigor and health.
| The evidences of it in trained men and
horses, in the completely idle versus the
active man, and in every direction sought
are so abundant and obvious as not tC
| require recounting.
| The counter assertion that milk max.
| ing is form of exercise is not adequate.
Beef making, the growing of young ami.
mails, is as much exercise as milk pro.
duction. We all know that the idle
steer, boy or colt lacks stamina and the
lung development is not adequate fol
vigorous action, and of course have low
resisting power for disease.
The fact that cows have done we'll un.
der confinement is not evidence that ev-
erything else remaining the same they
would not have done better under regu-
lated exercise. have found at expert
ment stations with pigs and steers that
| there is very intimate relation between
exercise and appetite, and that the lat
ter is related productivity. One trial
given in my last article shows this clear
ly, as many other trials have done.
For time I have been compelled to
drive cows at unfrequent periods to a
pond for water, but at no loss of milk
| flow but with an increased appetite.
Confinement in the end will affect cattle
as it does idle men in cities, dwarfing
size and limiting power.
But exercise must be given with wis
dom. Discrimination must be made be-
tween round day in cold wind.swept
yard and airing in moderate tempera.
ture for limited period.
1t is nice discrimination that blends
just right exercise and repose. The for
mer fills the lungs, purifies the blood
and invigorates the appetite, thus induc-
| ing the consumption of excess food over
maintenance to the limit of economy. 1t
may be carried too far and induce an
appetite out of proportion to the powers
of digestion and assimilation. At least
such seems to be the case from the evil
dence supplied by accumulating data.
1t is safe to say that the principle has
application to our worn and poor pas
lures. Labor is carried to the point of
exhaustion or of distaste in securing the
food of maintenance and before that of
natural power of milk production has
been applied. The time has come when
during the summer our cows should be
relieved of this too strenuous labor in
sparse pastures for living and produc-
ton. The former must be made and
this part the cow attends to, but limits
the food taken for production. Between
my natural and artificial grazing grounds
there is a difference in milk flow per
COW of 33 per cent per COW and more in
cows kept.
But to return it appears to the writer
that during winter the cows should have
during clement weather a daily airing,
use of the muscles, filling of the lungs
and freshening of the blood. The King
system or any other system of ventila-
tion does not give as pure air as that of
open nature and cannot give it without
reducing too low the temperature. How
can cow be confined within four feet
by eighteen by eight feet or so of them
in barn 100 feet by SO feet by eight
feet and have pure air without a rapid
ity of air circulation that would freeze
to the marrow in cold weather?-J. W.
Sanborn in Lewiston Journal.