Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1905-12-19
The Cow.

Extract of paper read by Prof. G. NJ. Gowen
before state Dairy Conference. Pittsneld. Dec.
8. 1905.
The opening pages of Prof. Gowell's
paper contained much of interest in
relation to the Indispensable part played
by the cow in the building up of our
nation, ever since her arrival with the
pioneers. In her usefulness and peculiar
adaptation to the home and family, she
is placed only second in Importance to
man himself. He shows how the COW
has spread over East, North, West and
South, until her products make constant
|ly moving train-loads, all of this made
possible by ingeniously devised and con-
structed dairy machinery.
In showing the intensifying of the
industry, he calls attention to the pOssi
bilities which have been demonstrated,
whereby the use of corn and clover
enables COW to be generously kept on
each acre. Names special adaptation
to grass by reason OF her cool, moist
climate is emphasized, and the memo
rable tribute to grass paid by John j.
ingalls,, the great Kansan, is given as
follows:
Grass is the forgiveness of Nature,
her constant benediction. Fields tramp
led with battle, saturated with blood,
torn with the ruts of cannon, grow green
again with grass, and carnage is forgot
ten. Forests decay, harvests perish,
flowers vanish, but grass is immortal.
Sowu by the winds, by wandering birds,
it softens the rude outlines of the world.
IL invades the solitudes of deserts,
climbs the inaccessible slope OF noun
tains, modihes climates, and determines
the history, the character and destiny of
nations. II yields no fruit in earth, or
air, and yet-should its harvest fail for
a single year, famine would depopulate
the earth.
And so, gentlemen, stand for Grass!"
This great dairy industry is being
made what it is by the united work OF
the millions of American bred cows;
cows without pedigrees; cows without
histories; cows that are not known be-
yond the borders of the farms on which
they were raised. They came from
breeding cows of that hardy old New
England stock, to special dairy bred
bulls, that were imported from Jersey,
Guernsey, England, Scotland and Hol-
land, and continued the breeding with
the succeeding generations until We are
fast approaching a general basal stock
which is better in its hardihood, and
better in its performance, than Ike
numbers Of pure bred cows of any, or
all breeds.
Not for one instant would be under
stood as undertaking the many herds
of pure bred dairy cattle We have, for Il
was through the influence Of the better
bullS of each breed, that our common
cows have derived their dairy functions.
While We have many, very many,
beautiful, great milk and butter pro-
ducing cows in the pure bred herds, IL
is lamentable, that among them are 80
MANY inferior creatures, that would be
tolerated in no breeders herd except
under lax registration laws. In our
common grade dairy stock we have the
best of foundation on which 70 build
the dairy workers of the future. The
breeders Of pure bloods will vie with
each other in breeding bulls good enough
for the needs of the practical dairyman,
and this should be the highest purpose
of their work, because of the greater
field of usefulness.
We need no longer 60 to foreign coun-
tries for new and better blood, Tor the
great number and high quality OF
American breeding establishments give
ample scope for the avoidance OF the
pernicious influence OF inbreeding.
why do we expect to find better stock
ON the island of Jersey-an area not
greater than this little town OF Pitts
field? Or on Guernsey, which is but
one-third as large? Why should we 60
to Scotland for better Ayrshires, or to
Holland for Holsteins, simply because
the breeds originated in those countries?
We have taken all of these breeds and
IAmericanized them and adapted them to
our purposes. Are the people OF Jersey,
Guernsey, England, Scotland or Holland
possessed of more skill in the art OF
breeding than the men who bred the
winners at the st. Louis Exposition last
year?
IL almost seems as though our people
are daft over everything that is import
ed. A few weeks ago foreign prince
landed in this country, and our news
papers were at once full of him, and his
movements every day, and we left our
plows and cows and rushed off to the
city to get a glimpse of this man who
had done nothing with brain or hand to
distinguish him from other men.
have no patience with our foolish
girls who 90 off to foreign countries to
| find husbands, with titles and pedigrees;
but never once,-praised be their good
sense-with the thought of marrying
blood with which to improve the Ameri-
can race.
We are driving the American show
COW at a terrible rate of speed. At
some of our great contests We have
experts in charge who with watch and
thermometer in one hand and an open
bag of grain in the other, crowd their
animals with rich foods, and then deter
| mine the approach of the danger line by
| their thermometer and movements.
| The matter for wonder is not that she
| PRODUCES three or four pounds of fat or
| from seventy to a hundred pounds OF
milk per day, but that she manages to
eat from thirty to fifty pounds of grain
| for days in succession, and lives TO en-
| Joy the honors.
do not think that the business cows
| of the state are Over-fed, but do think
| that great majority of them are over
worked. Stimulated by generous feed
ing, they are induced to yield milk late
and are barely dry when the new calf is
born.
Milking stripper cows is the most
pernicious practice know OF. 1t yields
no profit, for strippers' milk is generally
poor in fat, off in flavor, and damaging
to other milk, with which it may be
mixed. The stripper tries to make
milk for her master, and food for her
unborn calf at the same time, and her
endeavors result in dismal failure, for
she is tired and thin from incessant work
and her calf is born starveling.
l am very sure cows will yield as
much milk and butter, through life, II
allowed to 60 dry ten weeks each year,
as they would were they milked to
within four weeks of every calving.
sss
/ Succuleut foods, the year around, is
the watchword of tho successful dairy
man. Their free use results, not only in
greater profit, but enables those ami.
mails to utilize greater quantities OF