The Democratic advocate., 1907-08-09
How Henry Van Dresser Made Money
With His Herd.

IN
Y, in his institute lectures this year tells
how he paid for a farm with cows.
This question Of the dairy COW, he says,
is of interest to every farmer in any State,
and what he wants to know is, when the
years accounts are footed up, does the
book show profit? IF not, it is time to
change your methods.
The dairy COW is living machine, made
for the purpose of Transforming food into
milk and butter and in order to run this
machine successfully we must be familiar
with its mechanism. 1t should be the aim
of every dairyman to so study the machinery
of the cow that he can feed her so she will
transform her food into milk with as little
waste as possible. IF you are to make
dairying success, it is necessary to secure
COWS of the dairy type. There is no such
thing as dual-purpose COW, and those who
breed with that in view will meet only with
disappointment.
What are the characteristics of good
dairy COW? She should be of the wedge
shape, low on the ground and of slightly
nervous temperament. Her head should
be symmetrical and slightly dished, broad
between the eyes, the eyes full and express
sive, the ears should be of medium size, the
hair plentiful and inside the ear filled with
oily secretion, indicating the butter fat
contained in the animal body. The bridge
of the nose should be fiat, with facial veins
prominent, which is an indication of high
breeding and good circulation. The nostrils
should be large, and mouth and lips broad
and heavy. These indicate good digestive
powers and constitutional vigor The
neck should be thin and the ribs we'll
sprung, which gives ample room for
storage capacity, the hips broad. The
joint of the vertebre should be loose and
wide apart an indication of the open or
ganization so important in the selection of
the dairy COW. The thigh pit should be
very pronounced, the udder cord large,
with capacious well balanced udder, show
ing great elasticity the teats of medium size
and we'll set. Always avoid feshy udder,
as such COWS are liable to garget. Never
breed from gargety COW, as the disease
is largely hereditary. The longer, more
crooked and pronounced the milk veins
and the greater the number of holes at the
end Of these veins the better the COW and
the larger the milk production. The
secretions of the skin should be oily and
abundant. In order to detect quality,
place your hand on her side and shove to-
ward the head, holding it there few min
utes. IF moisture forms under the hand
it is an indication Of quality. The skin
should be life-like and elastic, soft and
mellow to the touch. Always avoid a
paper hide, it indicates weak condition.
The sire is more than half the herd, and
should be selected, not because he is a
thoroughbred, for there are many thorough.
bred scrubs, but where his ancestry shows
animals oflarge flow of milk, rich in butter
fat, where the type is fixed and you can
breed to a certainty. His head must be
symmetrical, slightly dishing and little
shorter than that of the dam. He should
be full of nervous energy, low on the
ground, deep through the heart, the ribs
well sprung and secretions of the skin oily
duu ac SlOulU UG well crested,
clean in the throttle with double extension
milk veins and four well placed rudimen-
tives.
am not here to state that you cannot
succeed in the dairy business without thor
oughbred cattle, but one thing you can do,
and it will pay, that is to weed out the
scrubs and breed from your best grades,
using thoroughbred sire. Scrub cattle,
whether thoroughbred or not, will ruin any
man financially, and the quicker you get
rid of such company the better it will be
for you. 1 have been through the mill,
and know whereof l speak. In the old
way with large herd of scrub cattle we
could not pay the interest on the mortgage
that covered our home; in the new way,
with good grade cows and first class sire,
we were able in nine years to pay off the
Indebtedness and the home was ours. I
have learned by experience that the man
who makes a success of the dairy business
today must have love for the business;
he must give careful consideration to type
in breeding and to this add comfortable
quarters, kind care and judicious feeding.