giving to each cow one quart of linseed meal and two quarts of bran at a feed, twice a day. This is varied more or less as the condition and demand of each cow may require; these concentrated foods are always fed with the ensilage. On good pasturing, cows will produce more milk at a less cost than on any other feed; but our pasture grasses fail in their nutritive elements about the middle of July, even in a favorable season, and then it is policy for us to feed a quantity of green barley or oats, to be followed in August by sweet corn fodder, which carries us well towards the last of September, when we have cabbages and late-sown barley. Cabbage as a feed for milch cows I highly esteem, and, after fifteen years' experience in feeding them, I have yet to see the first deleterious effect, or to hear the first complaint of their tainting the milk. These I always feed directly after milking, whether morning or night. The cows relish them, and they increase the yield of milk so perceptibly that at a market price of eight dollars a ton I would rather feed them out than take them to market. you In any considerable herd of cows there will be found every now and then one not up to the standard in the quantity of milk she gives. A watch should be kept for such, and, if the shortage appears to be permanent, they should be prepared for the butcher; for it does not pay to keep a cow that does not give a profit on her milk. In every herd also is likely to be found one cow that gives a larger quantity of milk than any one of the others. If this is a well-balanced milk that is up to the legal standard, then it is well for to make her your ideal for the time at least, and raise her female progeny. I have had such cows from time to time, and the majority of my herd at present consists of cows descended from some special ideal. I have in my herd to-day a cow that is superior to any other I have ever owned, and I have for many years considered myself fortunate in the high character of the cows constituting my herd. This cow is now in her ten-year-old form, and is a grade; her sire was a pure-bred Jersey, her dam a grade Shorthorn, and noted for her great quantity of poor milk. This cow is not of my own breeding, but was bred in the adjoining town of Dudley. It was not until she had reached her seven-year old form that she demonstrated her superiority as a milkproducing cow, and at that time she was sold to a person in my own town of Southbridge. Under his care she began at once to increase on her previous quantity of milk, until her yield reached a point that was remarkable. At this time she was a family cow; that is, she was the only one in the possession of the owner, and was kept to supply his family with milk. She had the best of care, the best of feed, and all she wanted to eat; and all this we should and must do for each and all of our cows, to reap success. From time to time I saw this cow and her unusual yield of milk, and I thought I would like very much to become her owner, and this wish I realized the first of last April. She calved on the 7th of April, and, as she had not been in the company of other cows for the previous three years, I concluded to keep her by herself until she became familiarized with her new surroundings. Under my care she surpassed her previous milk record, giving, from May 12 to January 12 of this year, 10,807 pounds and 11 ounces,an average of 45 pounds a day. From May 18 to June 7 inclusive, a period of twenty days, her yield was 1,403 pounds and 12 ounces, an average daily production of 33 quarts. During these twenty days and up to the 20th of July she was milked three times a day. Her feed was the best of pasturing, together with two quarts of clear corn meal and four quarts of bran. Large and gratifying as was her yield of milk, it was no less remarkable for its richness. A trial test, comprising her milk of three consecutive days, commencing June 1, gave an exact 9 pounds of unsalted butter, an average of 3 pounds a day, or 1 pound of butter from 23 pounds of milk. This, you will remember, was in June, when a relatively larger quantity of milk is required for a pound of butter than is the case later in the season. A previous butter test, made by her preceding owner in the September prior to my purchase, showed that it required only 15 pounds of her milk to make 1 pound of butter. Her milk record for the two years preceding my ownership of her was for 1888 10,591 pounds and 7 ounces, an average daily yield of 29 pounds, or 131 quarts per day for the year. Her total production of milk in 1889 was 9,856 pounds and 14 ounces, an average of 27 pounds per day for the year. The dairy commissioner of Iowa is reported as saying that the average cow in that State gives but 3,000 pounds of milk annually. Statistics show that in the State of New York, with its 1,500,000 milch cows, they produce on an average less than 3,000 pounds of milk per year; while this cow has given an average of more than 7,000 pounds per year- more than the average cow for the past three years. During these three years whose record I have given she dropped a calf every year. - During the two years prior to my purchase she had the best of pasturing, one and a half quarts of corn meal and three quarts of bran, and in the winter the pasturing was supplemented with the best of hay and rowen. A fact in connection with this cow is that she is not only the greatest milker in my herd, but she is also the greatest eater. Thus it is that her value as a milch cow lies in her ability to convert a large amount of fodder into a large amount of milk, and this milk is rich in solids and fats. I have stated that it was not until she had come into her seven-year-old form that she gave indications of being a superior milker, neither did this happen until she had changed owners. Now, the query with me is, did not this cow possess the ability to yield as much milk prior to as she did after becoming the property of another owner, but did not for the simple reason that her owner through ignorance failed to give her enough to eat? If this latent development was hereditary, she most assuredly has transmitted this trait to one at least of her offspring, a two-year-old heifer, which I had the good fortune to buy when it was a calf. This heifer calved some eight months ago, and is now giving 25 pounds of milk a day. I believe she bids fair to make even as good a cow as her dam I also own two more of her heifers, and by these statements you will perceive that I propose to make her progeny the basis of my future herd. The sanitary conditions of our barns and stables and the health of our cows should be zealously looked to. As already said, the water should be pure and clean, and their food substantial and wholesome. No cow showing the germs of disease, however latent these may be, should be retained for a moment. I have found it economy to have my herd examined by a veterinary surgeon of acknowledged skill, and, on his declaration that my herd was free from disease, have obtained from him the following certificate, which I had indorsed by the Board of Health of my town: CERTIFICATE. SOUTHBRIDGE, MASS, April 14, 1890. This may certify that I have, at the request of George L. Clemence, examined his herd of cows, and do not find any traces of the disease knows as tuberculosis (or consumption), therefore pronounce them perfectly healthy. Furthermore, I would add that it is very seldom that I find stables so clean and the sanitary surroundings so well adapted for the making of wholesome milk as in this. E. C. VINTON, V. S. SOUTHBRIDGE, April 14, 1890. Having examined the certificate of Dr. E. C. Vinton, in reference to the condition of the dairy of George L. Clemence, we, the Board of Health of the town of Southbridge, indorse the same, and recommend the product of his dairy as wholesome, and fit for use. C. C. BRAdford. I next gave a copy of the certificate and indorsement to each of my customers. The satisfaction one gets from setting at rest the fears of customers amply repays all expense and trouble, to say nothing of your own satisfaction that your herd is all right. Let me say a word on the care and disposal of milk, for, if this is not of our subject, it is pertinent to it. Have a milk room, if possible, entirely separate from every other apartment, and allow nothing to be kept in it but milk and its receptacles. I need not say anything here of the necessity and wisdom of taking the milk from the barn with the least possible delay, for upon that point we are all agreed; but let me speak of the desirability of thoroughly aerating the milk. By this process we remove from the milk its animal heat and the volatile odors. The mechanical contrivance for the accom or it plishment of this work consists of a circular tank or cylinder of from one hundred to one hundred and fifty quarts capacity. In this is placed a close-covered tin vessel, so made that it gradually contracts from the base to the top, that it may always keep right side up. In fact, it resembles very much the contracted top of a milk can. This tin vessel is filled with ice. Above the can and hanging from the ceiling is a tin pail with a slightly flanging top, and large enough to easily hold a strainer pail of milk. Near the outer circle of the bottom of this pail is a single may be double-row of perforations. As the milk falls upon the vessel filled with ice in the milk tank, its animal heat and odors are at once given off, and after a few minutes the milk becomes as cold as if it had stood for several hours. The entire peddling rig should be kept neat, clean and attractive, for in this case appearances tell. Strive also to have your route as concentrated as possible, as a mill saved in the expense of disposing of a quart of milk makes a fine aggregate on a hundred quarts at the end of a year. Nothing will help you so early to get a convenient. and concentrated route as having the reputation of selling a clean article. The inevitable tendency of milk and dairy farming is toward a concentration of efforts, or, in another meaning, to an intensive agriculture. If there is a demand for more than your existing quantity of milk, and you are anxious to supply the demand, try first to get the requisite feed required for another cow from your present acres instead of buying more land. Keep your existing land better enriched and in better tilth, and you will be enabled to keep another COW. I have upon my farm a bone mill, in which I have annually made for the past eight years four tons of ground bone. I do this with a six-horse-power boiler, a steaming tank of fifteen hundred pounds capacity, and a grinding machine. I pay fifteen dollars a ton for the raw bones, and it costs me seven dollars a ton to fit them for the land, or a total of twenty-two dollars for an article absolutely pure. I apply some ten hundred of this to an acre at the time of seeding. I have now been all over my tillable land with this, and it |