Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1869 [PAGE 296]

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282 raised one calf, and excells as a milker. One reason is, perhaps, I take good care of her, and give her the stuff that makes milk, and if farmers generally would take care to slop their cows they would get more milk and butter. You cannot expect a cow to give milk unless you give her something that makes milk. If you give the cow only prairie hay and corn, this does not produce the most milk. I have found bran best; corn meal and clover hay are good, together with bran. The reason why the Eastern cows give more milk and make more butter is chiefly because of the better care and keeping that they have. They have better pastures, better and a greater variety of food, and that of the right kind and in the proper quantity. With them how to make the cows give milk is a study. It is becoming a science with them. They have large barns and give their stock protection. What is the shelter that our stock in the "West get ? It is, perhaps, the poor shelter that a fence will give. We can't expect cows to give milk treated in this way. We should give our cows comfortable quarters, and then they will give milk. I know farmers who have got five or six cows, and never have all the milk and butter they wrant. They do not feed the cows. They do not shelter them. I tell you, sir, a well supplied barn helps to make the breed. I tell you, also, that the corn crib, the hay and the bran, helps to make the milk. In regard to breeds, I think very highly, as I have stated, of the Devon. I know there are different families of them. I think that which Mr. Flagg has is the best. I can recommend that breed. I have a bull of that breed, and I can see all through the country thereabout the great good that he has done, and the people are thankful to me that I brought him there. I do not think as much of the Hereford as Dr. Morse does, but we will find that if we will take care df our cows of any good stock, we will have good milkers. Feed and shelter kindly, and they will appreciate it. For milk, that is for dairy purposes, I suppose the Herefordshires are generally preferred. Mr. BALDWIN—I have been for many years raising cows for dairy and other purposes, and will state my experience. I would, for dairy purposes, take some animals from the various breeds. The secret of having better milkers East, I think, lies in this— they are bred in that direction. If, for example, you have a cow that is an excellent milker, a cow that gives milk up to the time