Jasper Republican, Volume 1, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 March 1875 — Milch Cows Must Be Made Comfortable. [ARTICLE]

Milch Cows Must Be Made Comfortable.

No animal can thrive satisfactorily while its surroundings do not tend to promote comfort When fattening swine are uneasy, ever squealing ana racing about they will not fatten. When a milch cow is not provided with comfortable quarters she cannot be expected to yield a full flow of milk. Concerning this subject, 8. Flaville said, in a recent address: In everything consult, as far as possible, the comfort of the cow. Let all the arrangements that appertain to her keeping, such as food, drink, shelter, treatment and general management, be such as shall tend to her comfort and -quiet; then, and not tin then, can we reasonably look for the best results. The question of feeding dairy cows has become one of vast importance. Breed is important, but feed much more so. Persons about engaging in dairying look over the reports of dairy association or read the report of some dairv in the agricultural papers, in which they see so many cows kept, and from them so much money made, and they seem to forget all the rest. They go on and get the required number of cows, and when the end of the year comes they are obliged to divide the profits by two, for the reason that they have not well considered the business in all its detail. Many men seem to think that anything is good enough for a cow. The warm side of a rail fence good enough shelter, and a chance to feed at the straw-stack, with an occasional dressing of marsh hay and a chance to run in the standing corn-stalks, good enough

care and feed for the cow. They seem to feel that grain fed to cows is almost thrown away. The horses mid hogs must have all the grain, leaving the cows to take care of themselves. These are mistaken notions, for its costs only a little more to keep a cow well than poorlv. Indeed, it costs only a little more to keep s cow upon grain than upon hay. Example: It will take one acre of good grass to furnish winter fodder for a cow. The same acre, if planted to corn and properly cultivated, will not only furnish winter fodder, but will furnish grain enough, if led with the stalks in winter and the pasturage in summer, to give a good flow of milk during the entire milking season, while the hay would have done but little more than sustain the animal life. The difference of cost, then, in the two methods of feeding is the difference of expense in raising an acre oi grass and an acre of com. — N. Y. Herald.