Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 April 1875 — Profit In Cows. [ARTICLE]

Profit In Cows.

There are but few farmers who fully realize the true value of a good cow well kept. As a general practice three cows do not produce as much milk, butter or cheese as one would if treated rightly and profitably. No account is kept of the amount of milk or butter produced by each cow in the year. The farmer with his cows is in the same situation as he is with the balance of his farm. He keeps no account and knows nothing about his business. Two hundred and fifty pounds of butter per cow per year is not a large yield, yet there are more that do not produce more thah half that amount than there is that exceeds one half. There is , no poorer policy than starving and freezing a milk cow. There can be no more improvidence in any branch of agriculture than in half starving and exposing to the storms of winter the cow that is expected to furnish the family with milk, butter and groceries. We have seen this spring from three to five cows staggering about straw stacks of farmers, which will require nearly all the summer to repair wasted nature, without supplying any of the rich, nutritious milk which only comes from a healthy, well-fed cow. Such a farmer should either Keep a less number or provide better shelter and more rich food. One cow well provided for is better than three starved ones. One will furnish more milk. Children should never be fed on milk drawn from a poor cow, reduced to the bare possibility of sustaining vitality. It is cruelty to animals to thus treat them, and it is murder to the innocent children to feed them on such food. The profit, the morality and the respectability of it require that a man who keeps cows should provide better than is done in most cases in cold cliA man that would cheat his poor old cow, which has thus far raised his children, shpuld be considered respecta-

ble in no sqciety. There may be cases where drought, flood or devouring insects have rendered it impossible to provide bountifully for all the animals on the farm, but in such cases the owner should not be compelled to see the poor old cow shaking her horns at him in his Dight dreams. We plead for the cow, and if three or five cannot be provided for, sel. off, and one well fed will provide more than the three or five. —lowa State Register.