the soil fertility. In Europe, where land sells as high as fifteen hundred dollars an acre, the dairy cow is practically the foundation of agriculture, and often one will see that one milch cow is kept on each acre of land. Considering the facts that feed is higher and the prices of milk lower in Europe than they are here, farmers in those countries are very prosperous, and the only advantage they have over the American farmer is cheap labor, therefore state institutions, which raise all of the roughage needed, with cheap labor and by being their own consumer of the dairy product, should adopt every modern way of dairying.

The first thing we should look to is a modern dairy barn, in which we can keep our cows comfortably stabled all winter, for the coat of the dairy cow is not adaptable to protect the animal from snow and cold weather, and leaving heavy milkers out in an open shed in zero weather is not only disastrous and unprofitable but seems to me to be criminal.

The dairy barn, built on a spot high and well drained, should have an abundance of light and ventilation, so that no germ of an infectious disease can gain a foothold. Danger of spreading diseases exists only in those basement barns which I have frequently seen, with small windows often on one side only, where the sun, the enemy of all bacteria, never gets a chance to get at them. Facing the cows outward would be the most convenient for feeding, milking and cleaning.

Concrete has itself proved to be the best material for barn floors, but for the stables, which should be large enough to allow a cow to lie down comfortably, creosote blocks should be used. This will avoid rheumatism and inflammation of the udder, which are sometimes caused by lying on bare cement. Even with creosote blocks for stalls, bedding is needed to keep the cows comfortable and make the manure more valuable.

The feed rooms should be located at one end of the barn and should be provided with a floor large enough to mix up a grain ration for one day at least. The milk room, on the opposite side of the barn, should be separated by a door so that the odors from the cows will not be transmitted to the milk. A litter carrier, for sanitary, practical and economical reasons, should be placed through the center; with it, all refuse can be quickly removed and the manure-pit can be located at a distance, thus avoiding odor and flies near the barn. Though, I believe in removing manure to the fields and letting it rot there, on or under the soil, this practice is sometimes impossible, especially during the growing season and under certain weather conditions. Therefore, we should have connected with each dairy barn a manure-pit, made of concrete, and a cistern into which the liquid manure from the barn and manure-pit may flow. In this way the most fertile substances of the manure are saved and by means of a pump and tank it can easily be applied to the land. In Germany the government department of building permits and orders the size and thickness of walls for manure-pits and liquid manure cisterns according to the number of cows kept in a stable, both for economic and sanitary reasons.

Because it is hard for us from a financial standpoint to buy good cows, which have proved to be profitable, we should employ all available

means and intelligence to develop our cows now at hand into money makers, and as the old saying, "The bull is half the herd," is true, we should look in this direction as the cheapest way to develop our herd. Only registered bulls should be employed, regardless of price, and in purchasing a bull his ancestors and their records should be studied carefully by an expert. The record of his dam is the most important factor, and the easiest to obtain, while the record of his sire, though of great importance, will not show until after two generations; therefore, the record of his sire's dam should be closely noticed. But, it would be wrong to buy a bull judging him by his pedigree only; individuality is probably more important than pedigree. It is of great importance to notice the size and length of a bull, for they will largely influence the size of his offspring; then large cows with great barrels, capable of consuming a great amount of food, are what we want in the dairy.

As the price of a bull depends upon his individuality and his pedigree, we should always buy the best, for a bull capable of raising the average production of the herd seventy-five pounds is cheap at any price, while a scrap bull given to us and used for breeding is a dear investment. Though it is wise to breed to matured bulls, such as have proved themselves, this practice cannot be always followed, because even promising sires of maturity are very hard to get, and if offered for sale the price is put so tremendously high that we, in our position, would draw the criticism of a great many; therefore, we should keep our eyes on noted cows, watching a chance to secure a promising bull calf, and by a little extra care we can raise a good bull from a comparatively small investment. The growth of the bull calf, as well as any other calf, should be pushed from the very start, observing that it has plenty of exercise so as to develop its muscles and does not get too fat.

Bulls should be kept in separate pens with allowance of space to exercise. The feed should consist of a grain ration of ground corn and oats, some bran and a little oil meal, with clover or alfalfa hay; other foods like silage or forage crops are inclined to make the animal sluggish if fed in great quantities.

The problem of feeding a dairy herd depends largely upon the locality in which it is kept. In places where we have an abundance of pasture land, that is land which is so rough and poor as not to permit farming it, we have to pasture these lands during the summer months in order to get some benefit from the land, but whenever the land is suitable to farm we cannot afford to let it lay for pasture in order to pasture our cows.

It takes from two to three acres of blue grass pasture to maintain one cow during the summer, while one acre of corn put in a silo will make about ten tons of ensilage, and if fed at the rate of about forty pounds a day it will last five hundred days for one cow; therefore, where we have no natural pastures our milch cows should be kept stabled the year around and fed on ensilage or on soiling crops. A number of private dairies in Iowa and Illinois, which I have visited, run on this plan and they can afford to hire the labor required, while I have seen only one dairy at a state institution, in Illinois, which feeds its cows without pasture.

Stabling the cows continuously, and having each cow in her proper place at all times, enables us to feed each cow the amount of feed required by her, for no two cows in a herd should be fed alike. The size of a cow, the amount of milk she gives, the amount of fat and the tendency of getting fat or poor on a certain ration, should advise us how much to feed. One pound of grain to four pounds of milk and about three pounds of ensilage and from three to four pounds of clover or alfalfa hay for each one hundred pounds of live weight is a common ration.

A grain ration of three parts of corn and cob meal, three parts of bran and two parts of oil meal is recommended, but where cotton seed meal or gluten feed is available the amount of bran and oil meal could be reduced. It is hard to give advice as to a grain ration, for one will have to study the prices of certain food stuffs in certain localities, and the effect of the ration on his own cows, in order to know just what he needs.

Keeping the dairy herd classified is absolutely necessary for a number of reasons, therefore I recommend that the following classes be kept separate.

1. Milch cows.

2. Dry cows.

3. Heifers (pregnant).

4. Heifers over one year of age not bred.

5. Calves over six months old.

6. Calves under six months old.

7. All stock infected or suspected of a contagious disease.

Milch cows are kept separate for the reason that the food required by them must be richer in protein, and the handling of them should be more thorough than of the other classes. They should not be mixed with dry cows, because there is danger that a patient may start the flow of milk before a cow has dropped her calf. A record should be kept of each cow to show if she is profitable or not, and as it is a fact that has been proved that the most skill in handling and feeding will not make a cow of poor qualities profitable we should avoid keeping the so-called "dairy boarders.''

Now, as we have an adopted system of keeping records we should make proper use of it. Our monthly milk report to our board is of no value in itself to determine the productiveness of a cow, for a cow with a high monthly record may yield low during the whole of her lactation period. Therefore, our yearly milk report, if properly kept, will give all information desired. It is advisable to give each cow a full page in the dairy book, one side to keep records of breeding and calving, and one side to keep the number of pounds of milk given in one month, one year and the start and closing of the lactation period. In this way we shall have not only all records combined, but we shall have a chance to glance over her whole performance once each month, when we add her new monthly record.

As it costs about one hundred dollars on the average to feed and take care of a cow for one year, cows which will not give more than five thousands pounds of milk should be disposed of. Testing milk for percentage of fat thoroughly, so as to get proper results, is a great deal of work,

and should for that reason be employed only on registered cows, though I believe that graded cows should be tested twice a year, once at the beginning and once at the end of their lactation period, to give us some idea about the quality of their milk. The Babcock tester, which is cheap and easy to operate, serves that purpose. Grooming the milch cows before each milking stimulates the circulation of blood, aids in food digestion, helps the appearance and assures us of getting clean milk.

On account of the nervous disposition of the dairy cow she should be treated with the utmost kindness. We should never allow a patient to abuse a cow, or even speak rough to her, for a cow irritated in this way will decrease in the flow of milk and will sometimes produce a kicker.

Milking cows by the same man will prove very beneficial, and, while hardly two men milk alike, the cow will give her milk more freely to the man she is used to. One should always try a cow after each milking and see that she is perfectly dry, for leaving the last and richest milk in the udder often proves fatal. Warm water during the winter months greatly influences the flow of milk, because a heavy milker requires an unusual amount of it.

A mixture to keep flies from cows, recommended by the college in Ames, has proved very beneficial here. It is composed of the following: 12 quarts of standard coal tar dip.

12 quarts of fish oil.

1 pint of oil of tar.

11⁄2 pints of oil of pennyroyal.

Mix in ten gallons of lukewarm water in which a bar of laundry soap has been dissolved. We sprayed only once a day before the evening milking, and our herds increased twelve hundred pounds during the first week under the same conditions.

For the reason that cows should have a rest of from eight to ten weeks prior to calving, we keep a sheet hanging in our milk room for cows due to calve for three months ahead, reading as follows:

January 15........Cow No. 3 Calved

By keeping watch of this record one will know the time when each cow should be turned dry.

We should keep the dry cows, or cows soon to be fresh, separate, for the reason that we give them a rest prior to calving, not only to stop their flow of milk, but to give their whole system a rest, by placing them either on good pasture without grain or on ensilage and hay with a little bran and oil meal. One should always see that a dry cow gets enough feed to enable her to increase in flesh and be in good thrifty condition at calving time, then this will largely influence the flow of milk during the next lactation period.

Cows heavy with calf are easily injured if kept with others, especially when other cows come in heat. A few days prior to calving the cow

should be placed in a box stall and only easily digestible, laxative food, such as bran, oil meal, ground oats and clover or alfalfa hay, should be given in small quantities. The water should be lukewarm and care should be taken in keeping her comfortably bedded.

For the first three days after calving the cow should be kept on the same food and then placed gradually on more solid food, and one may increase her grain ration as long as the cow continues profitable in her milk flow. If the cow does not pass the afterbirth promptly and the man in charge does not understand to remove it properly a veterinarian should be employed. Leaving the afterbirth with a cow will prove disastrous, for it will rot and discharge slowly, as a yellowish fluid; the cow will fall away in flesh and her milk will decrease considerably.

In raising a dairy heifer every care should be taken to develop a large bone and framework; she should be compelled to eat a large quantity of roughage so as to develop a great barrel, capable of holding a large amount of food. Many dairy heifers are stunted because the idea prevails among some dairy men that a heifer which gets fat is lost for daily purposes. One should always try to breed for fall calving. Not only will the cow give a greater quantity of milk during the year if fresh in the fall, but the calf will have a better chance to develop. Calves born in the fall, if fed on milk with access to a grain ration of corn, oats, bran and oil meal, with clover hay, will grow wonderfully if turned out in the late spring on good pasture. These calves, which we classify as calves over six months of age, cannot develop as they ought to on pasture only, therefore a feeding trough should be placed in their pasture and the same grain ration which they received as calves under six months of age should be fed to them once a day.

Another feature will develop: By feeding and handling the calves every day they will grow gentle and will not be of any trouble at calving time.

Breeding heifers too young will usually stunt their growth, and while some men claim that some of the world's greatest producing cows are bred very young this practice should not be followed wherever Holsteins are kept. It is impossible for a cow of one thousand pounds of weight to compete with a cow of the same qualities which weighs eighteen hundred pounds. Therefore I believe that Holsteins should not be bred before eighteen or twenty months of age if we do not want to run a risk of cutting down the size, and with it the productiveness of the herd. Here I recommend again that heifers which are pregnant be kept separate from younger heifers, for the reason that a great percentage of abortions is due to excitement caused by other heifers running in the same lot when they are in heat.

The greatest problem in a large dairy is to avoid and to overcome contagious diseases, such as tuberculosis, contagious abortion and the latest development in this country, the foot and mouth disease.

To meet these diseases successfully every institution should have a quarantine barn and lot, located where other cows can not come in contact