very practical dairyman knows that cows thus
milked give a larger quantity of milk than if milked only twice, though
it may not be quite so rich; and in young cows, no doubt, it has a
tendency to promote the development of the udder and milk-veins. A
frequent milking stimulates an increased secretion, therefore, and ought
never to be neglected in the milk-dairy, either in the case of young
cows, or very large milkers, at the height of the flow, which will
commonly be for two or three months after calving.

There being a great difference in the quality as well as in the quantity
of the milk of different cows, no dairyman should neglect to test the
milk of each new addition to his dairy stock, whether it be an animal of
his own raising or one brought from abroad. A lactometer--or instrument
for testing the comparative richness of different species of milk--is
very convenient for this purpose; but any one can set the milk of each
cow separately at first, and give it a thorough trial, when the
difference will be found to be great. Economy will dictate that the cows
least to the purpose should be disposed of, and their places supplied
with better ones.

THE RAISING OF CALVES.

It has been found in practice that calves properly bred and raised on
the farm have a far greater intrinsic value for that farm, other things
being equal, than any that can be procured elsewhere; while on the
manner in which they are raised will depend much of their future
usefulness and profit. These considerations should have their proper
weight in deciding whether a promising calf from a good cow and bull
shall be kept, or sold to the butcher. But, rather than raise a calf at
hap-hazard, and simply because its dam was celebrated as a milker, the
judicious farmer will prefer to judge of the peculiar characteristics of
the animal itself. This will often save the great and useless outlay
which has sometimes been incurred in raising calves for dairy purposes,
which a more careful examination would have rejected as unpromising.

[Illustration: MATERNAL AFFECTION.]

The method of judging stock which has been recommended in the previous
pages is of practical utility here, and it is safer to rely upon it to
some extent, particularly when other appearances concur, than to go on
blindly. The milk-mirror on the calf is, indeed, small, but no smaller
in proportion to its size than that of the cow; while its shape and form
can generally be distinctly seen