We have now, according to the last census, a population pressing close
upon fifty Millions. Every one of this vast number is individually
interested in the milk question. What is true of perhaps no other
element of food and nourishment, milk is consumed in some form by all,
old and young. It is because of this necessarily universal personal
interest in milk that the publishers offer this volume which aims to
show all how to obtain the best milk, plenty of it, and at the cheapest
rates. The book embraces the experience and advice of able, well known
writers—such, for example, as Professor Slade, of Harvard College, and
Henry E. Alvord—elicited in response to propositions presented by the
Publishers for articles upon the subject. The editorial supervision of
the work has been in the hands of Col. Mason C. Weld and Professor Manly
Miles—recognized authorities on Dairy Matters—who would have included
many other valuable and interesting papers submitted, were it not that
they would have made the volume too bulky. Mr. Orange Judd has added a
leaf from his personal experience.
The topics treated are only those legitimately connected with the
subject, yet they cover a wide field, and will prove of great interest to
all occupied in the culture of the soil, while as a handbook and guide
to those who keep one or more family cows it must be of almost daily
practical use. The prominent subjects, such as soiling, stabling, care of
manure, the tillage of the soil, the cultivation of various crops, care
of the cow and of the calf, are each treated in detail, and yet there
is so great a variety and such genuine personal experience and sincere
conviction on the part of each writer, that his or her way is the best
way—as indeed it may be, under the circumstances—that there is little or
nothing of sameness or repetition in the book, but the reader’s interest
is sustained to the last.