AS FODDER FOR CATTLE. 117 



face of the earth. Undoubtedly the chief end of a dairy cow's 

 existence is to yield milk, and when that point is sacrificed to 

 some other one, she certainly deserves to lose the name of a 

 dairy cow, and ought to be devoted to some other purpose. 



This test undoubtedly proves that fish meal is of considerable 

 value as a food for dairy cows, but until I get at least another 

 trial of it on a more extended scale, I am not prepared to give 

 it all the credit which the results of this trial would lead a 

 superficial observer to suppose. Its smell and taste are certainly 

 against its extensive use, but in my case neither was as great an 

 obstacle as I had anticipated, and in ordinary practice their bark 

 might turn out worse than their bite. 



Another experiment was begun on 16th January 1887, and 

 was carried on from that date for twelve weeks. The experiment 

 already detailed, which had been carried through during the 

 preceding summer, I had considered unsatisfactory, as the 

 pasture formed so large a portion of the cows' food, and the 

 meal given so small a part, that, besides the food used, many 

 other causes might have contributed to falsify the results ; there- 

 fore I determined to try the fish meal again on a more extended 

 scale, when the total food given would be more under control 

 than during summer. 



During the first week all the animals were fed alike, the 

 milk from each being weighed both morning and night. This 

 was done so as to guard as much as possible against extremely 

 good or bad milkers being put into either lot. The live weight 

 of the cows was at the same time also taken, so that the division 

 of the two lots might be the more equally done. 



During the trial each animal was weighed the last day 

 of each week, but from these weights little information can be 

 gained. 



The selected animals were all calved from 3^ to 4^ months, 

 and in weight of body and quality might be considered fair 

 samples of an average herd of AjTshire cows. 



Out of the ten animals, seven were selected to be fed on 

 herring meal, and three to be fed similar to the ordinary herd, 

 their milk, however, being each twice weighed daily, so that the 

 rise or fall of milk of the one lot might be compared with the 

 other. The larger lot contained two heifers, and the smaller one, 

 one, the remainder of both lots being from four to six years old. 

 During the experiment all the animals remained quite healthy, 

 there being no sickness or other disturbing element at any time 

 to mar the results of the trial. A note was kept of the mean 

 outside daily temperature for a part of the trial, in the hope 

 that it might give some results, but as ijothing definite could be 

 drawn from such, it was discontinued, and is not given here. 

 During part of February the weather was extremely mild, while 



