64 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



of them than of dry fodder. Early cut hay, again, is more 

 appetizing than late cut hay and the animal will be induced ta 

 eat more of it. That is the principle and you must apply it. 

 Feed such foods, in a practical way, as will induce your animals 

 to eat the most. 



Second, the more easily digested the ration, the more the milk 

 flow. Now a certain amount of the food which the cow eats^ 

 or the energy of it, is used in preparing that food for assimila- 

 tion. In the coarse fodders it is perhaps a large per cent- 

 Applying that principle, we see that pasture grass is more easily 

 digested than dry fodders. We see again that succulent foods- 

 are more easily digested than dry fodder, that early cut hay is 

 more easily digested than late cut, that grain or concentrates as. 

 compared with roughages are more easily digested. No one 

 would expect to feed a driving horse on hay alone and get much 

 speed out of him. For one thing, it taxes his digestive capacity 

 too much to digest the food, and he has not energy and life 

 enough to make a good reader. In the feeding of the dairy cow 

 grains are more easily digested than coarser foods, and so we 

 must expect to feed some grain ; perhaps from a third to a half 

 of the digestible nutrients in the form of concentrates. 



The third proposition is this: The more protein you feed a 

 cow up to a certain point, the larger the milk flow. In the first 

 place, the cow cannot convert one element into another. She 

 cannot change nitrogen, for example, into carbon, or hydrogen 

 or oxygen. First, there is a demand by the cow for a certain 

 amount of food which contains nitrogen to make the casein of 

 the milk ; in the second place, there is a call for a certain amount 

 of nitrogenous food to maintain the body. And in excess of 

 that, the addition of protein seems to stimulate milk production. 

 So if you commence with a ration moderately wide, which con- 

 tains a comparatively small amount of protein, as you increase 

 the protein you increase the milk flow. The Germans have 

 worked out a standard which seems to fit the average cow, and 

 it calls for a pound and a quarter of protein for every ten or 

 twelve pounds of milk. 



The fourth principle or maxim is that the richer the ration 

 the richer the manure. About 75 per cent of the nitrogenous 

 matter of the food or ration, and 90 per cent of the mineral 



