SUGAR BEET FOR STOCK FEEDING. 



2G3 



On the Sugar Beet for Stock Feeding. 



BY HON. HENRY LANE OF CORNWALL, VT 



The first and most important question for the dairyman to 

 decide, is the selection of his cows. When the best selection has 

 bom made, the question next in importance is their feeding 1 and 

 management. The highest success will depend very much upon 

 the amount and quality of food furnished ; and unless supplied 

 with an abundance of nutritious food for all seasons of the year, 

 the farmer's expectations will be likely to be disappointed. One 

 cow well fed will yield more profit to her owner than two equally 

 good cows on less and poorer feed. The variation in the yield of 

 milch cows is caused as much by the variation in the quantity and 

 quality of their food, as it is by the difference in their milking 

 qualities. A cow should be fed till she is satisfied, with food which 

 contains a sufficient amount of nutriment, yet the food must have 

 bulk sufficient to fill up to a certain degree the organs of diges- 

 tion. In a good cow the excess of food over what is required to 

 sustain life will go to the production of milk. It is poor economy 

 to attempt to keep too many cows for the amount of food at com- 

 mand. The great secret of success is to keep the cows constantly 

 in good condition. 



Hay and grass are the most natural, the most important, food 

 for cows. Let our other feeding be what it may, these will form 

 the basis of every system of feeding. A cow will give more milk 

 on fresh grass than on any other food, but our pastures begin to 

 fail early, and by the last of August or the first of September are 

 parched and dry. If we attempt to make up by allowing a larger 

 range for the same number of animals, the feed outgrows the ani- 

 mals, and becoming rank and unsavory is no longer satisfactory 

 to them, or profitable to the owner. In dry seasons our pastures 

 do not hold out to exceed three months, and if in favorable years, 

 and by turning into our meadows (which is of doubtful polic}',) we 

 can prolong the season of abundant grass to five months, it still 

 leaves two months during which it is desirable to keep up a rich 

 flow of milk. As our pastures do not supply materials for this, 

 they must be supplemented from other sources. If during a dry, 

 hot season, or fronwany cause, our cows fail to receive a good 

 supply of succulent food for a short time, they will shrink much 

 in the flow of milk, and the most generous feeding subsequently 

 will fail to restore their usual yield, but will tend rather to lay on 



