ECONOMICAL STOCK FEEDING. (57 



pounds a day, and two quarts of cotton seed meal and two quarts 

 of dorn meal mixed with four quarts of bran, in two feeds per da^-. 

 That is a good cow, and will pay 3'ou $90.00 a year, gross income. 



Question. It will cost how much to feed her? 



Mr. Couu. Fifty-four dollars and thirty-six cents, as feed was 

 last year. That is what it cost to feed mine last year. That has 

 been done by actual weight, upon the scales in the barn floor, b}- 

 lots of two and two and four and four, right along, week in and 

 week out. The amount of cotton seed meal weighs just three 

 pounds to two level quarts, and the bran is a pound and a half. 

 There is but a bit of difference between the weight of two (puuts of 

 corn meal and two quarts of cotton seed meal. Corn meal is of 

 too fatty a nature, too heating, and causes garget in cows very 

 much more than any other kind of feed. Cotton seed meal is con- 

 sidered by m3-self, and by neighbors of mine who have fed it for 

 twenty-five 3ears, to be a perfectly healthy food and a good prov- 

 ender the year round. 



The only way of ascertaining how much cotton seed meal can be 

 fed, is by testing it upon your cows, commencing with a little and 

 increasing the amount gradually till 3'ou see what the cow will 

 stand. When you find they are shrinking in milk and going to flesh 

 it is time to stop. But if they keep giving a good amount of milk 

 I should not stop even if the}' gain in flesh. It is cheaper keeping 

 a fleshy animal than a lean one. It is a sa3'ing, and a true one, 

 that when a creature comes to the barn in good order, it is half 

 wintered. This can only be ascertained correctly by weighing, and 

 this has been done time and time again, even the milk that comes 

 from each cow being weighed ever}' day. You can guess that it 

 costs a barn full of ha}' to feed a barn full of cows through the 

 winter, but if you want to know about these things you must use 

 the scales. M3' experience for a number of 3'ears has proved to me 

 that it takes twentj'-one pounds of hay, three pounds of corn meal, 

 three pounds of cotton seed meal and three pounds of bran per day 

 to keep a cow, giving good quantities of milk. 



Question. Suppose you leave out the corn meal, what amount 

 would you add to the cotton seed meal and bran? 



Mr. Cobb. I would add two quarts to the cotton seed meal, and 

 I do so to those cows that are fresh in milk. As a rule I add one 

 quart of corn meal to those farrow cows that are going to be passed 

 off in the spring for beef. 



