88 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



the less they will gain in summer. I cannot state as a certainty 

 that that applies to a cow, but I think it does. 



Mr. Wasson. Poultrymen tell us that the hen has the capacity 

 to produce a certain number of egge, and that when she has pro- 

 duced that number, she stops. Is it not, in like manner, true of 

 the cow, that she has the capacity to produce a given quantity of 

 milk ? Suppose that capacity is a thousand pounds ; the point is, 

 that we are too long in getting that thousand pounds. Might we 

 not as well obtain it in two y^ars, and when we have reached the 

 limit of production, give the cow to the butcher? • 



Mr. A. L. Bradbury, Member from Franklin. My experience 

 in feeding milch cows is quite limited. I think for any stock the 

 winter feed should be no better than the summer feed. Of late I 

 have adopted the plan of feeding a poorer quality of hay, or straw 

 if 1 have it, the first thing in the morning, and following, before 

 they have quite finished that, with a better quality, and following 

 that with a better still. In this manner I can educate my cowa 

 to eat all kinds of fodder that I raise on my farm. I find that I 

 can get my cattle to eat more hay in this way than by feeding 

 them exclusively with poor hay, and that they will eat it cleaner. 

 I find if I take about one-quarter straw I can make my cows do 

 about as well as if I feed all hay. For provender, I feed shorts if 

 I want quantity of milk, and meal if I want butter. Straw con- 

 tains but a very small quantity of nitrogen, and to make amends 

 for the want of it, I feed shorts, or oats and peas. Why I say oats 

 and peas, is because we can raise them in our climate anywhere 

 and don't have to go abroad for them. Oats and peas contain 

 nitrogen, and a small quantity of oat and pea meal will give the 

 nitrogen required to make up for the straw. If I am feeding 

 clover hay, I feed but a small quantity of the oat and pea meal 

 each day. This method I find so far very satisfactory. I adopted, 

 this plan last winter, not before. I water twice a day. 



Mr Flint, Member from Somerset. I have had some experience 

 in feeding dairy cows. I think that the sugar beet is a valuable 

 article of food for cows, and indeed for all stock, and where pota- 

 toes cannot*be raised to advantage, the beet so far as tried does 

 well. I know of eleven tons having been raised on a quarter of 

 an acre. I think cows should be fed in winter as you propose to 

 feed them in summer. There is no reason for feeding them any 

 better, and there is every reason for feeding them just as well. 



