FEEDING DAIRY COWS. 87 



in which the high figure of perhaps 600 lbs. has been reached. I 

 think my friend, the farmer of tiie Agricultiiral College, has done 

 and is doing good service to the State by his experiments in feed- 

 ing stock ; and when we give these gentlemen there the means 

 and opportunity to complete their experiments, we shall find that 

 there is a golden chain that attaches the college to the State, and 

 we shall attach more importance to the Institution and its results 

 than we do at present. 



A few years ago, when our hay crop was cut off, the farmers 

 were obliged to feed meal in order to bring their stock through 

 the winter. The consequence was that in the months of Febru- 

 ary, March and April, the farmers and farmers' wives were say- 

 ing : " What is the matter with the cows? — they are producing 

 more than they ever did before." They were astonished to find 

 that they were producing in flavor and grain a summer butter in 

 winter. It was because sheer necessity, mother of most of our 

 inventions, had compelled them to feed meal. A few years ago a 

 neighbor of mine was driven into ascertaining on a small scale a 

 fact which my friend (Mr. Farrington) is learning on a broader 

 scale. For the sake of ascertaining the comparative product of 

 three cows, he put the best cow on the best hay, and the poorest 

 on hay and provender, pait oat-meal and part corn-meal, and the 

 result was that with these different kinds of food the poorest cow 

 made more than double the butter that the best did. Now I be- 

 lieve that we must investigate this question of the capacity of our 

 cows, and ascertain what treatment and what feed is necessary in 

 order to develop their full capacity, before we can realize the net 

 gain which it is possible for us to realize from our farms. 



Dr. Tuck of Farmington. I don't understand that the gentle- 

 men who propose to drive their cows in winter to give the utmost 

 quantity of milk, propose to continue their rations of concentrated 

 food through the summer ; but that they will turn them out to 

 grass during that season and let them get their living there. 

 Under that treatment I think the more meal the cow gets in 

 winter the less will be the income derived from her during the 

 summer. If you continue the meal through the summer, I have 

 no doubt you will get a large quantity of milk ; but the idea is 

 prevalent in my section, that the tendency of very high feed is to 

 make a cow gargety, shortlived and sterile. My observation 

 shows me that the more concentrated food fed to sheep in winter 



