DAIRY, SEED IMPROVEMENT, STOCK BREEDERS' MEETINGS. 345 



mean a serious reduction in the year's -work from the cow. 

 Our most useful feed, in restoring a cow to flow, is mangel 

 wurzel beets. These are fed chopped, half a peck or so to a 

 feed, repeating two or three times, if necessary. Corn meal and 

 cottonseed meal are useful for this purpose, but have to be 

 used with judgment, not to cause imdigestion or udder troubles. 

 Beets may be given with perfect safety except in cases involving 

 a too relaxed condition of the bowels. 



Our main dependence in grains is on bran, cottonseed meal, 

 Diamond Gluten, corn meal and dried distillers' grains (Ajax 

 Flakes or Fourex). For special feeding, we use ground oats, 

 feed flour and linseed oil meal. 



We build a bin with eight compartments, in the form of a car- 

 penter's square, putting the bran in the corner compartment, 

 which is the largest; the man who takes out the grain stands 

 inside the angle, and all the compartments, holding a bag of 

 grain apiece, are within easy reach, the grains most used being 

 put in the compartments to the right of the bran. We make a 

 list of our cows, in the order in which they stand, and opposite 

 each name write the grain ration for that cow, expressed in 

 letters and figures, for instance, BCGMJZ means one pound 



4 



each of bran, cottonseed and gluten, a half-pound of linseed 

 oil meal, a quarter pound of corn meal and three-quarters of a 

 pound of feed flour at a feed. The grain is measured out in 

 dippers holding approximately a pound, double the quantity 

 shown on the grain sheet being measured into a large dishpan, 

 mixed, and divided equally between two milk pans — one for the 

 evening feed and one for the morning. These pans are piled in 

 order, from six to ten in a pile, as convenient, and, the mixing 

 having been done at whatever time is most convenient for the 

 feeder, at feeeding time it is only necessary to carry the piles 

 along in front of the cows and pour in the grain. By the use 

 of this system, the actual mixing and feeding of the grain may 

 be delegated to a hired man, while the owner retains full over- 

 sight and direction, guided by the milk scales and the general 

 condition of his animals. An animal that has settled down to 

 steady work may ineed no change in the grain ration for weeks, 

 but fresh cows need constant attention, and there will be need 

 of some changes on the sheet almost daily, with occasional thor- 

 ough revisions. 



