354 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



AnswKR : Why, if you are short of hay, that might do. A 

 man told me he fed two bushels of ensilage and hay once a day. 

 Then they get the roughage in the ensilage. 



Question : Do you think it would be better to feed more 

 grain? We are feeding about one peck a day. 



Answer: Grain by measure is rather unsatisfactory, be- 

 cause if you are feeding the same to all your cows, you may 

 know what to feed them, but when we feed individually, it 

 would not work. 



Question : Do you carry that grain ration through uni- 

 formly, or is there a point in the production of a cow, at the 

 maximum point, when you switch off and give just enough 

 for physical condition without regard to milk production? 



Answer: No, we watch the individual cow, to see what 

 she is doing, and give just enough to keep her in good condi- 

 tion. We make changes very gradually ; we do not make any 

 quick changes. After a cow has been fresh a day or two, we 

 start in on a little bran ; then we add half a pound of ground 

 oats, then we add some Ajax or a little linseed oil meal, but we 

 come up very slowly, and do not give much in the line of con- 

 centrates until the cow gets well started. Linseed oil meal is 

 the safest concentrate to start with. 



Dr. Woods : I think you did not make it perfectly plain that 

 you work out your feed according to your milk sheet. 



Answer: Yes, we watch that sheet, and the cow's condi- 

 tion ; sometimes the ration goes on for a month without chang- 

 ing, but if the cow begins to drop, we take means of bringing 

 her back to flow. In summer we cannot give much extra, 

 except perhaps a little grain feed. 



Question : Just how much would a cow drop off, before 

 you changed the feed. 



Answer: If she has been running very uniformly, she 

 might drop two or three pounds without changing, but if she 

 drops considerably, we change the ration. We add each week's 

 work of each cow, put on the milk sheet the average for that 

 past week, and then compare the last two milkings with that 

 average and it gives us a fairly good index of how she is run- 

 ning. We also put on the amount of the drop, as compared 

 with the week past. As to how much is a serious drop, would 

 depend entirely upon the cow, and you would have to depend 



