502 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



about one-half of each separate feed at each meal; that is, one-half of the 

 bran, silage, hay, etc., in the morning and the other half in the evening. 

 When feeds are given that may impart an undesirable flavor or odor, they 

 should be given immediately after millcing and the milk removed from the 

 barn. A little roughage at noon has been given for cows to pick over, 

 but it should not be any more necessary than to do the same at midnight. 



When we understand that the stomach of the cow is specially con- 

 structed for rolling and mixing feeds we begin to doubt the advisability 

 of mixing by hand. At the Wisconsin Experimental Station a steer was 

 killed fifteen minutes after a full feed given singly, and the contents 

 of the stomach were thoroughly mixed. Hence, we conclude that mixing 

 by hand is not desirable, unless to make tJie cows eat a food that would 

 otherwise not be eaten. To mix the concentrated and bulky feeds will 

 generally produce some better results at the pail, but will seldom pay for 

 the extra labor involved. 



In cold weather the value of warming a feed may be easily proven. 

 Here, again, the cost of warming the feed should be compared with 

 the increase in milk flow. A feed of warm silage is beneficial, and when 

 the other feeds are dry they need not be warmed. 



Cooking feeds for cows was recommended strongly fifty years ago, 

 but experiments since that time prove conclusively the fallacy of this 

 plan of feeding. At Popelsdorf experiments in cooking hay showed that 

 with the uncooked hay 46 per cent of the protein was digested, while in 

 the cooked hay only 30 per cent, was digested, a loss of one-third, due to 

 cooking. The cooking of other feeds, in the case of feeding swine, caused 

 an average loss of 6 per cent, in all tests reported. 



Every one is familiar with the indigestibility of an egg boiled for 

 thirty minutes as against the one soft-boiled. This is on account of the 

 fact that albuminoids are changed to a less digestible form by heat. All 

 experiments in this country and Canada point to the same conclusion— 

 that it does not pay to cook feed for cows. The editor of the Country 

 Gentleman, in discussing the subject of cooking coarse fodder, once said: 

 "The advantages are very slight and not worth the trouble of either build- 

 ing the fire, cutting the wood or erecting the apparatus, to say nothing of 

 all these combined, with danger and insurance added." 



In forming a dairy ration the chemical composition must be taken 

 into account. Every feed-stuff has more or less water, varying from 5.7 

 per cent, in grano gluten to 89 per cent in silage and 93.4 per cent, in 

 whey. All the remainder of a feed-stufC is known as dry matter. This 

 dry matter is divided into two classes, called digestible and indigestible. 

 No account is taken of the indigestible dry matter, as it is of no value 

 for feed. The digestible matter is divided into tliree food elements, known 

 as protein, carbohydrates and fats. Hence, feeding analyses show the 

 number of pounds of dry matter, digestible protein, carbohydrates and 

 fats in 100 pounds of a given feedstuff. After much experimenting Wolff, 



