DIGESTION AND WINTER FEEDING. 51 



following that principle, I would feed nothing but the very 

 best early-cut hay and rowen, — different kinds of hay, so 

 as to tempt their appetite. If you have any particular kind 

 of hay in the barn that they like less than another, feed that 

 first. Feed in that way, a little at a time, so as to keep their 

 appetites sharp. Keep them busily eating all the time, and, 

 when you get through with the different qualities of hay, 

 feed your roots, and then your meal ; or, for convenience' 

 sake (wliich seems to answer the same purpose equall}- 

 well), feed your meal on top of the roots. 



Dr. Wakefield. If you were feeding to get the most 

 milk, what grain would you feed? and when and how would 

 you feed it ? 



Mr. BowDiTCH. I liave always been a butter-maker: 

 therefore I have never fed to get any great quantity of milk, 

 although some of my cows will give over twenty quarts of 

 milk a day. But my feed for making butter is no grain at 

 all, except corn-meal. I have found, that, if I fed any other 

 grain, my butter-merchant would tell me that I had been 

 feeding something that was undesirable. I have had him 

 reduce it to so fine a point, that, when one cow out of twenty 

 was having five or six quarts of shorts a day, he informed 

 me that I was feeding something I had better not continue. 



Dr. Wakefied. Wouldn't you feed something else, if 

 you were feeding to get the largest quantity of milk, to say 

 nothing about making butter? 



Mr. BoWDiTCH. Yes, sir. I should feed shorts ; but I 

 don't pretend to know much about making milk. 



Dr. Wakefield. Will you tell us about making butter ? 



Mr. BoWDiTCH. Feeding for butter, I would feed from 

 half a bushel to a bushel of carrots a day, if I had them. 

 That is the only root you can feed that quantity of without 

 giving a bad taste to the butter. My feed now is about six 

 quarts of mangolds, with ten or twelve quarts of carrots, 

 besides four quarts of corn-meal, fed twice a day, in two 

 rations, as the doctor suggests. 



Dr. Wakefield. That comes nearer your idea of grass 

 than any thing else ? 



Mr. Bowditch. My cows make me better butter in 

 winter on that feed than any other feed I have ever tried :, 

 and my butter, although perhaps not quite up to grass but- 

 ter, has a very good flavor. 



