No. 7. DEPARTMENT OF ACiRlCULTURE. 4?» 



stable, she will cat betweeu eighty aud oue huudred pouuds oi it, 

 and do very well on tliat aloue, aud after you have satisfied your- 

 self on that point, take (his same grass and dry it, and where you had 

 a hundred jjounds, you have eighteen or twenty-live; now, you will 

 take this same feed aud give it to her, with all the water sue can 

 drink, what will happen? She will get thin and dry up. 



Now, we want that cow to be in a healthy condition in the winter, 

 and if w'e have not the pasture grass on which she thrives, we can 

 give her some other succulent feed. You will find here a line of 

 green feeds, three-fourths of them water. You will notice, also, 

 that the dried foods, instead of having 75 per cent, water have less 

 than one-fifth, and as the water is decreased, the crude fibre is in- 

 creased, and instead of 10 per cent, of it, we have over 40 per cent. 



In the dried stalks much of the starch and sugar, which in green 

 corn is digestible, are tissued in woody fibre. So you will find 

 roots which are 90 per cent, water. Any breeder of sheep will tell 

 you that he will get more growth from less grain if he feeds roots. 



What about the protein? It is necessary in these days to under- 

 stand such terms as "protein" and '"carbo-hydrates"' aud "potas- 

 sium," aud other words that were mentioned Ihis afternoon. Well, 

 we have learned to take them in as we have such words as "auto-car" 

 and several more of these terms. 



The protein is the element in the feed that makes tlie loan meat, 

 aud the blood. If there is auy man who does not understand this, 

 1 want to make it clear, if possible. This element in the food will do 

 all this; it will make the lean meat, and the blood, and you can't 

 get it without it. The man who feeds it is building up the bone and 

 muscle, but most of the feeds grown on our farms are deficient in it. 

 Prof. Hayward has told us what he knows about growing the pig, 

 and that he has to have a good deal of protein with his rations. 



Now, we have a young heifer, and we expect her to make a suc- 

 cess as a cow, so we must give her the material to build up her body 

 and she can't get it out of the starch and sugar in the food. 



Then we have the dry corn, and there is where I think the farmer is 

 uuikiug a mistake. Perhaps she is withia a few mouths of calving, 

 and we don't expect hor to give us much milk, so we do not feed her 

 protein, but put her on coarse feed, and fail to take into considera- 

 tion the effect it will have in the development of that calf. Take a 

 case of abortion at about SQxcn months; most of them occur about 

 that time, and I believe that many of them are due to the fact that 

 she did not receive the necessary food element to produce the 

 strength necessary to bear tluit calf. TTnless she is properly fed, she 

 will have to take from her own body to develop that calf, and prob- 

 ably fall off in flesh. Now, I would not feed that cow during the 

 last few months of pregnancy the same concentrated foods as when 

 she is in full milk, but I would give her the cooling protein feeds 

 that would give hor the strength she needed. I have heard people 

 talk as though there w^as no benefit in carbo-hydrates. Why, cer- 

 tainly there is; but the poii^.t is, we have most of them in our own 

 feeds, and with this in view how can we bring it down so as to benefit 

 us in a practical and economical manner. 



What dc we feed in the winter, when we Iiave no pasture grass? 

 Well, we have the silage, which is succulent, but deficient in this 

 protein. I value my reputation, but I will stake it on this proposi- 



