state Dairy Association. 223 



each must receive more fuel. As soon as the engine is started :t 

 begins to take the stored-up power from the boiler and transmits 

 it into active energy. The boiler will supply steam for some time 

 to the engine without the addition of fresh fuel, but the time is 

 short, and, if continued power is needed, more coal must be added 

 to the fire. The harder the engine works, or the more steam that 

 it uses, the more fuel will the boiler require. It is just so with the 

 cow, for as soon as she begins to produce milk she requires more 

 feed, and the more she produces the more feed she will demand. 

 There is a limit, however, to the amount of work that can be done 

 in either case. For instance, if the boiler is only 10 H. P. and there 

 is a demand for 12 H. P., it will be necessary to crowd the fire 

 with coal and increase the draft in order to produce the extra 

 amount of energy. Every engineer knows that that is a wasteful 

 way of producing energy. It is not only extravagant, but the 

 boiler lasts only a short time when it is crowded to and beyond its 

 capacity. It is generally understood that any piece of machinery 

 should be stronger and capable of doing a little more than it is 

 required to do under ordinary conditions. The cow should have 

 the capacity of producing more milk than she is called upon to pro- 

 duce in ordinary herd work. It is not profitable, as a rule, to force 

 a cow to the limit of her capacity. She should be fed all the feed 

 that she will economically convert into milk, and at the same time 

 retain her health and produce a strong calf. The working ration 

 therefore does not mean crowding the machine continually to its 

 normal capacity, and sometimes beyond, making it short-lived, and 

 the cost of production unnecessarily high, but rather a ration that 

 keeps the animal in good physical condition, produces a strong 

 calf, and gives the most economical flow of milk. 



A BALANCED RATION. 



A balanced ration is the proper amount of feed to sustain the 

 animal for 24 hours and supply her with ample nutrients to do her 

 work economically. In calculating a formula for a balanced ration 

 there are no hard and fast lines to follow. We have tables, to be 

 sure, that are based upon the results of experiments ; they are help- 

 ful in calculating our formulas for rations, but they cannot be fol- 

 lowed to the letter or we will make serious mistakes. 



A few years ago, I was on an institute tour through the Red 

 River Valley of Minnesota, and I advocated the balanced ration, 

 as it was taught to me in school. In other words, I formulated a 

 ration, for a cow weighing 1,000 pounds, containing from 2.25 to 



