282 



Management of Dairy Cattle. 



sent to Professor Way a specimen of the first crop of hay, cut in 

 the end of June, when the grass was in the early stage of flowering, 

 and one of aftermath, cut, towards the close of September, from 

 the same meadow, the analyses of which I give: — 



100-00 



100-00 



A comparison between these will show a much greater per- 

 centage of woody fibre, 27-41 in the first crop to 19-77 in the 

 aftermath. The most remarkable difference, however, is in the 

 proportion of oil, being 2*68 in the first crop to 6-84 in the after- 

 math. 



On inquiry from an observant tenant of a small dairy-farm 

 of mine, who has frequently used aftermath hay, I learn that, 

 as compared with the first crop, he finds it induce a greater 

 yield of milk, but attended with some impoverishment in the 

 condition of the cow, and that he uses it without addition of 

 turnips or other roots, which he gives when using hay of the first 

 crop — an answer quite in accordance with what might be ex- 

 pected from its chemical composition. 



It is likewise to be presumed that the quickness of growth will 

 materially affect the composition of grasses, as well as of other 

 vegetables. Your gardener will tell you that if radishes are slow 

 in growth they will be tough and woody, that asparagus melts in 

 eating like butter, and salad is crisp when grown quickly. The 

 same effect will, I apprehend, be found in grasses of slow growth : 

 they will contain more of woody fibre, with less of starch or sugar. 

 The quality of butter grown on poor pastures is characterised by 

 greater solidity than on rich-feeding pastures, the cows having to 

 travel over more space require a greater supply of the elements 

 of respiration, whilst the i^rasses grown on these poor pastures 

 contain, in all probability, less of these in a digestible form 

 available for respiration. The like result seems probable as from 

 common winter treatment — a produce of butter less in quantity, 

 and containing a greater proportion of margerine, and a less of 

 olein. 



It is well known that pastures vary greatly in their butter- 

 producing properties ; there is, however, as far as I am aware, 

 no satisfactory explanation of this. If you watch cows on de- 

 pasture, you observe them select their own food ; if you supply 



