No. 6. DEPARTMEKT OF AGRICULTURE. 503 



have made an experiment on that. They allowed a cow to draw 

 her fat when she was producing twenty-five to thirty pounds of 

 milk. At the end of thirty days she was giving the same amount of 

 milk, but she was only fed the amount required for her maintenance. 

 What was the result? She had drawn on her body to make this 

 milk, and she was so weak that she could hardly stand up, and had 

 to be helped on her feet. That shows how strong is Nature's deter- 

 mination to furnish food for that calf. 



Now, after that calf gets to be from six, or eight weeks old, it 

 is presumed to be able to care for itself, and the amount of milk 

 supply decreases unless the cow is given from a half to a pound of 

 protein to take care of herself. She requires six therms of energy 

 to take care of herself. If she is supposed to produce milk she re- 

 quires six therms more. A thousand pound cow, giving twenty 

 pounds of four per cent, milk, needs twelve therms of energy and one 

 pound of protein. I will not go into details with the figures because 

 we are about to issue a bulletin at the College, which you can get 

 by addressing us, and which will give you all the figures. 



It is not possible for me to figure out exactly the ration required 

 for your cow. In the next place, it is not possible for you to guaran- 

 tee to me that your silo is exactly the same composition as the 

 silage of the bulletin? Now, there is no use quarreling over these 

 small details. There is no use spending a dollars worth of time to 

 get fifty cents worth of exactness on paper. Now, what is required 

 of you is TO get a reasonable ration that will give her tue required 

 amount of energy and then feed her in proportion to the amount 

 of milk you expect her to produce. 



The next rule: Feed your cow a grain mixture for the purpose 

 of making flesh, and then give her all the roughage she will eat. A 

 good proportion is one pound of grain to each three pounds of milk, 

 or if the grain is high priced and she thrives on roughage make it 

 one pound of grain to each four pounds of milk; anywhere along 

 there is safe ; and you can get the most ignorant farm hand to follow 

 this rule and be sure of good results. Our roughages are usually 

 short of protein, so we must mix it with grain and in order to produce 

 twenty pounds of milk a day, we must give the cow from one pound 

 to one pound and a half of protein ; so we must make the mixture to 

 cover the difference. If you feed timothy hay, corn stover and silage, 

 you must have a good deal more protein in your mixture than if you 

 are going to feed from clover or alfalfa. The amount of grain will 

 also tell a little the amount of protein there must be in your grain 

 mixture. The more grain you feed the less protein, in proportion to 

 your energy will be required. 



Now I divide our roughages up into three grades. The first grade 

 is timothy hay, corn stover and silage; with this you have one pound 

 of protein for every four therms of energy. But if you have for your 

 mixture clover hay and timothy, or clover hay and silage, then the 

 protein is one in five. Of clover hay and alfalfa, you get as high as 

 one in seven or eight; in fact I think you can go so high as to feed 

 simply straight corn meal. In following any of these rules, I have 

 tried to give you simply enough ])rotein to safely expect the cow to 

 do her work. In fact, I think you are giving her more than she needs. 



