188 THE AMERICAN FARMER. 



four pounds of bran meal made into a thin mash, with the addition of three or four pounds 

 of bean meal, makes an excellent ration. If to the foregoing we add twenty-five pounds of 

 mangolds and a due portion of hay or straw chaff, we will supply a food mixture which will 

 produce much and excellent milk. Brewers grains are often a staple food in town dairies; 

 and even in their wet condition as obtained from the breweries, contain a fair proportion of 

 ready-made fat and flesh-forming matter. They should, however, be fed only in moderate 

 quantities, and in connection with other articles of food. Still slops, or the swill of distille 

 ries, and garbage are too frequently used as the food of cows in milk dairies in the vicinity of 

 large cities, the effect of which is not only to soon cause disease and an enfeebled constitu 

 tion of the animal fed upon it, but the milk thus produced is entirely unfit for any edible 

 purpose whatever. Revolting as the very term &quot; swill milk &quot; is to every intelligent and 

 thoughtful person, it requires but a slight investigation to disclose the fact that there are 

 millions of gallons of this diseased and poisoned fluid, miscalled &quot;milk,&quot; produced in 

 the neighborhood of our large cities, the use of which causes such fearful mortality among 

 the children of New York and other cities. Says a recent writer, referring to this subject: 



&quot; Every such milk dairy is a common nuisance; and as such it should be suppressed, and 

 the owners and keepers of them summarily punished, both by fine and imprisonment. 

 And if a Humane Society, or a Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, exist in 

 the vicinity where these nuisances are kept, the first should compel the health authorities of 

 the municipalities to prohibit the sale of their milk, and thus cease poisoning children, and 

 the other should rescue the poor suffering cows from further torture, and a lingering death. 

 It would be so in a country where law is enforced for we already have law enotigh to abate 

 these nuisances but we fear nothing less than a knowledge of the imposition, and a deter 

 mination on the part of those concerned to refrain from the use of the article, will help the 

 matter. On persons concerned in such establishments, our words, if they ever see them, will 

 make no impression, and we therefore address ourselves to those who pursue an honest and 

 honorable business in their own legitimate dairies.&quot; 



The trade in watered milk, as well as that which is adulterated by mixing with skim 

 milk, though bad enough and quite too common, is far less injurious in its consequences than 

 the traffic in the poisoned product of animals fed on swill and garbage. Roots are excellent 

 to form a part of the rations of milch cows in the winter and spring, especially the latter. 

 Dairy stock that have a liberal daily allowance of roots in connection with other food, almost 

 invariably enter upon grass in a vigorous, healthy condition, and are thus prepared to yield 

 largely in milk through the season. Cotton seed meal is also excellent for milch cows, when 

 fed in proper quantities and in connection with other articles of food. A practical dairyman 

 of large experience states that by feeding cotton seed meal daily to eacli cow in addition to 

 pasture, the milk yield will be largely increased, and that if he is out of this article of food 

 for only one day, his cows will shrink a quart each in milk; neither will the same amount of 

 corn meal or wheat shorts given in place, keep them up to their full quantity; but after feed 

 ing cotton seed meal again for one or two days, they will come up again to their full rate. 

 This may seem a strong statement, but it comes from a careful observer, and a reliable 

 gentleman. 



Analyses conducted at the Experiment Station in Connecticut, show that the average 

 estimated value of cotton seed meal exceeds the cost by twenty-four per cent. ; hence the use 

 of it for feeding purposes is in the line of economy. A leading authority says: 



&quot;As a rule, a combination of wheat bran and oil-cake meal will accomplish more in 

 maintaining a lot of closely-stabled breeding and growing cattle stock in a satisfactory condi 

 tion, than any other two articles whatever. Bran, which was formerly supposed to be the 

 mere refuse part, bearing a relation to the inner portion of the grain like that borne by the 

 shell of the nut to the meat within, of about as much value as the straw upon which the grain 



