310 DAIRYING PASTURE AND FOOD 



traffic is permitted in the byres between times. To keep the 

 air pure the manure is not moved while the milk is being 

 handled, and the first mucking is delayed till after the first 

 milking. The second cleaning out, which is followed by 

 swilling the floors, takes place half an hour before the last 

 milking. The liquid is drained from the solid excrement at 

 10.15, but the surface skin of the dung is not broken, so that 

 exhalations do not occur. 



The total amounts of food consumed per week by the 

 forty-three cows are (i) Brewers' grains, 7 tons (winter feed) 

 carted four times a week, costing wholesale an average of i 

 per ton ; the full quantity is not given during summer when 

 grass is plentiful ; (2) half a ton of Canadian pease-meal, aver- 

 aging from 7, i os. to 8 per ton ; (3) a quarter of a ton of 

 linseed cake at 8, given in three feeds a day, along with, in the 

 morning, (4) a bunch of oat-straw between two cows or 7 Ibs. 

 each for fodder and litter combined nearly a ton for the 

 lot, at an average of 2, ios. a ton. (5) The best Canadian 

 mixed hay (grasses and legumes) is given at six o'clock, and 

 a half-cwt. is used daily. (6) The short food is administered 

 in a hot slop. The meal is first soaked with cold water at 

 the time of the previous meal, scalded with boiling water, and 

 mixed with 127 Ibs. of common salt, amounting to about 

 6-7 ozs. per cow per day, and costing 2s. per cwt. It gives 

 the best results when supplied in spring before grass comes. 

 In American practice, 2 to 4 ozs. of salt per day are given to 

 milch cows. (7) Roots are used to the extent of 7 or 8 

 tons, or about 50 Ibs. each per day. 



In summer the turnips, straw, treacle, and part of the 

 brewers' grains are replaced by grass from sewage meadows 

 or by green forage frequently Italian rye-grass forced by 

 dressings of nitrate of soda. The cost of this should be 

 rather under its equivalent of winter food. 



The yield per cow while in milk varies in different dairies 

 according to the types of milking cows selected, the amount 

 of forced feeding, and the temperature of the byre, from 2\ to 

 4 gallons per day = 690 up to 1105 gallons in nine months. 

 As each cow is replaced at the end of that time by a " green " 

 or newly calved cow, the average of milk given annually per 

 stall is raised from 1095 to H^o gallons. The temperature 

 of the byre ranges between 60 and 70, and the largest yields 



