YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 143 



invested, costing nearly as much when not running as when run 

 ning on full steam. How absurd, therefore, how unbusinesslike, 

 for the farmer to slacken up the supply of raw material, or by 

 neglect, exposure, or otherwise, to suffer the machine to get out 

 of order, or to yield a product far below its natural capacity. 



Regularity of feeding is next in importance to a full supply 

 of nutritious food, and cows thrive better on a good and regu 

 lar system, than on a larger amount fed at irregular intervals. 



Cows in milk ought not to be exposed to cold in winter. 

 They require less food and give more milk if kept housed. 

 They ought not to be even turned out to water in extreme cold 

 days, and they will be sure to fall off in milk if they are. The 

 loss from a neglect of this precaution is often far greater than 

 farmers are aware of. The cow should be kept in a sound and 

 healthy condition by judicious feeding and exercise, but expo 

 sure in extreme cold weather is never advisable. Moist and 

 succulent food increases the quantity of milk ; dry food, as hay, 

 alone, makes a thicker quality. Food rich in starch, gum, 

 sugar, &c., increases the butter in milk. 



Quietness also promotes the secretion of fat, and increases 

 the richness of milk. Green grass is more nutritious and more 

 digestible than hay, which, like all other coarse and dry food, 

 is made more nutritious by cutting an<l moistening, or steaming. 

 All ruminating animals require more or less bulky food, the 

 bulk contributing to the healthy activity of the digestive or 

 gans. The most valuable additions to this branch of farming 

 [have been made by the elaborate and successful experiments of 

 Mr. Horsfall, who found that he could make as much and as rich 

 butter in winter as in summer. His whole course of manage 

 ment has been republished in this country in the appendix to 

 the lecturer's Treatise on Milch Cows and Dairy Farming. 



Particular attention was called to the management of young 

 heifers, and the time when they should be allowed to corne in, 

 as well as to the care which should be taken to prevent any 

 faulty habit or constitutional defect to become fixed upon them. 



