CATTLE. 381 



Calling the second season's pasturing $5, and the second 

 season's wintering $10, we have the cost, at two years, when 

 the heifer ought to come in as a dairy cow, $33.00. 



This is, of course, only a general estimate. The price )f 

 food, labor, and other incidental expenses vary so much in dif- 

 ferent localities, that practical results in one section would not 

 apply to others ; but it must be evident, that the feeding of the 

 first year is not only the most expensive, but requires greater 

 care and judgment. 



So far as it can be controlled, the period of dropping the first 

 calf should be arranged to take place in the month of May or 

 June, just before the greatest luxuriance of pasture feed. This 

 will induce the largest possible flow of milk when the milk 

 glands are in a condition of growth to be readily influenced by 

 food. A greater development of the mammary or glandular 

 system takes place now than if the animal came in on dry food, 

 and it creates the capacity for large secretions of milk through 

 the life of the cow. The capacity of the udder for holding 

 milk will depend largely upon the character and abundance of 

 the food during the first year; and a cow coming in for the first 

 time in May, or early in June, will be worth more, as a milker, 

 than she Avould be to come in at any other season. Feed, there- 

 fore, so as to induce the largest possible flow of milk the first 

 year. 



Feeding- and Management of Daiey Stock. No branch 

 of the dairy can exceed in importance the feeding and manage- 

 ment of stock. It will be found in practice that nothing comes 

 out of the bag that is not first put into the mouth. The breed 

 of animals may be the best in the world, and yet success in the 

 dairy will depend very largely upon feeding, regularity, and 

 general treatment. 



The feeding, or nutritive value of all the various articles of 



