88 THE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



the ration, and in this case cocoa-nut cake could replace the 

 cotton cake, more especially in a butter dairy, for which both are 

 valuable. Bran could be substituted for the malt dust, and rice 

 meal for maize meal. If the potato is used it will not be neces- 

 sary to give more than half the weight usually allowed when 

 mangels are fed, its feeding value being more than double as 

 great. Considerable benefit will be found by slightly fermenting 

 the food. A day's ration is, in this process, commonly mixed 

 on a concrete floor, the pulped roots, chaff, broken cake, and 

 meal being well mingled together, and allowed to stand twenty- 

 four hours before using. It is then more easily digested and 

 highly relished by the cows. Some feeders, however, prefer to 

 cook the whole, and this plan is often adopted in Scotland where 

 we have seen it produce good results. A large quantity of water 

 is added and the ration is given hot, and half liquid in winter, 

 being wheeled directly to the mangers from the coppers in 

 galvanised iron food barrows. The late Mr. William Bowly, 

 after careful trial, adopted the following plan : The quantities 

 are given for fifteen cows ; a furnace containing 70 gallons of 

 water, the water hot to the boiling point ; then meal at the rate 

 of 101b. per cow, to be well stirred in and boiled gently for an 

 hour. Half of this to be poured over chaff (three bushels per 

 cow), placed in a long trough for the morning's meal; the 

 remainder being used in the same way in the evening. The 

 chaff and soup are thoroughly mixed, and left for about half an 

 hour to cool before being used. One great point is to have the 

 mixture as fresh as possible ; all food that has been cooked is 

 apt to turn sour if kept beyond twenty -four hours. No doubt 

 the perfume is fragrant, especially when the soup is first mixed, 

 but the question is how far the nutritive properties of the food 

 are increased. It would be very serviceable if Sir J. Lawes, that 

 prince of experimenters, would test the point with two lean 

 animals, supplying the same amount of food, and weighing and 

 analysing the excreta. If the digestive process is really so 

 much assisted as some suppose, then a large proportion of 

 nutriment would be extracted, and the dung would be poorer ; 

 the progress of each animal being ascertained by frequent 

 weighing. Another plan is to place the chaff in a bin, and 

 pour the soup over it in layers. The heat is thus kept in 



