112 KEEPING OKE COW. 



Tliis was my first lesson, acquired by experience. At the same 

 time, I learned another by observation. The two combined added 

 materially to my stock of knowledge. 



A neighbor of mine, a German, in the month of January, 1849, 

 purchased a heifer, three years of age the coming spring. She had 

 been kept poor from the time she was weaned. At two years of 

 age she had dropped her first calf, and through her first season 

 of milk had given but little promise as a milker. She had just 

 been dried when he purchased her, and he, without any previous 

 knowledge of the care of cows, commenced feeding her according 

 to his instincts. He fed her six quarts of meal per day, in addi- 

 tion to all the hay she would eat. This system of feeding con- 

 tinued until about the twenty-fifth of March, when she calved. 

 At the time of calving she was hi better condition than much of 

 the beef sold in our markets. 



About the same time that his cow calved I repurchased mine. 

 The feed of the two, thereafter, was very nearly alike, except that 

 his cow had a feed of six quarts of meal per day, while mine 

 had only two. His fat cow doubled on the quantity of milk that 

 she had given the year before, when she came in poor, while my 

 poor cow, with extra feed, fell short more than a third of her 

 yield of the year before, when she came in, in good condition. 



At that time I do not remember to have ever seen a work on 

 chemistry, and knew nothing of its application ; but the know- 

 ledge acquired, led to the formation of a theory in my mind, on 

 which I have since acted, and which, I believe, has a scientific 

 basis, to wit : " The fat laid on the body of an in-calf cow, is a 

 store from which nature draws a large portion of the material 

 which increases and enriches the subsequent flow of milk a store 

 from which she, by legitimate processes, produces oleo-stearine in 

 the shape of butter." 



Acting upon this theory, I have endeavored to apportion to my 

 cows a uniform daily ration, occasionally varying the material, 

 which, although it may not sustain the cow in full flesh during 

 ' the greatest flow of milk, seems to renew it during the period 

 of the lesser flow, and render them in good condition at the time 

 of calving. This system of uniform feeding, to my mind, pays 

 better than it does to feed heavily while in milk, and then Tghtly 

 when dry, because it furnishes a large resource of fat, on which to 

 draw at a time when to consume sufficient food to sustain the en- 

 tire flow of milk capable of being produced, might imperil health ; 

 and I feel quite sure that a certain richness is thereby imparted to 



