526 HANDY-BOOK OF HUSBANDRY. 



nection, to insist on the importance of an exact adaptation of the 

 means used to the end desired to be obtained. The following 

 general principles should never be lost sight of : — 



I. To keep the cow always in a thrifty, healthy condition, 

 and with a voracious appetite. The great end of her life, 

 the production of milk, cannot be perfectly accomplished unless 

 she is comfortable and cheerful, and unless she consumes the 

 largest amount of food that it is possible for her to take 

 into her stomach without injury to her health. She should 

 be regarded as an agricultural implement — as a mill, in which 

 we grind up fodder and roots and grain for the purpose of 

 turning out as large a quantity of dairy products as that food is 

 capable of producing. For the same reason that it would be un- 

 profitable to keep an expensive grist-mill running on half-work, so 

 it is unprofitable to keep a cow in such a way that she will turn 

 into milk and butter only a part of the food that her organs are 

 capable of so turning. Up to a certain point every ounce of food 

 gi\^en is appropriated for the supply of the natural wastes of the 

 body, and for the production of animal heat. It is only after this 

 universal demand has been supplied that surplus production 

 becomes possible. We will suppose, by way of illustration, that 

 a cow is capable of consuming lOO pounds a day of hay, grain, 

 and roots, and that twenty-five pounds a day would be sufficient 

 to maintain her in good, healthy condition. By drying off her 

 milk we could carry her through the winter in good condition on 

 twenty-five pounds of food per day. But from the consumption 

 of this food we should have gained literally nothing beyond a 

 small quantity of manure. In order to obtain any profit from her 

 keep, it is necessary that she be fed more than this twenty-five 

 pounds a day, and pretty nearly the whole amount in excess of this 

 contributes to the yield of milk and its products. Therefore, the 

 greater the amount of food that we can induce her to con- 

 sume, the greater the proportion of profit resulting from the 

 operation. And herein lies the chief argument against overstock- 

 ing, that is, the keeping of more animals than we can feed in 

 the most liberal manner. For while four cows would, under the 



