THE DAIRY. 527 



foregoing hypothesis, be kept in good condition on lOO pounds 

 of food per day without profit, two cows consuming the same 

 amount would yield a considerable profit, and one cow would 

 yield still more. 



2. To adjust the character of the food to the end it is desired 

 to attain. That is to say, if milk is to be sold, the food should 

 be of such a character as to stimulate as much as possible the 

 production of quantity, and, incidentally, to induce the drinking of 

 a large amount of water ; while, if it be the object to make butter, 

 the food should be less watery in its character and much richer in 

 quality — richer chiefly in fat-forming substances ; although even 

 with butter-cows, the fact should be constantly borne in mind 

 that the assimilation by the digestive organs of fat-forming ma- 

 terials, such as sugar, starch, vegetable oils, etc., bears a very 

 close relation to the amount of nitrogenous or flesh-and-cheese- 

 forming matter that the food contains. The principle in this 

 case is, that if a bushel of food contain twenty pounds of starch, 

 this starch will not be assimilated unless accompanied by so much 

 gluten or albumen as must necessarily be taken up by the animal 

 in the digestion of so much starch. The proportion between the 

 nitrogenous food required and that of a fat-forming character, is 

 not constant in all animals, but depends more or less on the extent 

 to which they yield or waste their flesh or fat. Working animals 

 wasting in their economy a large amount of flesh-forming material, 

 would assimilate less starch in proportion to the quantity of this 

 than would milch cows, with whom the production of fat in 

 cream is very great. Experiments on which to base definite 

 directions on this subject are wanting ; and in their absence the 

 farmer must be guided largely by his own observation ; and under 

 the best circumstances he will generally fail to establish the most 

 economical proportion between the two constituents of food ; but 

 there is no doubt that he may, by a proper attention to the princi- 

 ple, add materially to the economy of his operations. 



3. To pay attention to the fact that pregnant animals, in addi- 

 tion to the demand which the secretion of milk makes upon their 

 digestive organs, require a certain quantity of food, and food of 



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