

BREEDING AND TREATMENT OF DAIRY CATTLE. 47 



else the cow soon becomes " lean " from the consumption of 

 her own internal fat for warmth. 



It will now be seen that in bitter and piercing weather, 

 of which we generally have a good deal in the fall of the 

 year, it is not only cruel but wasteful to refuse the shelter 

 which cattle require. Everything fat, flesh, milk, bone 

 comes from food, and about two-thirds of what cows eat 

 goes to supply the demands of the system before milk or flesh 

 can be made from the rest of it. Indeed, the food sup- 

 plies all heat, motion, new tissue for what is constantly 

 being wasted, and so on and as something must be given for 

 everything, it is impossible to produce anything from nothing. 

 Therefore it follows that true economy, in reference to the food 

 of cattle, consists in no slight degree in affording the shelter 

 which is required in bad weather. 



General Treatment. 



We may say, then, that if cows are exposed to bad weather 

 of any sort, particularly to cold combined with damp, a waste 

 of food is invariably involved ; so also if they are chased about 

 by dogs, or flies, or men, or if they have to travel too far in 

 search of food and drink all is done at the cost of food ; for 

 the consumption of carbon is excessive in these cases, and the 

 cow will lose flesh and give less milk, the quality of which will 

 be reduced, if she is not treated upon what are called humani- 

 tarian principles. A cow that is starved of food, or " deformed 

 by dripping rains and withered by a frost," cannot be said to 

 have even common fair-play, and can do but little credit to 

 herself in the way of yielding a profit to her owner. Instances 

 may easily be found, in almost any district, showing the effects 

 of feeding and treatment of dairy cows. In one instance we 

 may see a prosperous man who, in feeding his cattle well, en- 

 riches his land ; the land responds to this, and in turn feeds 

 his cattle more liberally, maintaining a larger number of them 

 than it would at first. In another we find lean cattle and 

 impoverished land, which lead in the end to poverty. 



