

SUMMER AND WINTER FEEDING OF CATTLE. 51 



proportion is no doubt reduced when all feeding is done in the 

 sheds, and it is increased when the cows have to travel far in 

 search of food, or to graze industriously twice as long as they 

 ought to do. 



" A farm had better be over-rented than over-stocked " is 

 an old maxim whose practical philosophy is perfectly sound, 

 no doubt. And again, " Good land can hardly be over-rented, 

 and bad land is seldom cheap enough." These are sayings 

 of those who are gone, but they ought to be treasured 

 in the mind of every farmer. They point, both of them, 

 to the same truth viz., that in order to thrive well or milk 

 copiously cattle must have sufficient food of good quality, with- 

 out having to be at too much labour in procuring it. This is 

 well known to the grazier, for his cattle fatten slowly, or not at 

 all, if their food is deficient either in quantity or quality. But 

 it is not quite so obvious to the dairy farmer, unless he takes 

 careful notice of the quantity of milk his cows yield and the 

 weight of butter or cheese which he makes. The food require- 

 ments of cows in milk and in calf are necessarily much greater 

 than those of fattening animals ; for in addition to the pro- 

 duction of a large quantity of milk, the offspring, in a foetal 

 state in the womb, has to be supplied with bone and tissue. It 

 is obvious, therefore, that dairy cows need generous feeding in 

 order to yield a maximum profit. 



Abundant Grass. 



In the summer grazing of dairy cows, a sufficient supply of 

 grass is, or ought to be, a sine qu& non. The maximum number 

 of cows a given farm will carry successfully through the sum- 

 mer, on grass alone, can only be ascertained by an experience 

 extending through several seasons, and to be exact is hardly 

 possible in reference to any particular season beforehand. 

 Better have one short of the number than one over it, and, if a 

 grassy season comes, shut up a small field and mow it for hay. In 

 any given pasture there is so much potential milk in a specified 

 year, and if ten cows can take it out, a dozen will do no more ; 



