sul 



SUMMER AND WINTER FEEDING OF CATTLE. 59 



promote rumination, and it would seem as if 5 Ibs. were little 

 enough for the purpose. The ration, however, is only approxi- 

 mate as to weight, for while some cows will need more, others 

 will need less. No hard-and-fast line as to quantity of food 

 can be laid down, though as to quality it almost may. The 

 way to feed most cows properly is to give them as much as 

 they will eat up cleanly and with a relish ; each cow's capacity 

 for food should be carefully watched by the cowman, and while 

 fastidious animals may be tempted by a better quality of food, 

 a gluttonous cow should be regularly restricted to a reasonable 

 quantity. There are gluttonous cows as there are gluttonous 

 animals of other kinds, and it is safe enough to say that 

 they consume a good deal of food to waste. A morbid 

 appetite must therefore be placed under restraint. 



Where silage is used it may well be chaffed along with hay or 

 straw, and in this way form a substitute for roots. Some farmers 

 pour well-boiled linseed amongst chaffed hay or straw and others 

 use cheap treacle in the same way ; either of them is good in 

 its way, but the cost should be calculated. Some high authori- 

 ties do not like to give cooked or steamed food to cows, save 

 perhaps for a few weeks after calving ; largely fed on cooked 

 food in winter, cows will not do so well on grass in summer, 

 because their digestion has been weakened. To steam mouldy 

 hay, however, is a good thing, in order to destroy the fungus ; 

 but mouldy hay should not be fed, steamed or not, to cows in 

 milk. The object of slow fermentation in chaff is to make 

 it more easy of digestion, and this no doubt is an economic gain 

 of some considerable importance. 



Influence of Food on Milk. 



In respect of the influence of food on the milk yield of cows, 

 the following theses may be considered to be well established : 

 The quantity and quality of a cow's milk is a question 

 depending more on breed than on food. An increase of food, 

 sustained both as to quantity and quality, increases the yield of 

 milk and to some small extent the proportion of solids in it ; but 



