136 DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 



investigator, made some very important experiments as to the relative 

 value of hot and cold j^repaj-afum of flax-seed. He took two animals, and fed 

 the one on hot and the other on cold food. He had both weighed before 

 he started, and both again wciglied at the expiration of six weeks. The 

 animal fed on cold food weighed, when put up, 107 stone 11 lbs. (1,509 

 lbs.); that fed on hot, 108 stone 7 lbs. (1,533 lbs.) At the end of six 

 weeks the first had gained 40 lbs. ; while the last, the one fed on hot 

 food, had gained 71 lbs. To guard against the one having any special 

 aptitude to fatten which the other did not possess, he reversed, the order; 

 and then it turned out that the animal now fed on cold food, and before 

 on hot, gained 53 lbs., while the other, now fed on hot food, gained 

 71 lbs. 



But not only on the animals did the results of cooked food show itself 

 in this striking manner ; for, while one fed on hot food had only 80 lbs. 

 of Swedish turnips per day, the one fed on cold food was not satisfied 

 till his feed was increased to 87 lbs. of turnips in the same time, showing 

 a greater consumption of other food to make up for the want of heat ! 



"Food as Attectiiig the Quality and Quantity of Milk. — Messrs. Dumas 



and 13oussingauIt tried a number of very careful and interesting bApcri- 

 ments on the quantity of milk and its products which would be given 

 by cows fed on different kinds of food. They tried nearly all the com- 

 binations usually given, except perhaps bean meal, and the result was, 

 that the greatest quantity of milk was given when the cow had green 

 clover, in every case, i. e., that in each instance this yielded the greatest 

 quantity of butter, and, with one exception, the greatest produce also 

 of cheese ; and that exception was when the cow had been but one day 

 calved, which would account for the abundance of cheesy matter in the 

 milk. The table is so instructive, that we will quote one or two of the 

 items : — 



Food. Days after calving. Milk. Butter. Cheese. 



Potatoes and hay 176 9.3 4.8 3.3 



Hay and green clover 182 8.9 4.5 4.0 



Green clover 193 9.8 2.2 4.0 



Clover in flower 204 7.8 3,5 3.7 



Potatoes 229 5.0 4.0 34 



Turnips 207 6.0 4.2 3.0 



lied beet 215 5.6 4.0 3.4 



Into their philosophical investigations and reasonings we shall not 

 enter. Mangel-wurzel, bean meal, and orains, much increase the milk.* 

 Good hay and oat mash much increase the butter, and turnips, though 

 they give a disagreeable flavor, greatly increase both. 



To keep the cow as lorif^ as possible m milk is sometimes an object. 

 Some cows dry early, — some may be milked through, though always 

 with disadvantage to both the cow and the calf; both being feeble and 

 impaired, if it is persisted in. In summer weather, however, when cows 

 are very deep milkers, and in high condition, it is not only sometimes 



* Indian meal fed in cool weatlier, while it i.s a highly nutritious food, also adds 

 greatly to the ([uantity and quality of tlie milk. The erroneous prejudice against its 

 use for milch cows has been fully refuted by careful experiments. 



