POSSIBILITIES OF THE FUTURE , 91 



done to young calves is one of the greatest difficulties that the 

 calf-rearer has to face, and every means must be sought to 

 lessen it. 



Yield of milk, however, is not the only matter that demands 

 attention ; there is the question of the cost, in food, of producing 

 the article. Some cows require more food to produce a good 

 yield of milk than others. This point has received considerable 

 attention from workers at the South-Eastern Agricultural Col- 

 lege, and at the University College, Reading. They have investi- 

 gated the systems of management of herds belonging to different 

 owners, and their researches have given results which have been 

 most fruitful in making owners reconsider their methods of feed- 

 ing. But more than this seems to be required. The capabilities of 

 individual cows seem to promise useful information to the cow- 

 keeper who wants to produce the maximum from the food he 

 gives to his cattle. There is a minimum below which, as we 

 know, it is impossible to go without doing harm. That is to 

 say, if a cow is not supplied with a certain amount of food, ac- 

 cording to the quantity of milk she yields, she will either cease 

 to yield well or she will lose flesh to a dangerous extent, or she 

 may do both. But over and above the amount the animal 

 consumes for milk-production, there is a large amount of food 

 used for the maintenance of her body and for the performance 

 of the vital functions going on throughout her daily life. Some 

 cows appear to require more than others for maintenance and 

 for the proper activity of those bodily functions which are 

 responsible for the process by which rough farm foods are 

 eventually converted to the nutritive fluid we know as milk. 

 Cows giving the most milk may possibly be found to be less 

 profitable than those yielding smaller quantities, owing to the 

 consumption of a disproportionately larger amount of food. 

 From my own observations I am inclined to believe that this 

 would be found to be so among our own commercial cattle to 

 a- very much greater extent than is at present believed. It is 

 indeed possible that the two things are correlated. For instance, 

 any animal worthy of the name of milch-cow should give an 

 average of 600 to 800 gallons, over a period of years, others will 

 give from 800 to 1,000 gallons and so on. It may well be that 



