56 FEEDING FARM ANIMALS 



could be premised from the season of the year when mam- 

 mals in a wild state nourish their young. It is also shown 

 in many ways in the experience of feeders, and it has been 

 demonstrated by actual experiment. 



Nature has so regulated the influences that are con- 

 cerned in reproduction, that animals dependent on herbage 

 for sustenance bring forth their young at that season when 

 the same is succulent. The bison of the western plains 

 brings forth her young when the spring time grasses are 

 tender and juicy. They are more abundant in the autumn, 

 but they lack the succulence, hence the young could not be 

 so well sustained at that period. But the richness of the 

 autumn grasses is favorable to breeding, hence the animals 

 mate at that season, which brings the young into existence 

 at a time which is most favorable for providing them with 

 suitable sustenance. 



The experience of feeders has abundantly shown the 

 closeness of the relation between succulence and milk pro- 

 duction. It has been found that cows in milk, during win- 

 ter and spring, invariably increase in the milk flow when 

 first turned out on succulent pasture. This result will follow, 

 even though foods possessed of succulence in a considerable 

 degree, as roots, form much of the ration, the other portion 

 being dry fodder and grain. When thus grazed grass usu- 

 ally forms all the ration, and is therefore all succulent. It 

 is also highly nutritious, hence as a result, the milk flow 

 is increased. So invariably does this result follow, that 

 many dairymen plan to have their cows produce calves in 

 the autumn, that the milk flow may be thus increased again 

 when it has begun to decline. If, on the other hand, the 

 period of decline begins in the autumn, at that season when 

 the animals are taken in from the pasture to be put on dry 

 food, it will be almost impossible to prevent it, even though 

 they should be ever so liberally fed on dry food. Various 

 green foods invariably increase the milk flow when they are 

 added to a ration consisting of dry food. This result fol- 

 lows, even though the nutrients in the dry food should be 



