422 FEEDING FARM ANIMALS 



vous system. Anyone of these influences acting singly when 

 present in any considerable degree may result in a marked 

 reduction in the milk yield. For the discussion of the 

 influence of cold and heat see pages 439 and 436. 



In a well ordered dairy, lice and mange may give but 

 little or no trouble. In fact where cows are not bought in to 

 any extent, they may never be present. Not so, however, 

 with flies (see p. 437). From the two sources of irrita- 

 tion first mentioned, they may with the exercise of due 

 precaution be protected, but no precaution of an entirely 

 practical nature can altogether protect them from flies. 

 The remedies for such visitations do not come within the 

 plan of this work, but the absolute necessity for removing 

 lice and mange when present, or any other form of 

 skin disease, is emphasized, as also the wisdom of protect- 

 ing from flies as far as practicable. 



The absolute necessity for observing the strictest regu- 

 larity in furnishing food and drink to cows, if highest 

 milk yields are to follow, cannot be too strongly em- 

 phasized. It has not been shown that the hour for giving 

 food or drink exercises any special influence, providing 

 the time is the same from day to day. Of course such 

 hours should be chosen for giving food and drink as will 

 best suit the purpose of the individual, providing they do 

 not interfere with the natural season in which the cow is ac- 

 customed to rest. Two feeds a clay, ample in quantity, 

 have been found quite as satisfactory as three. When these 

 are given twelve hours apart, it is reasonable to suppose 

 that equilibrium in digestion will be more perfect and more 

 easily maintained, than when the intervals between feed- 

 ing are of unequal length. When they are unequal, the 

 digestive organs are more severely taxed during the short- 

 er interval, and in proportion as it is shorter. But regu- 

 larity in feeding is more important than duration between 

 the periods of feeding or even the number of feeds per 

 day. Irregularity in milking interferes with function in the 

 milk gland. ( See p. 480. ) When milk is being elaborated 



