288 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



nitrate of soda to some extent, for top-dressing mowings. 

 So far they have proven quite satisfactory. 



We rarely put anything except plaster on pastures. We 

 depend upon our cows being well fed at the barn. Although 

 the pastures have been grazed quite close, there seems to be 

 a gradual improvement. We feed in summer about one- 

 half the grain and ensilage that we do in winter. We are 

 feeding now to each cow, giving milk daily, on an average 

 from ten to twelve pounds of hay and thirty of ensilage, 

 with a grain ration of five pounds of wheat bran, three of 

 linseed meal, and one and a half of gluten meal. The grain 

 is well stirred in with the ensilage at the time of feeding. 

 This ration is proving quite satisfactory, considering its 

 cost. 



With reference to warming the water for cows to drink, I 

 will say that when the cold weather set in this fall our cows 

 fell off from forty to fifty quarts a day, but as soon as we 

 began warming the water the yield of milk increased and the 

 percentage of cream also increased about one-half a space, 

 so that we are now getting about ten and a half spaces of 

 cream where we were getting from nine and a half to ten a 

 short time ago. Our cows are neither bought nor fed with 

 any reference to butter-making ; they are sort of ' ' go-as-you- 

 please" cows, and the skim-milk seems to have a very good 

 body indeed after the cream is taken off. 



Question. How many cows do you keep? 



Mr. Smith. We have 74 in all. We have been getting 

 from 62 cows, for the last few days, 650 quarts of milk a 

 day. We were down as low as 560 quarts at one time 

 before we commenced warming the water. As soon as we 

 commenced warming the water they went up to a little over 

 600 quarts. 



Question. How warm is the water? 



Mr. Smith. About eighty degrees, though we do not 

 always get the same temperature. 



Question. How do you warm the water ? 



Mr. Smith. We have a steam boiler standing in a build- 

 ing near the trough the cattle drink from and the water runs 

 through a pipe to the trough. Sometimes we merely let the 

 hot water run through the boiler, and at other times we get 



