ON AGRICULTURE TO DENMARK 69 



capable of being made into superior dairy products, and the 

 stringent rules in regard to feeding imposed by the co-operative 

 creameries, have no doubt been factors in making the Danish 

 farmer an eminently skilful feeder of cows. The system adopted is 

 to feed according to the cow's capacity to produce milk ; and in 

 order to simplify this, the Danes have adopted the system of 

 reckoning the food by standards. 

 One standard of fodder is : — 



10 Danish pounds Beetroot^ = 11 lbs. imperial. 



or 

 2| Danish pounds Hay = 2| lbs. imperial. 



or 



1 ^^"^^^^ P^""^{f S mid Oats }= ItV lbs. imperial. 



Four standards of fodder, with a small allowance of straw, is 

 considered sufficient for the maintenance of a cow's body in good 

 condition, and one standard for each three Danish pounds (3'3 lbs.) 

 of milk produced. Thus a cow that produces thirty Danish pounds 

 (33 lbs., or nearly 3^ gallons) of milk would be fed on fourteen 

 standards of fodder, which might'consist of: — 



40 Danish pounds (44 lbs.) Beetroot =4 standards. 



71 „ (8i„)Hay =3 



/ ^3 X /Oilcakes \_^ 



^ '^ " ^ iBran and Oats J ~^ 



14 standards. 



This system of feeding according to milk production is highly 

 commendable, being eminently scientific, economical and profitable. 

 Indeed, the bran mash, the mealy drink and the little extras that 

 many of us have seen the new calved cow, or the cow in full milk, 

 favoured with by our mothers and grandmothers, endorse it. But 

 it cannot be said that it is practised in our country with the care 

 it deserves, if, indeed, it receives much attention at all. 



The advisability of regulating the food according to the milk 

 production seems so obvious that it should require no advocacy. 

 The only objection with a show of feasibility that might be raised 

 against the system is the extra trouble in canying it out. But this 

 is often very much exaggerated. It must not be supposed that the 

 Danish farmer laboriously weighs out all the food, or each animal's 

 portion. All that is done, or, indeed, it is necessary to do, is to 

 acquire an intelligent idea of the quantity of food that is being 

 handled. A sine qua non, however, is an interest in the work, and 

 this, with a knowledge of the capacity of the ordinary utensils 

 used, a little care in measurement, and the controlling influence 



' Or an equivalent quantity, according to composition, of other roots such 

 as turnips, mangels, koll rabi, carrots. 



2 Oilcake does not here mean linseed cake as in Scotland, but applies 

 generally to such foods as rape cake, cotton cake, sunflower cake, etc. 



