128 BOAKD OF AGKICULTUEE. [Jan. 



ment station. When an experiment station tells me what 

 constitutes a proper ration, what is nitrogenous and what is 

 non-nitrogenous, and how to mix them, I am willing to take 

 their word ; but I will not take any experiment station's 

 word that tells as a fact what I know to be untrue. And I 

 do know that the warming of water improves the quality 

 of the milk and is better for the cow. I have not had 

 great experience in this matter ; but some seventeen years 

 ago I put in a heater (the water was not cold before), and 

 the quantity and quality of the milk was vastly improved. 

 A friend of mine, one of the best farmers in Franklin 

 County, carried the water from his house to his barn, and 

 he told me that the amount of milk from his cows after they 

 had warm water to drink was actually increased ten per cent. 

 He said the cows would struggle to get to the place where 

 the hot water came up. Have we not always been told that 

 the drinkimj of cold water lowered the tone of digestion in 

 our own stomachs? True, we are not cows, we have not as 

 many stomachs as a cow has ; but when we take cold water 

 into our stomachs I think almost everybody's experience is 

 that it checks digestion, while warm water makes our food 

 more digestible, and improves the general tone of the 

 system. 



Mr. AVooDSON. I have had a little experience in warming 

 water for the dairy. Last year I put a heater into my house, 

 so that I could warm the water for my cows any time I 

 pleased. I began heating it to aliout seventy degrees, and 

 the cows would not drink it. Then I heated it to a lower 

 temperature, and some of them would drink it and some 

 preferred cold water ; but I got no increase of milk or 

 butter. I think the lecturer has got the right idea. If you 

 have a cold barn, and want to warm your cows up, you had 

 better give them warm water ; but if your cows are in a 

 comfortable barn, I do not think you will get any great gain 

 bv jrivins them warm water. When water gets down to 

 thirty degrees, I have no doubt that it would be a good 

 idea to warm it a little ; but still, as I said, I saw no differ- 

 ence in the product of the cows whether the water was warm 

 or cold. I don't think ice water would be as good for cows 

 as some a little warmer. 



