1890.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 4. 129 



Mr. Fitch. I want to ask why it would not be as well 

 to feed the oats as hay, and thus save the expense of cutting 

 them for the silo. 



Professor Cooke. We have put peas and oats into the 

 silo both cut and whole. I do not see that there is any 

 particular difference in the keeping or eating qualities in the 

 two methods ; but we have found that our cows will eat 

 peas and oats greedily in the form of ensilage, and they do 

 not seem to have nuich of a hungering after them in the 

 form of hay. 



Mr. Fitch. Two stations on a certain railroad on the 

 26th of April last furnished 1,200 cans of milk to a con- 

 tractor in Boston. The cows were put out to pasture from 

 the last day of April to the 25th of May. On the 23d of 

 May they sent in 3,520 cans from practically the same 

 dairies. If you should go to that place and ask the farmers 

 the question, probably every one would say that it made an 

 immense difference when his cows were taken from dry feed 

 to pasture. One more point. The lecturer said the cows 

 to which he referred shrank in quantity and increased in 

 quality. Then, when he spoke of the experiment of twelve 

 milkings, he said that the diflerence was on account of the 

 individuality of the cow, and he made the statement in the 

 course of his remarks that some cows gave more milk and 

 some less on what was considered poor feed than on the 

 highest quality of feed. That went to prove, it seemed to 

 me, what he had just said, that it was the individuality of 

 the cow rather than the feed which produced the result, 

 carrying out his principle. But it strikes me that if it is 

 the individuality of the cow, twelve milkings are by no 

 means enouo-h to give us a fair test. 



Professor Cooke. If you will excuse me for interrupting 

 you, I did not mean that we fed it only for twelve milkings, 

 but that at the end of the period of feeding we analyzed the 

 milk from twelve milkings all combined, so as to get the 

 average composition. It was fed for a much longer time 

 than that. 



Mr. F. D. Douglas of Whiting, Vt. The time has been 

 when it was supposed that any one could be a successful 

 dairyman ; that it did not require any head work ; but any 



