64 AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. [Jan. 



III. Record of Twelve Cows which served at the 

 Station for Experiments to ascertain the Cost 

 OF Feed for the Production of Milk. 



When entering at this station upon the task of ascertaining 

 the cost of feed for the production of milk (1884), it was 

 decided to begin the inquiry with cows of moderate milking 

 qualities. Grades of all kinds of breeds were to serve for 

 that purpose. A selection from that class of cows, at the 

 outset of our observation, promised to prove of a special 

 interest, not only on account of their large representation in 

 our dairy stock, but also for the particular chance which our 

 final results would offer to draw more directly the line where 

 milk production ceases to be a profitable business. The 

 material for the subsequent report has been carefully col- 

 lected during a period of several years. The results, it is 

 true, are obtained under somewhat exceptional circum- 

 stances ; yet their detailed description cannot fail to show 

 more clearly the financial relation of milk production to a 

 system of a mixed farm management. 



The cows which served in our trials were in every 

 instance secured a few days after calving. They were sold 

 to the butcher usually when their daily yield of milk fell 

 below from five to six quarts, to make room for a new-milch 

 cow. The cost of the different animals varied from fifty-five 

 to seventy-two dollars each ; they sold at the close of their 

 trial for from twenty-five to thirty-seven dollars each. 



The management of the entire experiment was conducted 

 with a view to promote the general health of the animals on 

 trial. Two cows had lost in weight during the experiment, 

 and ten had gained more or less. The change from one diet 

 to another was as a rule a gradual one. 



The temporary change in the composition of the daily diet 

 was mainly confined to the coarser and bulky fodder ingre- 

 dients. English hay, dry fodder corn, corn stover, corn 

 ensilage and roots, besides some small quantity of various 

 dried fodder crops, incidental to some field experiments with 

 forage crops, were fed during the latter part of autumn, the 

 winter and the spring ; while several green crops, as oats or 

 barley and vetch, scrradella and cow-peas, were substituted 

 during the summer and part of the fall season. The several 

 previously named fodder cro})8 served in the majority of 



