No. 4.J DAIRY CATTLE. G3 



right elements for the production of milk. There is a great 

 deal of significance in that word " balanced," 



If you are fattening a pig which has attained its growth, 

 you feed for fat, and corn meal will do the work well. In 

 that case you have but one object, the production of fat. 

 'But if the pig is not full grown and you feed a fat-producing 

 food, you at once hinder growth and development of the 

 carcass. To get that development you must feed sufficient 

 muscle and bone producing food. This sort of food is known 

 under the three names of nitrogenous, albuminoid and pro- 

 tein, all practically meaning the same in their effect on 

 physical economy. Now, milk was not originally designed 

 for your consumption or mine. Its original purpose is for 

 the offspring of the cow. If you put yourself in the calfs 

 place it will not change the purpose of nature. Milk is, as 

 I said before, a balanced food product and requires a balanced 

 ration. In butter making we make direct commercial use 

 of only one part, the fat, but we must feed for the production 

 of all the constituents in the milk. To this end it becomes 

 necessary to select largely of foods that most abound in 

 albuminoids. These are cotton-seed meal, oil meal, pea 

 meal, bran, gluten meal in grain, etc. There is another 

 reason why the cow should have plenty of nitrogenous or 

 muscle and nerve supporting food. And I invite special 

 attention to the reasoning along this line. 



I have said that milk giving was a maternal function. 

 This function draws very exhaustively from the nervous 

 forces and system. The cow that produces a pound of butter 

 a day and other accompanying solids has drawn more on her 

 nervous force than the ox who pulls at the plough all day. 

 For this reason she must be handled so as to prevent iierve 

 exhaustion, and fed so as to support the nervous system. 

 The protein foods are essentially nerve and muscle support- 

 ing, and if a good cow produces milk profitably she must be 

 fed an albuminoid ration. Sancho Panza said: "It is a 

 great waste of lather to shave an ass." He was right. By 

 the same token it is a great waste of good food to pour it into 

 a poor cow. There is one practical way for every man to 

 determine whether he is boarding a poor cow or a good one, 

 and that is by the use of the Babcock test. 



