26 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



deficient in oil. You can feed a cow upon good English hay 

 unquestionably well, with the addition of mangolds or swedes, 

 say half a bushel a day, more or less, according to her size, with 

 fine feed, or oatmeal, and perhaps a little rye meal ; but not 

 corn meal nor yellow cake for a dairy cow. It is like brandy 

 and water for little boys. 



Nothing will tear a dairy cow to pieces so fast as cotton-seed 

 meal. So I say, good English hay, corn-fodder, if you have got 

 it, softened a little with warm water or steam, roots and fine 

 feed, or oatmeal. Why is this ? Why avoid those oily sub- 

 stances, oil cake and cotton-seed or corn meal ? Simply because 

 they all serve to stimulate to a feverish condition that delicate 

 organization of the cow, by which she makes her milk. I say, 

 that delicate organization, because there is no living organiza- 

 tion, except that of the human brain, that I know of, that is so 

 delicate in all its structure as the lacteal system of a cow that is 

 brought up to the best standard of a dairy cow. It is more 

 easily thrown out of order than any other. It is a little too 

 hot, or a little too cold, the wind blows from the north-east or 

 the south-east, and your cow feels it. Every man knows this. 

 There comes up a shower, and a clap of thunder scares her half 

 to death; she comes home at night, and your pail is half full. 

 Do you suppose that an economy like that, which depends upon 

 the nice organization of all the tissues, and nerves and veins, 

 cannot be easily thrown out of order ? Certainly it can. The 

 oleaginous matter contained in cotton-seed meal throws that 

 whole system into such a feverish state that your cow is utterly 

 destroyed in the course of time. This is true, not only in this 

 country, but all the testimony I have had from breeders abroad 

 shows the same thing ; and I warn all men who have dairy 

 cows to avoid the feeding of these stimulating, oleaginous 

 preparations, that serve to put the system into a feverish condi- 

 tion. In feeding for beef, it is another thing. Plenty of food, 

 properly given, at proper times, not too much nor too little, 

 •always studying the capacity of the animal, with the ability to 

 know whether an animal is thriving or not, I think is the proper 

 way to feed an animal for the purpose of producing beef; 

 remembering, at the same time, that there is such a thing as 

 too much feeding for profit, as well as too little feeding ; and he 

 who knows his animal well enough, who has put himself in 



