298 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan. 



giving to each cow one quart of linseed meal and two quarts 

 of bran at a feed, twice a day. This is varied more or less 

 as the condition and demand of each cow may require ; these 

 concentrated foods are always fed with the ensilage. On 

 good pasturing, cows will produce more milk at a less cost 

 than on any other feed ; but our pasture grasses fail in their 

 nutritive elements about the middle of July, even in a favor- 

 able season, and then it is policy for us to feed a quantity of 

 green barley or oats, to be followed in August by sweet 

 corn fodder, which carries us well towards the last of 

 September, when we have cabbages and late-sown barley. 

 Cabbage as a feed for milch cows I highly esteem, and, after 

 fifteen years' experience in feeding them, I have yet to see 

 the first deleterious effect, or to hear the first complaint of 

 their tainting the milk. These I always feed directly after 

 milking, whether morning or night. The cows relish them, 

 and they increase the yield of milk so perceptibly that at a 

 market price of eight dollars a ton I would rather feed them 

 out than take them to market. 



In any considerable herd of cows there will be found every 

 now and then one not up to the standard in the quantity of 

 milk she gives. A watch should be kept for such, and, if 

 the shortage appears to be permanent, they should be pre- 

 pared for the butcher ; for it does not pay to keep a cow that 

 does not give a profit on her milk. In every herd also is 

 likely to be found one cow that gives a larger quantity of 

 milk than any one of the others. If this is a well-balanced 

 milk that is up to the legal standard, then it is well for you 

 to make her your ideal for the time at least, and raise her 

 female progeny. I have had such cows from time to time, 

 and the majority of my herd at present consists of cows 

 descended from some special ideal. I have in my herd to-day 

 a cow that is superior to any other I have ever owned, and 

 I have for many years considered myself fortunate in the 

 high character of the cows constituting my herd. This cow 

 is now in her ten-year-old form, and is a grade ; her sire 

 was a pure-bred Jersey, her dam a grade Shorthorn, and 

 noted for her great quantity of poor milk. This cow is not 

 of my own breeding, but was bred in the adjoining town of 

 Dudley. It was not until she had reached her seven-year- 



