FOOD REQUIRED BY A COW IN MILK. 605 



be supplied to the young animal by the food given to the mother, or tho 

 bones and muscles of the mother herself will be laid under contribution to 

 supj)ly it — but it does not appear impossible to affect the size of the bone 

 by the quantity of phosphates which are given in the food, or the growth 

 and development of the muscles by that of the gluten, fibrin, or casein 

 with which the mother is fed. Might not an addition of bone-meal to the 

 food of the pregnant cow give a calf of larger bone ? Would not bean- 

 meal or skim-milk add to the size of its muscles ? 



§ 11. Kind and quantity of additional food required by a 

 milking animal. 



After the young animal is born, the mother has still to feed it with her 

 milk. And as the calf grows rapidly, the food it requires increases daily 

 with its bulk, and the demands upon the mother therefore every day be- 

 come greater. At this period, therefore, the cow must obtain larger sup- 

 plies of food to sustain herself and to produce a sufficient quantity of 

 milk for her calf than at any other period. If these adequate supplies 

 are not given, a portion is daily taken from her own substance — her body 

 becomes leaner, and her limbs more feeble, while her young also is 

 stinted and puny in its growth. 



By-and-bye, however, the calf begins to pick up food for itself. It 

 begins to live partly upon vegetables. The mother is in consequence 

 relieved of a part of her burden — her udders are less drawn upon — the 

 quantity of milk secreted becomes less — she begins again to lay muscle 

 and fat upon herself — her udders at length become dry, and she slowly 

 recovers her original plump condition. She has, indeed, at this period a 

 tendency to fatten if the same supply of food is continued to her, and 

 in many districts it is customary to feed her off at this time for the 

 butcher. 



What I have already said of the artifices by which the food given to 

 the cow may possibly be made to affect the bodily character of the future 

 calf, applies equally to the means of more or less effectually promoting 

 the growth of the young ariimul while it is fed solely upon milk. The 

 land of food given to the mother may make the milk richer in curd, 

 which will promote the growth of muscle— or richer in phosphates, by 

 which the enlargement of the bones of the calf will be assisted. Scarcely 

 any two samples of milk, indeed, are found, upon analysis, to contain 

 the same proportion of phosphates and of other saline substances, and 

 there is little reason to doubt that if an unusual quantity of these be given 

 in the food of the mother, an unusual quantity will be found also in the 

 milk she produces. 



For the production of milk the mother requires an adequate additional 

 supply of all the substances which we have seen to be necessary to the 

 support of the unborn foetus — of the starch as well as of the gluten and 

 saline substances of the food. But it is interesting to mark the very dif- 

 ferent purposes to which the additional supply of starch in her food is 

 now applied. 



The pregnant mother requires this starch to supply the carbon given 

 off more abundantly during her increased lespiration. She breathes, as 

 I have already said, for her young and for herself, and therefore gives 

 off more carbon from her lungs. 

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