120 REGULARITY. — CHANGE. 



difficult to restore it. It may safely be asserted, as the 

 result of many trials and long practice, that a larger 

 flow of milk follows a complete system of regularity in 

 this respect than from a higher feeding where this sys- 

 tem is not adhered to. 



One prime object which the dairyman should keep 

 constantly in view is, to maintain the animal in a sound 

 and healthy condition. Without this, no profit can be 

 expected from a milch cow for any considerable length 

 of time ; and, with a view to this, there should be an 

 occasional change of food. But, in making changes, 

 great care is required to supply an equal amount of 

 nourishment, or the cow falls off in flesh, and eventu- 

 ally in milk. We should therefore bear in mind that 

 the food consumed goes not alone to the secretion of 

 milk, but also to the growth and maintenance of the 

 bony structure, the flesh, the blood, the fat, the skin, 

 and the hair, and in exhalations from the body. These 

 parts of the body consist of different organic con- 

 stituents. Some are rich in nitrogen, as the fibrin of the 

 blood, albumen, &c. ; others destitute of it, as fat ; some 

 abound in inorganic salts, phosphate of lime, salts of pot- 

 ash, &c. To explain how the constant waste of these 

 substances may be supplied, Dr. Voelcker observes that 

 the albumen, gluten, caseine, and other nitrogenized 

 principles of food, supply the animal with materials 

 required for the formation of muscle and cartilage ; they 

 ,are, therefore, called flesh-forming principles. 



"Fats, or oily matters of the food," says he, " are used 

 to lay on fat, or for the purpose of sustaining respiration. 



"Starch, sugar, gum, and a few other non-nitrogenized 

 substances, consisting of carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen, 

 supply the carbon given off in respiration, or they are 

 used for the production of fat. 



11 Phosphates of lime and magnesia in food principally 



