EXTRA FOOD. — PERMANENT IMPROVEMENT. 371 



requiring but a few weeks to finish her for sale to the 

 butchers. 



It will thus appear that my endeavors to provide 

 food adapted to the maintenance and improvement of 

 my milch cows have been attended with success. 



On examining the composition of the ordinary food 

 which I have described, straw, roots, and hay, it appears 

 to contain the nutritive properties which are found 

 adequate to the maintenance of the animal, whereas the 

 yield of milk has to be provided for by a supply of extra 

 food ; the rape-cake, bran, and bean-meal, which I give, 

 will supply the albumen for the caseine ; it is somewhat 

 deficient in oil for the butter, whilst it will supply in 

 excess the phosphate of lime for a full yield of milk. If 

 I take the class of cows giving less than twelve quarts 

 per day, and take also into account a gain of flesh of 

 seven to nine pounds per week, though I reduce the 

 quantity of extra food by giving less of the bean-meal, 

 yet the supply will be more in proportion than with a full 

 yield ; the surplus of nitrogen and phosphoric acid, or 

 phosphate of lime, will go to enrich the manure. 



I cannot here omit to remark on the satisfaction I 

 derive from the effects of this treatment on the fertility 

 of the land in my occupation. My rich pastures are 

 not tending to impoverishment, but to increased fer- 

 tility ; their improvement in condition is apparent. A 

 cow in full milk, giving sixteen quarts per day, of the 

 quality analyzed by Haidlen, requires, beyond the food 

 necessary for her maintenance, six to eight pounds per 

 day of substances containing thirty or twenty-five per 

 cent, of protein. A cow giving on the average eight 

 quarts per day, with which she gains seven to nine 

 pounds per week, requires four to five pounds per day 

 of substances rich in protein, beyond the food which is 

 necessary for her maintenance. Experience of fattening 

 gives two pounds per day, or fourteen pounds per week, 

 as what can be attained on an average, and for a length 

 uf time. If we considered half a pound per day as fat, 

 which is not more I in probable, therp will be one and 

 a half pounds for fl •• I), which, reckoned as dry material. 



