Vol. XIIL 



ROCHESTER, N. Y., APRIL, 1852. 



No. IV. 



COWS AND CARROTS. 



Mr. J. G. HoYT, of Exeter, N. H., writes a letter of inquiry to the New England Farmer, 

 asking information as to tlie value of carrots for milch cows, in which the opinions of 

 several dairymen are cited to the effect that carrots do not sensibly increase the quantity 

 of milk given, but they improve its quality and augment the per centage of butter. The 

 editor of the Farmer quotes authorities whose statements are corroborative of the above. 



It is a little remarkable that, after carrots have been extensively grown and fed to 

 cows for thirty years, no one in New England appears to know the relation which 100 

 lbs. of this root and 100 lbs. of good hay, grass, or corn meal, bear to any given quan- 

 tity of milk. If our friends there do understand the practical operation? of milk-making, 

 they will thank us for giving them an opportunity of informing iis New Yorkers how 

 many pounds of milk 100 of green clover, timothy, herds grass, blue grass, orchard 

 grass, or a mixture of any two. or of the whole of them, ought to vield in the system of 

 " a good cow." We have visited Massachusetts twice in the last two years, and made 

 particular inquiry on this point, as well as to the relation that 100 pounds of good hay, 

 and a Hke weight of corn meal, bear to any given quantity of milk ; but we failed to 

 ehcit any light beyond a luminous Yankee guess. Why New Englanders should be so 

 opposed to experimental farming with a view to substitute facts for guesses, passes our 

 comprehension, unless the constitutional desire to guess at everything be, in truth the 

 strongest element in the mind of the people. , 



When a cow eats 60 lbs. of gi-ass a day for a week together, and gives 30 lbs. of milk 

 a day at the same time, how much of the grass goes to form the milk ? If any New 

 England State, or New York, had established an experimental farm twenty years ago, 

 or even ten years ago, no one would now have to ask so simple a question ; nor would 

 there be any doubt as to how much milk 100 lbs. of carrots will yield when fed with 

 st.eeped cut corn-stalks — the way in which we have given them to dairy cows. We 

 have bought carrots, hay, corn meal, shorts, brewers' grains, and still slops, for the 

 production of milk to sell ; and while we do not claim to have made what our friends 

 might consider "scientific experiments," yet our experience is decidedly in favor of 

 carrots. Accurate scientific experiments in rural economy can not be made without 

 costing considerable money ; and so long as a State in which eleven or twelve hundred 

 thousand cows are milked, and which produces fifty million pounds of cheese and eighty- 

 five million pounds of butter a year, is too poor or too rich to pay for any experiments 

 designed to increase the yield of milk from any given amount of food, we feel no obliga- 

 tion to give either our time or money for its benefit in that behalf. 



As there are 86 lbs. of water, and sometimes 87, in 100 lbs. of carrots, they should 

 be fed with more solid feed to realize their highest virtues, whether eaten by horses, 



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