THE GENESEE FARMER. 



305 



milk There can be no doubt of the soundness of 

 thi? 'i/inion. A cow low in condition can not give 

 th' ame quantity of milk, as much of the nourish- 

 IV :nt of the food is drawn off to make up the con- 

 dition of the animal. And when a very lean cow 

 is put on rich food, it is some weeks before the full 

 benefit of the food can be obtained in milk, for the 

 reason stated above. Another useful deduction 

 made by Mr. Horsfall from his experiments is, 

 tliat albuminous matter is the most essential ele- 

 ment in the food of the milk cow, and that any de- 

 ficiency in the supply of this will be attended with 

 loss of condition, and a consequent diminution in 

 the quality of the milk. 



In Scotland, bran is not very often used as an in- 

 gredient in any mixture of food for milk cows ; but 

 it will be seen from the foregoing that it forms an 

 important part of Mr. Horsfall's mixture. Some 

 time ago we came upon the following extract, we 

 believe from the Irish Farmers' Gazette^ which 

 gives some valuable hints as to the use of different 

 substances in the feeding of milk cows : 



" In reading over the experiments on feeding in 

 Stephens, a difference of opinion exists as to the 

 comparative fattening qualities of linseed-cake, bean 

 and other meal ; and in the Report of the Lame 

 National AgriciiUural School for 1853, 1 lb. of 

 beans is said to be equal in fattening qualities to 80 

 lbs. of turnips, and nearly 3 lbs. of oat-meal. I tried 

 the bean-meal one season, at the rate of 3 lbs. a 

 day, boiled, for each milk cow, with mangel, tur- 

 nip, and hay. By February one of them was fat, 

 but I may say dry ; and the others with about half 

 the quantity of milk they had when commencing. 

 I tried oatmeal for two winters, the same quantity 

 in the same way, and each cow gave three times 

 the quantity of milk and butter, and turned out full 

 better the following summer. I tried the same 

 quantity of yellow Indian meal last winter, and I 

 tliink it good for both milk and butter. I tried 

 bran for three winters, at the rate of 4 lbs. every 

 night for each cow. It was equal to the oat-meal, 

 while using, and my cows turned out better the 

 following summer than on any other feeding. The 

 bran not only keeps them healthy, and gives them 

 a greater relish for their food, but there is some 

 combination of qualities in it beyond what any 

 writer I have seen attributes to it." 



The state in which the food is given has also a 

 great effect in the production of both milk and but- 

 ter. We have observed more than once that the 

 yield of butter and milk is never so great when we 

 give cows boiled turnips, with beans boiled quite 

 soft among them, as when they get the boiled tur- 

 nips and the same weight of beans made into meal 

 and mixed raw with them. Again, there is more 

 milk, and no taste of the turnip in it, when the 

 turnips are pulped and mixed with cut straw or 

 chaff and fermented, than if the same weight of 

 turnips are given whole and raw. In the Journal 

 cf Agrictilture Pratique we read a short notice on 

 this subject, by M. Lejeunb, a director of the Ag- 

 ricultural School at Thourout, in Belgium. The 

 facts he reports are not to be regarded as experi- 

 ments instituted to test any theory, but are merely 

 extracted from his accounts, and show the impor- 

 tance of attending to the mode in which food is 

 given to milk cows. In February, 1855, the milk 

 of eight cows was selected for experiment. The 



cows were fed in the following manner : Each cow 

 got per day 4.4 lbs. of meadow hay, 13.2 lbs. straw. 

 4.8 lbs. linseed-meal, 11.5 lbs. of beet-root, and a 

 cooked mash consisting of 5.5 lbs. of turnips, 2.T 

 lbs. of beet-root, 1.2 lbs. linseed-meal, 3.2 lbs. of 

 rape-cake, 1.1 lb. of grain dust, 1.1 lb. of mixed 

 meal, about 1^ oz. of salt, and 6 gallons of water. 

 From this very watery diet a large quantity of milk 

 was obtained, 16 quarts of which gave 1 lb. of 

 butter. In the month of February, 1856, the cal- 

 culation was made from the milk of ten cows, eight 

 of which were those with which the observations 

 were made in the previous year. The nutritive 

 value of the food detailed above was calculated to 

 be equivalent to upward of 30 lbs. of good meadow 

 hay per head. The food given in 1856 consisted 

 of oat-straw, beet-root, the meal of rye, oats, and 

 buckwheat, linseed-cake, rape-cake, and the dust 

 of wheat or bran, given in such proportions as to 

 make the equivalent value of the day''s feed equal 

 to a little more than 31 lbs. per head of hay. None 

 of it was cooked, and the beet-root was reduced to 

 small pieces and sprinkled over the meal. There 

 was not the same quantity of milk, but the propor- 

 tion of butter was much larger, being 2 lbs. of but- 

 ter for every 20 quarts of milk. The cows, with 

 the exception of the food, were managed in the 

 same way in both years, and there were more 

 newly-calved cows in 1855 than in 1856. — The 

 Farmers'' Note-Booh in the Jownal of Agriculture. 



JOHN JOHNSTON'S WHEAT CKOP. 



The following extract from a private letter from 

 John Johnston, of Geneva, N. Y., will be read 

 with interest, and we hope Mr. J, will excuse u.s 

 for publishing it: 



"My crop of SouWs yielded over forty-one bush- 

 els per acre. It is all weighed, except the rakings, 

 which got wet and sprouted, and are kept separate 

 from the other. The field was summer-fallowed 

 for wheat, and very highly manured, the fall pre- 

 vious, with rotted cattle and sheep manure. My 

 red wheat — say twenty acres of it — I expect will 

 go nearly as much, if the threshers are correct. 

 This shows what dung does, as I have twelve acres^ 

 of red at the extreme east of my farm that has not 

 been manured in twenty-four years that only gave 

 a little over thirty-one bushels per acre. Dung is- 

 the staff of life and that's the fact. The red wheat 

 that is so good was on that twenty acre field that 

 grew the large corn you saw. I always thought it 

 the wosrt field I had for wheat; in fact, it never 

 had a good crop of wheat until I drained it in 

 1843 and '44. The SouWs was on the twenty-ei^ht 

 acre field, the second field east of my house,, where 

 you a few years ago saw large clover, very highly 

 manured the fall of 1857, intended for corn, but 

 summer-faUowed last year and sown with wheat, 

 commencing the 18th September last. I have 

 always the best SouWs wheat, when sown about 

 that time." 



For Spavin. — Bin-iodide of mercury, five grains-; 

 lard, one ounce. Mix well. Rub the size of a 

 white bean into the spavin once a day, until it pro- 

 duces a discharge from the skin. This, application 

 will reduce almost any hard swelling,, evea when. it 

 ia of a bony nature. 



