46 ON FEEDING CATTLE. 



kinds of hay that will support young cattle very well 

 throughout apart of the winter seas.on. If they have 

 nothing better through -the whole winter, they become 

 poor in spring,, and a large portion of the summer is 

 spent before they begin to grow again. Cows are often 

 Avintered, in part, on such coarse hay, and towards 

 spring are allowed to come to a better table to prepare 

 for spring business. It is a very common practice to 

 feed out the poorest hay in the fore part of the winter, 

 and to reserve the best for spring. 



We do not commend this practice, for cattle do not 

 get through the winter so well, nor are cows so profita- 

 ble as if differently fed. 



The sudden and sad change from a rich autumn diet, 

 such as our fields generally afford in the fall, to a 

 meagre meal of meadow hay,' is apt to make the boiler, 

 or stomach, collapse, or contract too suddenly, and 

 causes a great contraction of the milk and blood-vessels, 

 which is injurious to the system, and which may be 

 avoided. Some people fear to let their cattle taste, at 

 certain seasons, of any good fodder, lest they would not 

 taste of the poorer ; but this notion is erroneous. Cattle 

 that have been long fed on the b^st of hay are very 

 fond of a change, and will then eat the coarser kinds 

 with avidity. Where, then, is the harm of mixing their 

 fodder a little ? not as the Indian, who thought the 

 best mixed liquor was two gills of rum put together, 

 but let some good English hay be' ofteji mixed up 

 thoroughly with a poorer kind, that the whole may be 

 sweetened. If this mixture should take place in the 

 haying season, the good hay would impart its sweetness 

 to the poorer kinds, and thus a food would be prepared 

 not so luscious as to cause satiety, or so meagre as not 

 to be relished. At our best tables we eat roast beef and 

 potato, mutton and turnip, turkey and coarse brown 

 bread. We are fond of the mixture, and think it better 

 than turkey and beef one day, then potatoes and turnips 

 the next. But, to be serious, there seems no propriety 

 in keeping up such strong partitions between the better 



