36 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



she has too little time for rumination, so much being taken up 

 in squeezing it between her jaws preparatory to its being 

 swallowed ; consequently, she gets tired of the operation and 

 don't get into her more than is necessary for her maintenance. 

 This must be at least fifteen lbs. of hay a day, and you may con- 

 ceive, if you have ever tried to eat a pound or two of dry bread 

 without water, the difficulty of the operation. Now in addition 

 to a mere living, the cow must supply a certain quantity of milk 

 secured from the food she consumes, and perhaps is at the same 

 time nourishing the future calf. The more food you can make 

 her eat and digest, the greater your products from her. She 

 milks from the mouth. She is not a breech-loader, but the am- 

 munition is put in at the muzzle. Besides, after swallowing her 

 food, you want to give her time to pursue her cliief end of exist- 

 ence, — rumination, — without which digestion cannot go on, nor 

 her health and condition be maintained. A variety of food will 

 help to keep up her appetite, and this is the main use of turnips 

 and other roots. For I believe with John Johnston, that four 

 quarts of corn meal will go farther than 120 lbs. of turnips, and 

 that corn can be raised with as little labor, taking feeding and 

 everything into consideration, as roots, and we have the corn- 

 stalks for fodder, — the very best food, if properly cured, and fed, 

 cut and moistened. But every farmer should raise some roots — 

 the mangel-wurzel beet or the sugar, and carrots are the best, — 

 for an alterative and appetizer, as animals feed on hay and grain 

 alone will get cloyed, and fail to eat as much as they should. 

 A cow, to sustain herself alone, will eat one fifty-fifth of her 

 weight in hay. To nourish the calf, an additional quantity of 

 food must be administered daily, as the dam approaches ma- 

 ternity. To yield twenty-two quarts of milk, producing twenty- 

 four ounces of butter, the cow must be compelled to eat one 

 hundred pounds of hay, as that quantity is required for twenty- 

 four ounces of fatty matter. Here you see why we have so 

 many stunted calves and broken-down cows every spring. 

 The cow has not had such variety of food as her situation 

 demanded. 



And it is not only in the winter feeding that we need observa- 

 tion and correct conclusions, but also while the cows are at pas- 

 ture, if we desire to keep up their production to the. utmost and 

 continue their improvement. To this end, the pasture should 



