FEED OF A DAIRY-COW. 255 



work we have laid clown for her. I think we should roniom- 

 ber not to give a heiter-calf too much milk or too much corn- 

 meal ; give it oatmeal, ro wen-hay and, turnips; keep the calf 

 in a healthy condition ; keep it where it is continually grow- 

 ing, but without the least tendency to unnatural and too 

 rapid increase of size. 



Now, having secured our herds, we feed them. You can 

 feed beef-producing animals, as I have said, with great liber- 

 ality. You can feed them steadily, and without fear of dis- 

 turbing their appropriate functions. But you cannot deal in 

 any such way with animals that are at work in your dairy. I 

 would feed a cow that is devoted to dairy purposes in such a 

 way as to preserve her faculties in all their vigor to a good 

 old age. I don't believe in the maxim, " a short life and a# 

 merry one," for a cow. The farmer's adage, "An old cow 

 for milk, and a young hen for eggs," is a good one ; and if 

 you want a cow to last for many years you must feed her 

 carefully. You may easily feed her with too much oleaginous 

 matter. Corn-meal is a fortunate possession for us ; and it 

 seems to adapt itself pretty well to the animal economy. 

 Oil-cake should generally be avoided ; cotton-seed meal should 

 always be avoided. I say this with great confidence, because 

 I have destroyed one good herd of cows by feeding cotton- 

 seed meal. You can get milk in other ways without resorting 

 to this substance. Why, then, cut short the lives of your 

 eows by subjecting them to its inflammatory influences ? I 

 would avoid, therefore, all heating and all oleaginous or nitrog- 

 enous articles of food ; they disturl) the functions of the 

 cow ; thc}^ produce a tendency to take on inflammation of the 

 udder, and they will cut short her usefulness prematurely. 

 I think the best food for a new milch cow, therefore, is that 

 which approaches as near to the natural food she gets in the 

 pasture as possible. When you bring her to the barn, if you 

 have any rowen-hay, give her that ; if you have roots, give 

 her half a bushel of roots a day or half a bushel every other 

 day ; and in the absence of roots, two quarts of corn-meal. 



Question. Won't you tell us al)out green corn? 



Dr. LoRiNG. Tliat, sir, is hardly worth considering in the 

 winter time. I am feeding my cows for the purpose of pro- 

 ducing as> much milk as possible, and retaining their health 



