270 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



■when green food is abundant, we question the superior ad- 

 vantages of any other course of feeding. But in winter it is 

 desirable to economize so bulky and valuable an article of fodder 

 as hay ; it is therefore for the interest of the farmer and quite 

 as much so for the stock, to use mixed food. 



Says Professor Johnston : " The skilful feeder will occasion- 

 ally change the kind of food ; he will not attempt to maintain his 

 stock on any kind of food which does not contain a sufficient 

 supply of every one of the kinds of matter which the body 

 requires. He will adapt the kind and quantity of food to the 

 age of the animal and to the purposes for which it is fed." 



No kind of winter food is sufficiently complete in itself, to 

 enable an animal for a length of time to afford the greatest 

 possible return to the feeder, unless the animal is one, which 

 having for a long time afforded profit to its owner, only requires 

 a season of rest to recuperate its exhausted stores, and unless 

 the feeder has no eye to present return, the whole system of 

 winter feeding being artificial. Three centuries ago the timely 

 advice of Tusser to the English farmers was to store up their 

 beef in November, when oxen, which were fat upon the green 

 food of summer, began to grow thin and which lived through 

 the winter partly on the fat stored up in time of plenty, no fresh 

 beef being seen from Martinmas to Easter. It is since the 

 commencement of the present century that the difference 

 between heat-producing and flesh-forming substances, has been 

 noticed, and cattle have been fed according to established 

 principles. 



The feeding of stock embraces several objects requiring for 

 all practical purposes two peculiar modes of feeding; although, 

 when examined minutely, the ingredients employed by the 

 animal in the constitution of its frame are numerous. But it 

 is sufficient for our purpose that we adopt two methods with 

 special reference to the following objects : — 



1. The growth of the animal, increase of muscle in working 

 cattle and' the production of cheese. 



2. The increase of fat and the production of butter. 



Food having a large proportion of albumen, caseinc, &c., is 

 especially calculated to bring about a good result, when the 

 object of the feeder is to produce some of the first mentioned 

 returns. 



