WINTER FOOD FOR COWS. 127 



The reader will find no difficulty in making this table 

 of practical value in deciding upon the proper course 

 of feeding to be pursued. 



In winter the best food for cows in milk will be good 

 sweet meadow hay, a part of which should be cut a^d 

 moistened with water, as all inferior hay or straw should 

 be. with an addition of root-crops, such as turnips, car- 

 rots, parsnips, potatoes, mangold wurzel, with shorts, 

 oil-cake, Indian-meal, or bean-meal. 



It is the opinion of most successful dairymen that 

 the feeding of moist food cannot be too highly recom- 

 mended for cows in milk, especially to those who desire 

 to obtain the largest quantity. Hay cut and thoroughly 

 moistened becomes more succulent and nutritive, and 

 partakes more of the nature of green grass. 



As a substitute for the oil-cake, hitherto known as an 

 exceedingly valuable article for feeding stock, there is 

 probably nothing better than cotton-seed meal, now to 

 be had in large quantities in the market. This- is an 

 article whose economic value has been but recently 

 made known, but which, from practical trials already 

 made, has proved eminently successful as food for milch 

 cows. An average specimen of this was submitted for 

 analysis to Professor Johnson, who reported that its 

 composition is not inferior to that of the best flax-seed 

 cake, and that in some respects its agricultural value 

 surpasses that of any other kind of oil-cake, as is shown 

 in the following table, containing in column first the 

 analysis of cotton-seed meal made by himself; in column 

 second, some of the results obtained by Dr. C. T. Jack- 

 son on cake prepared by himself from hulled cotton-seed; 

 in column third, an analysis of cotton-seed cake, made by 

 Dr. Anderson, of Edinburgh ; in column fourth, the aver- 

 age composition of eight samples of American linseed- 

 cake ; and in column fifth, an analysis of meadow hay, 



