136 AIR AND WARMTH. 



" The capacity of cows for giving milk is varied 

 much by habit. In fall, after the season of feeding is 

 past, I feed four quarts of wheat bran or shorts made 

 into slop with whey, or a peck of roots to each cow, till 

 milking season closes (about the first of December). 

 When confined in stables and fed hay and milked, they 

 are fed each one pail full of thin slop at morning before 

 foddering, and also at evening, to render their food 

 more succulent, and they will not drink so much cold 

 water when let out in the middle of the day. In cold 

 weather cows are kept well attended in warm stables. 

 No foddering is done on the ground. Thus a supply 

 of milk is kept up, and the cows get in good flesh, 

 while their blood and bags are left in a healthy con- 

 dition when dried off. 



" This flesh they hold till milk season in spring, with- 

 out other feed than good hay. They will not get 

 fleshy bags, but come into milk at once. About the 

 first of April they are carded daily, till they are turned 

 to grass. Wheat-bran in milk or whey, slops, or 

 roots, are daily fed, as they are found best adapted to 

 the nature of different cows, and most likely to estab- 

 lish a regular flow of milk till grass comes." 



All practical dairymen concur in saying that a warm 

 and well-ventilated barn is indispensable to the promo- 

 tion of the highest yield of milk in winter ; and most 

 agree that cows in milk should not be turned out even 

 to drink in cold weather, all exposure to cold tending 

 to lessen the yield of milk. 



In the London dairies, where, of course, the cows 

 are fed so as to produce the largest flow of milk, the 

 treatment is as follows : The cows are kept at night in 

 stalls. About three A. M. each has half a bushel of 

 grains. When milking is finished, each receives a 

 bushel of turnips (or mangolds), and shortly afterwards 



