158 



animal. It often happens that a very cheap food would be 

 very valuable for an animal for a month or a year. When 

 the digestive and assimilative organs are kept in good con- 

 dition, the animal will thrive on comparatively cheap food. 

 But there are certain general rules that may be observed 

 under all conditions with comparative success, as our expe- 

 rience and observation has proved. 



First, all crops as food for cattle, should be fully matured 

 in order to obtain the best results ; not fully ripe, but well 

 developed and matured. The early spring grass in our 

 pastures may increase the flow of milk, but it does this at 

 the expense of its quality. The milk and butter produced 

 from the early spring grass, is not at all like the milk and 

 butter produced from the mature grass of June and July. 

 The time was when we filled our silos with green, imma- 

 ture corn, but this ensilage had to be fed in connection with 

 other more nutritious food in order to obtain the best re- 

 sults. But now, no intelligent farmer thinks of cutting his 

 corn for the silo until the ears have begun to glaze and 

 harden, and this ensilage comes nearer to a perfect food for 

 cattle than any other single crop, and this is true of all 

 crops or foods that are used to develop and sustain animal 

 life, whether gathered from the, field or the stall. Lamb or 

 veal may be very palatable, but not as nutritious as mutton 

 or beef. 



Another factor of great importance in estimating the 

 value of any crop for food for cattle is the proper combina- 

 tion of foods. There are certain kinds of food that are 

 entirely useless when fed alone, but are of great value 

 when fed in connection with some other kinds of food. The 

 agricultural chemist informs us that turnips contain but 

 six per cent, nutritious substance and ninety-four per cent, 

 of water, that green fodder corn stands about the same, 

 that straw, barley, oats or rye are incapable of sustaining 

 animal life ; and yet practical science has demonstrated 

 that a partial feed of green corn fodder to milch cows al- 

 ways increases the flow of milk without diminishing the 



