48 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



to be commended. We shall have a lecture to-morrow on 

 summer and winter feeding of dairy cows. The question 

 this afternoon is as to salt hay and the comparative value of 

 salt hay. 



Mr. Notes. You spoke of feeding cows on straw. 



Professor Whitcher. Yes, sir. 



Mr. No YES. I want to know if you give the same ration 

 of straw with grain that you do of salt hay ? 



Professor Whitcher. Practically about the same. 



Mr. Notes. When do you feed straw to the cows ? 



Professor Whitcher. I give it at night and let them 

 meditate on it, and they will eat it. 



Mr. Notes. Starve them to it? 



Professor Whitcher. Oh, no, sir; I do not believe in 

 starving cattle. They gain in flesh and in milk. 



Mr. Notes, Do you think straw is as valuable as the 

 same amount of salt hay ? 



Professor AVhitcher. I do not know that it is, but I 

 think it is. 



Mr. . There is one matter in relation to this salt 



hay feeding which has not been touched upon, and that is 

 the amount cows will drink after eating salt hay ; and in 

 that connection it seems to me it has a great deal to do with 

 the amount of milk they will give. Perhaps you can en- 

 lighten us as to whether the amount of drink the cow uses 

 aflects the amount of milk. 



Professor Whitcher. The more water you can get a cow 

 to consume daily, the greater is the activity of the tissues in 

 the body, and therefore the greater the amount of milk, — 

 not that water produces milk, but the water stimulates the 

 organs of digestion and assimilation. 



Mr. Notes. I know that as we get our salt hay ofi" the 

 marsh there is a good deal of it that is damaged. I have 

 hauled ofi' twenty tons at a time and put it in my barn, and 

 found, as I unloaded it, that there was quite a lot of it 

 damaged. I have fed my cows on that damaged hay for a 

 week or ten days, to get it out of the way, and they never 

 shrank a bit in their milk. Some of it was black, and they 

 ate every bit of it. 



Professor Whitcher. I have seen a great many cases 



