134 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



the largest possible supply of the best quality of material 

 should be furnished. If you lessen the supply of material 

 and energy, 3'ou reduce the quantity, but the quality as to 

 percentage of constituents cannot be speedily, permanently 

 changed. 



On our side of the line I have found many farmers who a 

 few years ago fed cows in a most extravagant and wasteful 

 way, because they thought particularly rich food would 

 make specially rich milk ; but when a man follows such a 

 practice he gets no adequate return. 



A few years ago I conducted an experiment to discover 

 the influence and effect upon the quality of milk, as to its 

 composition, by giving the animals rich food in one case, 

 and what is commonly called poor food, in regard to its 

 constituents or nutritive ratio, in another case. I will give 

 you an illustration of our work with the three pens which I 

 hold in my hand, that will save me some talking and you 

 some questioning. I selected twenty-live cows and put them 

 in three groups, dividing them as evenly, as to weight, 

 breed and length of time since calving, as I possibly could. 

 We had a Holstein, Shoi-thorn, Ayrshire, a Quebec Jersey 

 and a grade Shorthorn in one group, and then we had these 

 breeds represented in each of the other two groups. After a 

 cow calved in one group she got a ration composed of forty 

 pounds of corn ensilage, thirty-five pounds of roots and five 

 pounds of straw. That was the fodder part of her ration, — 

 a rather weak but very succulent ration. To that was added 

 four pounds of meal made from a mixture of barley, oats, 

 wheat and pease ground together. 



The cows in another group of similar breeds, and as near 

 as possible of equal weights, received the same fodder ration, 

 with seven pounds of meal per day. The meal was weighed 

 separately, so that they got exactly what I mentioned. Of 

 the rough or coarser portion of the ration they were given 

 all that they cared to consume. With respect to the third 

 group of cows, it was arranged that when each cow " came 

 in " she received the same fodder ration and four pounds of 

 meal per day, beginning where the first group stayed all the 

 time. After the lapse of two weeks the amount of meal was 

 increased to five pounds per day for two weeks ; at the end 



