GENERAL CARE OF CATTLE. 349 



of the chill caused by a sudden change of 

 weather, are very injurious to milk production. 

 Therefore, while the dry cows may find all they 

 require out of doors with fodder and hay, the 

 milking cows require a warm shelter at night 

 and in exceptionally bad weather, and a good 

 milk ration. Mixed wheat, bran and corn-meal, 

 with nice bright clover and timothy hay and 

 chopped oats, proportioned to the cow's powers 

 of production, is as cheap and serviceable a 

 ration as will readily be found. 



Milk, it is well to remember, is a fluid, and 

 can only be produced in large quantities where 

 the consumption of water is great. If the water 

 supply is important in all cases, it is doubly so 

 in that of milking cows. Let it be freely ob- 

 tainable, clean, pure, and wholesome. If it is 

 to be taken in large quantities at once it is 

 better that it should not be at a very low tem- 

 perature. It is well settled that cows in milk 

 drink far more than cattle in process of fatten- 

 ing, but the exact relations of the amount of 

 water drunk to the milk given can hardly be 

 said to have been determined as yet. Upon 

 this point, however, Prof. Stewart* cites the 

 report of M. Dancel to the French Academy 

 of Sciences upon some very interesting experi- 

 ments which he had made. He says: "The ex- 

 periments were to determine the effect of quan- 



* "Feeding Animals," pp. 352 and 353. 



