132 THE dairyman's manual. 



tain, but when they can be purchased cheaply, as com- 

 pared with other foods, they are especially yaluable for 

 the manurial elements in them. A reference to the 

 table given in the next chapter will show that 1,000 

 pounds of oats contain considerable potash and phos- 

 phoric acid, and hence may at times be used on this 

 account. But as there are other foods which are much 

 more valuable in this respect, oats have been discarded 

 from the food list in use in the author's dairy. When they 

 were used as a test in equal quantities with coni meal, the 

 butter was of very light color and inferior quality. 



CoRX is the standard food grain of the United States, 

 and fortunately is most excellent for feeding. It is most 

 healthful in its effect when fed in a proper proportion 

 with other foods ; and, unless given in unusual and inju- 

 dicious excess, never injuriously affects the milk glands. 

 The greater part of the fat is in the husk and germ, and 

 is retained in the waste product of the hominy mills 

 which separate the starchy kernel from these parts of 

 the grain. Consequently, the refuse of this manufac- 

 ture, known as "hominy chop," would be worth more 

 for feeding to cows than the corn itself, if the husk were 

 all digestible. But in a long course of feeding corn meal 

 we have found the fine bolted yellow meal to give better 

 results than any other form in which corn has been used. 

 This will be more fully explained hereafter. 



Peas have been found an exceedingly effective food 

 for producing milk. In the feeding test of a noted 

 Jersey cow, in which an average of seven pounds of but- 

 ter daily was given for a week, sixteen pounds of pea 

 meal were fed per day, with sixteen pounds of oat meal 

 and tvrenty-four pounds of corn meal. Excellent pasture 

 was also provided. This feed would supply an enormous 

 excess of nutritive elements above those required for 

 maintenance, giving four and a half times as much al- 



