FOODS FOR USE m THE DAIRY. 133 



buminoids, three times as much carbo-hydrates, and 

 eight times as much fat as would be required for a cow 

 in ordinary milk. No doubt, if a cow can digest suffi- 

 cient food of the right kind, oil for instance, a kind of 

 butter might be produced which would far exceed the 

 enormous product above claimed for the Jersey cow. In 

 such a case a cow would act as a filter, and merely separ- 

 ate the fats from the food and pass it through the udder. 

 There could be no chemical change in the albuminoids 

 or the carbo-hydrates into fat, as is effected in the or- 

 dinary feeding of dairy cows, for the system of the cow 

 is unable to do so much work. The effect of the pea 

 meal in this case was probably due to its effect in en- 

 abling the cow to digest the large quantity of corn and 

 grass which was consumed. This effect of some foods is 

 of great importance, and will be treated of at length in 

 the next chapter. Pea meal seems to exert a greater 

 effect in this direction than any other food. 



Cow Peas, being a Southern product, as well as the 

 three foods which follow in the list, and as Southern 

 cows consume a large quantity of mast in the forest 

 ranges, the value of all these substances are worthy of 

 study and experiment in Southern dairies. Sweet pota- 

 toes and yams furnish most valuable foods for winter 

 feeding in the South, where dairying offers exceedingly 

 favorable opportunities to experienced and enterprising 

 farmers. 



Wheat Bran and the husks of grain generally are of 

 great value for feeding, chiefly for their nitrogenous ele- 

 ments and the manurial value of their mineral constit- 

 uents. Of these waste products, brewers' grains and 

 starch or glucose meal are worth special note, because of 

 the severe denunciations made against them by some 

 persons. No doubt in some cases the objections were 

 well founded, and there has been fault on the part of 



