478 DISEASES OF CATTLE. 



The value of milk is mainly dependent upon its fat content, and a 

 gi\-en weight from different herds varies greatly in actual value. For 

 this reason in the last column of the table the amount of fat actually 

 found in the milk is reported. It will be seen that this varies from 3.25 

 pounds in one case to 5.44 in another. The wide variation is an admi- 

 rable example in showing how important it is for the dairyman to ana- 

 lyze the milk and learn just what his cows are doing. It shows us how 

 little we know of the value of the herd when we stop short with merely 

 weighing the milk. By weighing the feed occasionally and weighing 

 the milk regularly and analyzing it from time to time the dairyman is 

 in position to know just how his business is running. 



FEED WITH A GENEEOUS HAND. 



All through this chapter I have endeavored to convey the impress! on 

 that the calf, the steer, and the cow are living machines for the concen- 

 tration of hay, grains, and grasses into human food. The successful 

 operation of these machines depends upon the manager and is con- 

 trolled by inviolable laws. Often it would seem from appearances as 

 though the stockman was hostile to his cattle, and regarded every 

 pound of feed given them as so much material filched from tlie feed bin 

 to his personal loss. The man who wrote in a letter that he had a wife, 

 3 children, and 6 cows to support, doubtless took just this view of the 

 situation; had cruel fate thrust 10 or 20 cows upon him he would have 

 broken down entirely under the burden. With some the greatest effort 

 in conducting feeding operations seems to be the study of how to save 

 a little feed and still keep the animals in existence. 



The successful feeder works on exactly the opposite principle. He 

 fully appreciates the fact that an animal in order to be profitable must 

 be liberally fed. He understands that first of all it must have suffi- 

 cient food to carry on the bodily functions and maintain life, and that 

 no returns can come to the owner if only this amount of food is sup- 

 plied, and that all increase in weight, fat, and all yield of niilk come 

 through the excess of food over the wants of the body. This leads 

 him to breed and select animals with large consumptive power, a strong 

 digestion, and to feed them up to their limit so long as they are useful. 



If our farmers only fully understood this first great law of stock- 

 feeding and acted intelligently thereon, our stock interests would be 

 revolutionized. 



TEE EYE OF THE JIA6TEE FATTEN HIS CATTLE. 



I wish the above legend could be written over the door of every feed- 

 ing stable in the land, for it expresses a most important truth in concise 

 form. If a man has no natural liking for the stock business, it is really 

 useless for him to attempt that vocation, for the art can only be acquired 

 by students having a certain natural adaptation. If one has this love for 



