GERMANY. 



467 



sweet creamed milk with some corn-ineal in it, and a little hay; this is 

 continued for six months, then the calf gets, during three months, hay 

 and water mixed with salt and corn-meal. 



In winter the food of the grown-up cattle consists of hay, chopped 

 straw, and beets ; twice a week they get a mixture of malt and oil-cake. 

 The cattle of the small farmers are mostly fed upon straw and very lit- 

 tle hay and very often on beets. In summer the food consists of Swed- 

 ish and lucern clover. The stables are very defective and unhealthy 

 for the cattle. The greater part are too low, too small, and often over- 

 crowded. Good and spacious stables with excellent ventilation are 

 found on the large farms. The temperature in the stables of the little 

 old farm houses is always too warm, but notwithstanding, the health of 

 these cattle is excellent ; this is partly explained by the fact that they 

 are used to poor quarters ; it also demonstrates that they are very hardy 

 stock and do better under such circumstances than any other breed of 

 cattle. 



. MEAT PRODUCTION AND FATTENING. 



Calves which are sold three or four weeks after their birth to butchers, 

 have a live weight of 100 to 120 pounds-; calves which suck good milk 

 have a weight of from 250 to 300 pounds after two to three months. 

 The average price paid for calves by butchers is as follows : calves from 

 three to four weeks old, $10; two to three months old, $30; three to 

 four months old, 845. 



An ox of first quality, having a weight of 1,500 pounds, produces 840 

 pounds of meat, 120 pounds of tallow, 100 pounds skin, and 100 pounds 

 must be deducted for the head, feet, and bowels. 



An ox of second quality produces 680 pounds of meat, 60 pounds of 

 tallow, 100 pounds skin. 



A cow of first quality, of a live weight of 1,300 pounds, produces 680 

 pounds of meat, 90 pounds skin, 100 pounds of tallow. 



A cow of second quality produces 550 pounds of meat, 80 pounds of 

 tallow, 90 pounds skin. 



The average is about 103 pounds of meat to 200 pounds live weight. 



MILK PRODUCTION. 



In the years named eighteen cows produced the following : 



From this must be deducted milk used in the house, 3,285 liters, milk 

 for food of sixteen calves which are born on an average in a year, at 1J 

 gallon a day during two months, 5,760 liters, leaving a total of 71,615 

 liters or 17,904 gallons. 



A cow of the Messkirch breed produces each day on an average If 

 gallons of milk, or 540 gallons a year in three hundred milk days. 



The specific gravity of the milk, fresh from tbe cow, is from 29 to 33 

 per cent. After twenty -four hours the cream shows 10 to 12 per cent, 



