200 THE PRACTICAL SIDE OF 



large proportion of the ration provided for 

 the cows should be grown upon the farm. 

 Small holders will of necessity purchase cake, 

 meal, bran, grains, and other concentrated 

 forms of nourishment, which will serve the 

 double purpose of increasing the value of 

 the rations and the quality of the manure. 

 The bulky foods, however, such as hay 

 straw, roots, cabbage, and forage crops 

 of various kinds should form a large pro- 

 portion of the produce of the soil. Cow- 

 keeping is therefore a means of enabling the 

 small holder to realise profit in two directions — 

 first, that derived from the sale of milk, 

 butter, or cheese; and, next, that gained by 

 the cultivation of the crops to which we have 

 referred. Had we based our estimate of 

 the profit earned by each cow on the sum 

 remaining after deducting from her gross 

 returns the cost of purchased food alone, we 

 should have been able to show a much larger 

 net result. 



Assuming, for example, that a cow con- 

 sumes 8 lb. of cake and meal daily during 

 the two hundred odd days of winter feed- 

 ing, and 2 lb. per day for the remainder 

 of the year, and taking the average cost 

 of these foods at |d. per lb. — which is 



