THE OX AND THE DAIRY. 159 



foul incrustations, loss of hair, and irritation of the skin, 

 together with great debility, and loss of appetite and milk. 

 This disease, termed by the French rafle, or jet de la lucerne, 

 may be removed by a change of diet, cleanliness, and exercise ; 

 the water should be soft and pure, with a little flour mixed 

 with it ; and the food, if green, sprinkled with a little salt. 



Some have objected to mangold-wurzel for milch cattle, but 

 we doubt whether on sufficient grounds ; for it is often the 

 sudden change from one diet to another, without variation, 

 and not the article of diet itself, that is injurious. When 

 mangold-wurzel is given with a proper proportion of hay, it 

 has been proved by experiment to be very salutary ; but if 

 the statement in the Farmer's Journal for 1814 is to be 

 relied upon, it has, when given alone, produced a partial para- 

 lysis and a loss of milk ; but in the instances narrated it 

 appears that the cows were suddenly transferred to this diet 

 without any admixture. Half a bushel of sliced mangold- 

 wurzel, morning and evening, with a good allowance of sweet 

 hay in the intermediate portion of the day, has been tried, and 

 found to keep cows not only in health, but in the finest milk- 

 ing condition. That there is nothing deleterious in this root 

 appears from its analysis : a thousand parts contain about 

 50 of sugar, 22 of mucilage, 2 of starch, 6 of extract, 35 of 

 woody fibre or lignin, and 885 of water. Next to mangold- 

 wurzel, many farmers regard parsnips as the most valuable 

 root ; indeed, in some districts, and particularly in Jersey, 

 this root is largely used, both for milch cows and for fattening 

 oxen. They are best when steamed, as are also potatoes ; 

 iudeed, cut straw or chaff (not the husk of grain, which is most 

 dangerous, and scarcely if at all digestible) forms a much 

 more nutritious food when steamed and given warm than in 

 its crude condition. On steamed roots, steamed chaff, and a 

 little hay, many large farmers keep not only milch cows, but 

 oxen and working horses, at least during the winter. We are 

 talking of stall-fed cattle, and not of such as are depastured in 

 the fields, though, where the fields are eaten bare, a regular 

 allowance of food on the same principles is necessary. A dis- 

 creet allowance of green fodder, cut grass, mangold-wurzel 

 sliced, turnips sliced, steamed roots and hay, or cut straw and 

 brewer's grains, clover, chaff, and oil-cake, or linseed boiled or 

 unboiled, form the staple articles of the diet of cattle ; and 

 the proportion in which any of these is to be given, depends 

 on the condition of the animals, and whether they are milch 



