312 The Feeding of Animals 



According to the majority of testimony available, a 

 cow of average size and good capacity should receive 

 at least 2.25 pounds of protein daily during the full 

 flow of milk, the ration to have a nutritive ratio not 

 wider than 1:6.5. The nutritive ratio of young pasture 

 grass, perhaps as efficient a milk -producing food as we 

 have, is even narrower than this, a fact which doubt- 

 less explains in part the large flow of milk from 

 abundant June pasturage, and which offers a sugges- 

 tion for the compounding of winter rations. 



While the importance of nitrogenous feeding stuffs 

 to a dairy herd is conceded, there is a tendency with 

 certain writers to distort the relation of protein to 

 milk production. Their utterances give the impres- 

 sion that in feeding milch cows protein is about the 

 only factor to be considered. This view is typified by 

 the assertion that "a cow gives milk only in propor- 

 tion to the protein that she receives," a remark which 

 might be made with equal accuracy about carbohy- 

 drates. It is true that even if carbohydrates are sup- 

 plied in abundance, a depression of the protein below 

 a certain limit will diminish the milk flow. It is also 

 true that when sufficient protein is fed, a reduction of 

 the carbohydrates below the necessary quantity will 

 cut down the milk yield. An adequate supply of easily 

 digestible carbohydrates is no less important physio- 

 logically than keeping up the necessary proportion of 

 protein, though the former may be accomplished more 

 easily than the latter because of the usual character 

 of home -raised crops. 



The following ai-e illustrative examples of well-corn- 



