FIRST CENTURY OF DAIRYING IN NEW SOUTH WALES. 



Tlu- (motion whether the whole, a part, or any of their food shou'd 

 be cooked for da-ry cows, when being house fed in winter Iv.s often 

 exercised the minds of their owners, and various and discordant have 

 !>eeii the opinions expressed on this point. On the one hand ic a as 

 been >tated that such food is more digestible, and consequently more 

 nourishing ; that by cooking, substances otherwise useless can be made 

 available for food ; and that the warming of food by cooking is agree- 

 able and good for the animals in cold weather. On the other hand, it is 

 contended that giving cooked food to ruminating animals, such as 

 cows, tends to impare ultimately their digestive powers ; that it makes 

 ihem tender and more easily attacked by disease ; that the results 

 are not commensurate with the trouble and expense of cooking the 

 food and otherwise tending the cows. 



There is, however, evidently a good deal to be said on both sides. 

 It is the opinion of many that in certain cases cooking at least a por- 

 tion of the food is advisable, and in other cases it is better to supply 

 it uncooked. Much must depend on the circumstances of the owner, 

 the feeding and appliances at his disposal, his buildings and his 

 pecuniary means, and more particularly on the price obtained on the 

 products of the cows, as well as the bringing up of the cows to ac- 

 custom them to such treatment. 



. The complicated arrangement of a cow's stomach is evidently in- 

 tended by Nature to enable the animal to lay in a large store 01 food 

 at once, to be masticated and digested afterwards at leisure, and to 

 enable it to make use of and digest coarse, bulky vegetable food which 

 would require a long preparation to make it tit to be used as nourish- 

 ment. That applies particularly to breeding cows. 



One may safely conclude that cows do best on uncooked food, pro- 

 vided it is good and plentiful In this respect pasture grasses have 

 hitherto given the very besc results, bovh as regards the raising and 

 profitable upkeep of dairy -cattle in all dairying centres. 



344. 



