FEEDING. 41 



diminution in milk, however, is generally amply compensated for 

 by the work they effect, and there need be no fear, if working cows 

 are treated with care and intelligence, of their milk losing the 

 ordinary properties of milk. If, however, the cows be subjected to 

 too great a strain, the milk will assume abnormal properties, which 

 will seriously affect its value. 



It may be well here to refer to the assertion recently made in America, 

 that the dishorning of cattle has a favourable influence on the yield of 

 milk. As, however, we have enough natural and approved methods of 

 raising the yield of milk in cows, we have no hesitation in condemn- 

 ing this barbarous and unfeeling custom, even supposing it actually does 

 exercise a favourable influence, which is very doubtful. 1 



18. Feeding. It is almost impossible to make any generally 

 applicable remarks on the influence of food on the yield and 

 chemical composition of milk, since this varies, and is dependent on 

 the particular circumstances of the cows. There are cows whose 

 milk-glands possess such great activity that even with scant feeding 

 they give a large yield, which naturally is partly produced at the 

 expense of their tissue. Others, again, yield with rich feeding only 

 small quantities of milk, but become quickly fat; while, lastly, there 

 is another class, and these are the cows which ought to be reared 

 and kept as being best suited for dairying purposes, which yield, 

 with a continuous improvement in food, a steady, unfailing increase 

 in the yield of milk, until they reach, sooner or later, their natural 

 limits, or a limit which is determined by a consideration of the 

 net profits. 



The best milk cows are those that are most affected by an 

 increase in the digestible constituents of food, and which respond to 

 that increase, in the most profitable manner, from the dairy point of 

 view. How far the treatment with food, in order to increase the 

 yield and profit, can be developed, has up to the present been but 

 little investigated. Perhaps the limits are less narrow than we are 

 just now inclined to assume, and it might be advisable to prove, by 

 means of experiments, whether it would not pay, in the case of well- 



1 The reason assigned by Professor Fleischmann appears to us inadequate. The extent to 

 which cows of some dairy breeds wound and gore each other with their horns is so great that 

 the ; practice of dishorning is really humane to the cattle, while it also removes a source of 

 danger to their attendants. The improvement in the milk production asserted to be noticed 

 in America as a result of the practice is no doubt due to the more peaceful life led by the 

 dishorned animals, and to their freedom from the wounds and injuries so frequently inflicted 

 by horns. Editors of English Edition. 



