46 SCIENCE AND PRACTICE OF DAIRYING. 



It should be noticed, however, that the digestibility of the nutrients 

 is by no means inconsiderably lessened by the addition of bulky fodder, 

 containing much non-nitrogenous substance, to a ration. It must not be 

 forgotten that such a lowering of digestibility would be exercised in the 

 case of the above ration by the 20 Ibs. of turnips which it contains. 



It is hardly necessary to say that putrefying food of any kind should 

 on no account be given to milk cows. Milk cows must also not be 

 fed with beans, peas, lupines, pea-straw, or with large quantities of 

 barley-straw. 1 The most suitable foods, and those which have the most 

 favourable action, besides good grass and hay, are the grain of cereals, 

 especially oats, and the different kinds of bran, especially coarse wheat 

 bran. All kinds of roots, including mangel and chopped turnips, may be 

 mixed with the eighth part of their weight of good cut straw, and potatoes 

 with about half their weight of straw. Approximately about eight 

 kilograms potatoes per day per 500 kilograms of live weight (17J Ibs. to 

 1100 Ibs.) may be recommended. If large quantities of potatoes are used 

 in feeding it is best to steam them. Where the conditions of the farming 

 are such that very watery foods, such as distillery refuse and sliced roots, 

 have to be given, which are better adapted for fattening cattle than for 

 milk cows, care should be taken that the cows receive, if possible, at least 

 5 kilos, of coarse fodder daily per 500 kilos, of live weight (11 Ibs. 

 per 1100 Ibs.), and also ample quantities of digestible protein in their 

 total ration. Where roots are used, care should be taken to measure 

 exactly the quantities which are daily given. It is impossible, however, to 

 fix a precise limit to the quantity which it is advisable under all circum- 

 stances to allow. As soon as the rations are no longer eaten by the cows 

 with appetite, and the roots are no longer perfectly digested, both the 

 flavour of the milk and the milk-fat are in danger of being affected by the 

 root feeding. In the case of feeding with distillery refuse, the mangers, 

 which are apt to become contaminated with acid and fungoid ferments, 

 should be carefully kept clean, and, along with all places which come in 

 contact with the food, should be washed with freshly-prepared milk of 

 lime at least once a week. 



The following conclusions drawn from practice are well worthy of 

 attention, even if they are not to be invariably relied on: 



Milk-fat becomes hard in its texture, in the case of feeding with peas, 



1 In reply to an inquiry by the translators, Prof. Fleischmann writes that all the foods mentioned 

 can be successfully and properly used in feeding milk cows, provided they form a moderate proportion 

 only of a ration, otherwise suitable ; but that if used in excess they produce an unfavourable influence 

 on the milk products. Thus barley-straw has been found to influence quite perceptibly and unfavour- 

 ably the flavour of butter, and linseed-cake tends to produce a hard butter that has not the desired 

 texture. Experience in Germany has also gone to show that such foods as beans, peas, and lupines 

 can be more freely and advantageously given to feeding cattle than to milk cows ; and that when 

 given to the latter, it should only be in moderate and suitable quantity. Editors of English Edition. 



