138 



2s'EW ENGLAND FARMER. 



jVIarch 



less it is necessary, but always do in summer. 

 Add about one j)iut of .'<alt to this amount of 

 butter, and find that amount of salt suits my 

 customers better than less, and can always 

 find a ready market at the highest market 

 prices. Please correct and excuse all irregu- 

 larities, as this is my first attempt at writnig 

 for the public eye. a. m. ii. 



Jlamjis/iiie Vounty, Mass., Jan. 23, 1S71. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 BEST FEED FOR MILCH COWS. 



Thanks to your \Yhatcly, IMass., corres- 

 pondent for his compliment in the Faijmek of 

 Jan. l-l. If he will give my article another 

 careful reading, .and compare it with his state- 

 ment, he will see that iie neither understood 

 nor tpioted my words correctly. 



At the time I tried the experiment, I found 

 that my cows were every day gaining in flesh, 

 but gradually falling oil' in the quantity ; the 

 feed at this time being thirty-two pounds of 

 Indian meal, rye bran, and wheat shorts, — all 

 of them heavy feed,— in about equal jtarts. 

 Suspecting that my feed was too concentrated 

 and heavy and was ju'oducing flesh rather than 

 milk, 1 resolved upon trying the experiment. 



The idea that i intended to convey was, 

 not that the shorts or the bran would weaken 

 the cow, . but that the flow of milk produced 

 by the bran would tend to this result ; or, in 

 other words, the bran would be expended in 

 increasing milk, rather than strength, and at 

 the expense of the cow. 



In order to be fully understood, I will here 

 say that 1 am ])roduciiig milk for the New 

 York market, and for the sake of conven- 

 ience, I shall suppose your conx-spondent to be 

 making milk in winter. 



Your -correspondent says : "A friend to 

 whom he has just read the article says that he 

 has been feeding to his cows since the middle 

 of October twelve pounds of shorts a day." 

 "His cows have done well and are in prime 

 condition," "One of them has laid on so 

 much fat that she is in good condition for the 

 shambles ;" all of which I have no doubt is 

 literally true, and his exi)erience is just what 

 mine would have been had I kept on the heavy 

 feed. 



lie further says : I am feeding four cows 

 with shorts, at the rate of ten quarts daily, to 

 each, witii gooil results so far. Still my cows 

 are in fine condition." And well they maybe. 

 He then asks, "Will that amount allect the 

 cows injuriously ?" Certainly not, and he 

 need not fear abortion or any other disease 

 from that cause. He add;^ "my neighbor 

 does not complain of its weakening his cows 

 with a feed of twelve pounds to each, al- 

 though he thinks they walk as though they 

 were a little still", which he attributes to the 

 fact that he keejjs tliem constantly in the sta- 

 ble, excepting tliat he lets them out just long 

 enough to drink." 1 should expect that, witii 



that amount of heavj' feed and no exercise 

 they miglit be more still' before spring. 



With regard to cotton or linseed meal, I 

 will say that I am preparing an article upon ab- 

 ortion which will answer that question according 

 to the best of my knowledge and experience. 



When I tried the experiment in cpiestion, I 

 was feeding o'2 pounds of Indian meal, wheat 

 shorts and rye bran, in about equal parts, and 

 this amount 1 fed twice a day ; and in the ex- 

 periment, I weighed out the same number of 

 pounds of wheat bran (G4 lbs.) and fed half 

 at night and half in the morning with an in- 

 crease of nine quarts a day in favor of the 

 bran . 



Wheat shorts, rye bran, linseed and cotton 

 seed meal are all of them milk producing arti- 

 cles, but when. fed with or witliout corn meal, 

 are too heavy and concentrated to produce 

 milk profitably ; if fed with Indian meal will 

 dry the milk and fatten the cow. Indian meal 

 is not a milk producing article, but goes to 

 the production of flesh. It may indeed in- 

 ci-ease the flow of milk for -a short time in 

 some cows, but not in others. There are 

 some cows which seem to turn most of their 

 food into milk and get poor. In sucii cases it 

 is well to feed corn meal enough to keep good 

 the flesh and strength of the animal, and cows 

 that tend to flesh may be fed mostly on wheat 

 bran, which will check the tendency to flesh 

 and produce more milk. 



I am now milking twelve cows, one of them 

 a two-year-old heifer ; one of them coming in 

 in March, and one is farrow and has been in 

 milk more than a year. I am now feeding a 

 bushel and a half of wheat bran (sliip stuff) 

 and a peck of Indian meal twice a day, and 

 making ten qts. of milk per cow, or 120 

 quarts a day. 



I have become convinced that the cobs 

 which will shell a bushel of corn are" worth at 

 least as much when ground with the corn as 

 four (juarts of meal witiiout the cobs. 



I am also convinced that when wafer can be 

 had by bringing half a mile, it pays well to 

 wet tile meal over night if it can be kej)t with- 

 out freezing, and that it would pay well to 

 warm the water, if it could be conveniently 

 done. 



In answering communfcations of this kind, 

 it would be a very great convenience if all 

 correspondents would write over tiieir own 

 names. However, if any are afraid tliat their 

 creditors will find out their whereabouts, 

 tliey ought to be excused for resorting to a 

 fictitious signature. 



To carry on successfully the business of a 

 fann, a great de9,l of connnon sense, thought 

 and careful observation are required. No 

 other prof(!ssion would succeed as well as 

 farming with so great a want of these desira- 

 ble qualifications. 



If every farmer who owns a cow and reads 

 your valuable paper, would try various experi- 

 ments, such as warming the water, cutting the 



