SOILING COWS. 201 



one in winter. If cows are fed in stable in hot weather, 

 then it should be at least as cool as in the open air, and 

 this requires that the walls of the stable should be non- 

 conductors. A thin wooden wall that is, a frame, merely 

 boarded will make a hot stable, the heat of the cows' 

 bodies assisting in raising the temperature. If made of 

 wood, the wall should be double, and the space filled with 

 sawdust, tanbark, or corn-cobs, laid in straight and com- 

 pact, and then, being well ventilated, it will be cool. A 

 concrete wall, such as has been described in the chapter 

 on stock barns, will make a very cool stable in summer and 

 a warm one in winter, as it is a very poor conductor of 

 heat and cold. The cows should be arranged the same as 

 described for the fattening cattle, with heads turned to the 

 feeding-floor. If wholly soiled, the cows should be fed 

 four times at 6 and 9 A. M. and 3 and 6 p. M., giving air 

 and exercise between 10 A. M. and 3 p. M. It is particularly 

 important to look after the condition and yield of each 

 cow, and, being fed in stable, where each cow eats unmo- 

 lested, it is easily done. This affords such control over 

 the food of each cow that her capacity for milk production 

 can be tested, and, after a thorough trial, can be passed 

 upon and selected to keep or be discarded. 



We have had many years' experience in soiling cows, and 

 find that healthy, vigorous cows of 900 Ibs. will eat 100 Ibs. 

 of succulent clover or grass, the same of green oafcs, green 

 rye, or peas, 85 Ibs. of millet or Hungarian grass in blos- 

 som, and, there being more water in green fodder-corn, 

 they will eat 100 to 125 Ibs. of this. These rations are the 

 average for a herd of cows of 900 Ibs. weight. The loads 

 of green food were weighed upon the scales for many 

 weeks, to find the average amount of such food required. 

 But some cows eat considerably more than others, and the 

 feeder must have judgment to determine the wants of each. 

 Milk is made from the daily food, and one cow, yielding 



