330 FEEDING ANIMALS. 



Then, again, the cow must be supported first. She must 

 be sustained before she can produce any milk whatever. 

 Some dairymen appear to think that a cow may be kept 

 poor through the winter, and produce the same milk in the 

 spring as if she were in good condition ; but this is a fatal 

 mistake. It will take nearly all a poor cow can eat to sup- 

 ply the wants of her own system : and what this supply of 

 the living wants of the system is, few understand. It 

 requires two- thirds of a full ration to keep a cow in fair 

 condition her food of support before there is any milk 

 production. This has been carefully tested by many exper- 

 imenters. We have proved it in a number of instances. 

 It is a sound general statement that two-thirds of the food 

 goes to keep the animal alive. Up to that point all is 

 expenditure and no return. 



A growing animal that weighs four, five or six hundred 

 pounds in the fall, and only weighs the same in the spring, 

 is more than unprofitable ; the food consumed to keep it 

 over is utterly thrown away ; it is as effectually lost as wood 

 that has been burned in a stove. All that is got from the 

 cow is its droppings, as there remains the ash from the wood. 

 It will thus be seen that all the profit, if there is any, 

 must come from the last third of food given the cows ; 

 and, if that be withheld, only loss is the result. 



In regard to dairy profits, the cow is simply a machine 

 for producing milk precisely as much as a steam-engine is 

 a machine for producing power and motion ; if the steam- 

 boiler is supplied with just as much fuel as is required to 

 keep the water warm there is no power; the boiler must 

 have sufficient fuel to produce extra heat before any work 

 can be accomplished. 



It makes a considerable difference what kind of a cow is 

 kept to produce milk, just as it does the kind of boiler and 

 engine used to produce motion and work ; and, therefore, 

 it is important in purchasing and breeding cows for dairy 



