334 FEEDING ANIMALS. 



days, commencing the fifteenth day after calving. Result : 

 20 pounds of butter from 462 pounds of milk. This sec- 

 ond season was an astonishing improvement on the last, 

 producing about 60 per cent, more throughout, with only 

 ten per cent, additional food. This cow was kept till 18 

 years old, and she proved a first-class cow for quantity and 

 quality, the quality being improved more than the quantity. 



That we might determine whether the result in this first 

 case might have been largely due to the natural develop- 

 ment of a heifer, a six-year-old cow, that had been pur- 

 chased the May previously, and found to be a very ordinary 

 cow, yielding only 25 pounds of milk per day, in the flush, 

 and commenced feeding her ten weeks before coming in. 

 The ration of extra feed at first was small, as with the first 

 cow, and increased, week by week, until a week before she 

 dropped her calf, when the extra feed was discontinued, to 

 prevent a feverish state of the system at that critical period. 



Her udder increased much beyond its previous dimen- 

 sions; and, on testing for quantity during the third week, 

 she gave an average of 30 pounds per day, yielding 8 pounds 

 of butter. This cow was fed like the former through the 

 season, and showed an increase of milk much beyond that 

 cow the first season. This was attributed to the extra 

 feeding for over two months before coming in. She was 

 fed in like manner two months before dropping her next 

 calf; and her udder was so largely increased in size that 

 she required milking ten days before calving. On a test, 

 during the third week, she gave 280 pounds of milk, and 

 made 12 pounds of butter. This was an increase of one- 

 third in quantity of milk, and one-half of butter. This 

 cow was kept till 20 years old, and she gave 6,278 pounds 

 of milk during her nineteenth year. Both of these, after 

 development, became profitable cows. 



A circumstance worthy of mention is, that a heifer calf 

 was raised from each of these cows before development, and 



