SPECIAL FEEDING. 335 



both proved to be very ordinary milkers ; but heifer calves 

 were also raised from each of them after development that 

 proved to be excellent milkers. It would seem that a 

 strong milking habit acquired by each of these cows be- 

 came transmissible to the progeny. They also illustrate 

 another point of some importance the effect of high feed- 

 ing upon the health and future usefulness of the cow, upon 

 her constitution and capacity to yield milk for a series of 

 years. 



It has often been asserted that high feeding shortens the 

 life and usefulness of the cow. These two cows each gave 

 milk in very profitable quantities for fourteen years after 

 high feeding commenced. On this point we can also refer 

 to the experiments reported by Dr. Rhode, mentioned on 

 page 177, in which some 35 cows increased a yearly average 

 of 2,930 quarts to 4,000 quarts, in seven years, with the 

 best of health. "What is called high feeding is often very 

 injudicious feeding, consisting of highly concentrated and 

 heating food, given without due admixture of coarse or 

 bulky food. But these cases cannot be cited against full 

 feeding directed by a proper knowledge of the wants of the 

 animal system. 



THE GERMAN EXPERIMENTS. 



The effect of special feeding upon the quantity of milk 

 has been so often proved in large and small experiments 

 that there is no further doubt about it. But the German 

 experiments at first appeared to show that the food did not 

 change the proportion of the chemical constituents of milk; 

 that when cows were fed a ration of meadow hay, and in 

 addition a highly nitrogenous food, or again one highly 

 carbonaceous, for periods of 14 days, the chemical constitu- 

 ents of the milk remained essentially the same. But Dr. 

 Kiihn, in further trials, extending through a period of 36 

 days, found the element of oil to be slightly increased on 



