RATIONS FOR MILK. 349 



duction. This experiment was made by Prof. Horsfall, 

 before the German experiments, determining the precise 

 digestible constituents of food. Under the German 

 formula, the amounts of albuminoids, carbo-hydrates, and 

 oil represented as digestible would be considerably less, 

 but the result would be the same. If dairymen once 

 become fully convinced of the fact that two parts of all 

 food goes to keep the cow alive, and only one part to pro- 

 duction and profit, it must soon change the habit of 

 scanty feeding, which means feeding without any hope of 

 profit. 



AMERICAN KATIONS FOR MILK. 



Our dairymen have a great variety of foods out of which 

 to make up the milk ration. It is true that we cannot get 

 bean-meal or rape-cake, two of the foods used by Prof. 

 Horsfall the former of which had a peculiar significance 

 in his system of feeding, as he regarded it as an important 

 agent in keeping up the condition of the cow under a large 

 flow of milk, by its large percentage of muscle-forming 

 matter but we can replace this with decorticated cotton- 

 seed meal, which is still richer than bean-meal in albu- 

 minoid matter, besides having six times as much oil ; or 

 its place can be filled (in some parts of the country) with 

 pea-meal, a food very similar, or it may be replaced with 

 linseed oil-cake. We have not yet become accustomed to 

 raising roots or cabbages for cattle feeding to any extent, 

 and it may be doubted, whether, with our rates of labor, 

 we can afford to raise turnips, beets, etc, instead of the 

 grain crops. Many close figures make the raising of an 

 acre of Indian corn, oats and peas, millet or barley, cheaper 

 than the same quantity of nutriment from roots. The 

 effect of roots in the promotion of the health of the cow, 

 by their cooling and relaxing effect upon the stomach and 

 bowels, is often dwelt upon, and with good reason; but 



