FOOD FOR MILCH COWS IN WINTER 275 



freely. To effect such an end, when fed without ad- 

 mixture, with prepared roughage as silage, it is some- 

 times simply mixed with some coarser kind of meal. 

 (2) When the aim is to secure more thorough mastica- 

 tion than comes from feeding it directly. When thus fed, 

 remastication does not follow, but when the concentrate 

 is admixed with some prepared roughage as ensilage, 

 it is remasticated in the process of rumination, and, con- 

 sequently, it is reasonable to infer that it will be more 

 perfectly digested. (3) When some of the fodders 

 available are not sufficiently high in palatability to in- 

 sure sufficient consumption in the same by chaffing them 

 and mixing them with the more relished concentrate, the 

 larger consumption sought may be secured. 



Among the concentrates that profit by admixture 

 with other concentrates when fed directly, are pea meal, 

 cottonseed meal, rye, barley, and corn meal. Among 

 the substances that are concentrates or of the nature of 

 concentrates that are suitable for admixing with them 

 to secure the end sought, are wheat bran, one of the best, 

 rice bran, ground oats, and even oat hulls. Corn cobs 

 ground up with the corn serve the same end, though, 

 probably, in a less degree. 



When the concentrate is to be mixed with prepared 

 fodder, that is, with chaffed roughage, no other kind 

 of prepared roughage answers the purpose better 

 than ensilage. The ensilage is fed and immediately 

 thereafter the concentrate is spread over it. The 

 admixture takes place while the animal is eating it. In 

 the same way when cut fodder is the roughage fed, the 

 concentrate strewn over it will be admixed, but the 

 blending will not be so perfect as with the ensilage, since 

 the moisture in the latter influences favorably adherence 

 of the meal. To insure like adherence in the cut fodder, 

 it is sometimes dampened with water applied by a water- 

 ing can with a nozzle that produces a fine spray. To 

 insure such blending from feeding the concentrate along 



