CHAPTER II. 



FEED AND MANAGEMENT. 



In feeding cows the point that attracts my 

 attention more frequently than any other is 

 palatability of the food. This point must be 

 looked after with great care, as it is the key to 

 the situation. lb matters but little how much 

 nutriment there is in any kind of food; if it is 

 not palatable the cows will not eat enough of 

 it to make a satisfactory profit. 



The cow a machine. — The cow is a machine 

 for manufacturing our coarse fodder and grain 

 into milk. This machine requires a certain 

 amount to keep it in running order, and our 

 profit comes from what she consumes after she 

 has taken care of herself. A food may be so 

 lacking in palatability that she will only con- 

 sume enough to sustain herself, in which case 

 our profit is a minus quantity. The question 

 of digestibility enters into the problem, but my 

 experience has caused me to think that palata- 

 bility and digestibility go together, or at least 

 a palatable food is a digestible food. Palata- 

 bility we must have as we cannot succeed with- 



(30) 



