THE JERSEY, ALDERNEY AND GUERNSEY COW, III 



keeping up the heat of the body, instead of making 

 milk ; warmth is therefore, in effect, food to the cow, 

 and may be obtained at httle cost and with little trouble 

 by means of a shed as recommended : and where this 

 is dry and clean, the cow will resort to it spontaneously 

 whenever she knows it to be conducive to her warmth 

 which, as above said, is her food to a great extent. 

 Cold and sudden chills, on the other hand, are a great 

 detriment to the appearance of the cow, and are fre- 

 quently the cause of her falling off in her milk so early 

 in the season. 



So important is it to provide against great alteration 

 of temperature that the impossibility of doing this in 

 large pastures has within the last few years engendered 

 the lung disease which has been so destructive among 

 cattle. Formerly, pastures were small in extent and 

 defended by large and thick hedge-rows as well as trees, 

 but the practice latterly having been to open the fields 

 and to divest them of everything which could form a 

 shelter for the cattle, what has been gained in increasing 

 the quantity of feed has been lost by the disease which 

 the inclemency of an unsheltered field has engendered. 

 It is much to be questioned whether Nature was not the 

 best judge, after all. 



Much injury is likewise done by turning cattle out 

 too early in the season, exchanging them from a warm 

 yard or shed (especially just after calving) to pass the 

 night in the open air before the season is sufficiently 

 advanced to make such exposure bearable. 



