Practical Experiences in the Preparation of Food for Stoclc. 463 
[For Schedule of Questions, seepage 448.] 
Mr. John Speir — continued. 
Ration after this week 
(April 4, 1888) 
Dry matter 
Starch 
Albumin- 
oids 
Oil 
6-53 
60 
2- 2 
•4 
3- 3 
22 
3-2 
2-2 
1-0 
•08 
20 
1-5 
•11 
•4 
•4 
•07 
■8 
•4 
•05 
•12 
•08 
•03 
•05 
•13 
206 
9-98 
2^18 
•46 
Cake is given during milking in the morning (4 a.m.) ; grains and meals 
6 A.M., 12 A.M., and 6 p.m. ; silage, mid-forenoon ; potatoes, mid-afternoon ; 
also straw, 10 a.m., 4 p.m. and 6.15 p.m. Stock, Ayrsbires, 8 to 8^ cwt. 
10. Hoi-ses : 16 lbs. bruised oats, 4 lbs. maize broken, 12 lbs. to 14 lbs. 
bay, one-fourth of •which is cut and mixed with the grain, the remainder 
given long. Dairy stock : see No. 9. 
11. Dairy stock: concentrated food as given imder No. 9 for all winter, 
which is occasionally altered according to the price of the different materials. 
The green food used in early autumn is spring tares, or second cut Italian or 
clover ; then the sprouts of early cut cabbages sold for table use. From 
about October 20 to November 30 carrot leaves are alone used, and very good 
they are. Cow cabbages fill up the time till the new year, with Italian and 
clover second cut made into silage after. Diseased potatoes are largely used 
during October and part of November, and to the extent of from 14 lbs. to 
21 lbs. daily from the new year until now (April). In summer, in addition 
to pasture, each cow'gets about 7 lbs. grains and 4 lbs. of decorticated cotton- 
cake meal, and 3 lbs. of oat-straw or hay, and an equivalent of cut grass. 
They are in the house all night. 
12. I use brewers' grains all the year to the extent of one-fifth to one-' 
third bushel to each cow, according to season and price. I can generally 
get them fresh, and prefer them in that state, even although a little dearer, 
to preserved ones. I have preserved them several years in bouses like a silo, 
covered with sods, but have had better results when fresh ones were used. 
13. Where all the produce is of such a quality as will be cleanly eaten 
separately, I see no gain and no economy in chaffing, but there is needless 
labour. 
14. All meals are boiled by steam for between one and two hours before 
use, the mixture being given sloppy and warm. So much water is given in 
the green food and along with the steamed meals that it is rarely a cow in 
full milk takes a drink of water. They are generally offered such for a few 
days after calving, bnt at other times, unless a month just now, they never 
take it, although offered it. 
1.5. The pea and maize meal shown in No. 9, which see. 
16. I am partial to a small upright boiler with or without tubes. Such 
raises steam quickly, is cheap, and easy of attention ; egg end boilers take 
more coals to raise steam than an upright one to raise and supplv it. For 
steaming meal and heating water I use ordinary farm boilers (cast-iron), set 
in a row against the wall, built firmly in with cement, a pipe going down 
the one side. The boilers are emptied with shovels or buckets. 
17. The very best possible results. 
