THE MAGAZINB 
OP 
Tf)G mwoL OF RGmmuvim 
COLOMBO. 
Add^d as a Supplcmont monthly to the " TltOPIGAL AGBIGULTURIST:^ 
The following pages include the contents of the Magrmne of the School of 
Agricultvre for December :— 
Vol. v.] 
DECEMBER, 1893. 
[No. 6, 
TREATMENT OF MILCH COWS. 
HK treatment of milch cows in this 
country is a subject about whicli 
very little is known by the ordi- 
nary owner of these animals, and 
it is only those who have given 
special attention to their management so as to 
get the maximum yield of milk that 
have, by care and perseverance, made any 
progress towards discovering the best me- 
thods to be followed. The native Sinha- 
lese cowkeeper, it will be admitted, has 
a very superficial knowledge of the cow, to 
iudae bv the results of his treatment of 
{hat animal, but even the well-to-do house- 
holder, who keeps a few cows for supplying 
liis family with milk, is generally blissfully 
ignorant of their management. It is otten 
mentioned as inexplicable, that a cow does 
not give regular quantities of milk, or that it 
goes off milk in a few months, or that the 
animal ceases giving milk owing to the death 
of the calf, and so on. The fact, however, is 
that uU these circumstances are easily explainable 
us the result of the bad treatment that the cow 
has received at the hands of the cattle-keeper. 
We will not touch upon such questions as the 
selection and purchase of the milch cow, tlie 
age of the cow, the age of the calf, and other 
points whicli are all of the utmost importance to 
the owner of a cow, and will take It for granted 
that the milking animals whose treatment 
we are about to refer to, are already m the 
possession of the cow-keeper. First, as re- 
gards food. How many people are confident 
that they are feeding their animals on tlie most 
approved system ^ Whether cotton seed, gingelly 
cake, cotton cake, horse gram, bran, rice, 
black gram or other concentrated food should 
form part of the diet, is generally a question, 
thought to be immaterial, and what mixtures 
of these, or proportion of the ingredients, should 
be given, are also never seriously considered. 
Again, the mode of preparation of the food and 
the time for feeding, receive little or no at- 
tention. Even such minor matters as bathing, 
rubbing down or grooming and general attendance 
to the comfort of the animals, which have a 
wonderful effect on the general healtli, temper 
and even on the milk supply of the animal, are 
thought to be of no moment. As to milking, there 
are perhaps not two per cent of the so-called 
" cattlelieepers " (that is tlie eooly who looks after 
the cow) that can be said to be good or even 
fairly good milkers. Much of the secret of the milk 
supply is found in the milking of the cow. The 
gradual weaning of the calf is again a very im- 
portant matter, and if not studied will produce 
disastrous results : either the calf is allowed to 
suck up a quarter of the milk, so that the cow 
may be humoured to give the other three-fourths, 
or it is kept starving while all the milk is being 
drawn, witli the not unfrequent result that the 
calf dies and the milk supply is stopped. 
Any attempt at " weaning," in the proper sense 
of the term, is never dreamt of by the owner 
of the cow, nor is made by the man in charge. 
Under this system it is no matter for surprise that 
about 2.5 per cent of the calves are lost, while the 
majority of those left, survive througli a miserable 
existence to become ugly, mis-shapen and unthrifty 
animals. The native cow-keeper does not know nor 
care to know much about the treatment of his 
animals, because, no doubt, while he has no inclina- 
tion to incur any extra expenditure, which is in- 
evitable so far as he is concerned, he is content with 
what he gets from the produce of the animal ac- 
cording to his own method of treatment ; for under 
