ibe BULLETIN 1024, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
make them more readily comparable. The time of beginning the 
winter period and the length of it are also averaged, to have the 
graphs on a uniform basis. The winter period in 1915-16 began 
December 22 and lasted 122 days, while the winter period in 1917-18 
began December 7 and lasted 134 days. This makes the average 
time of beginning the winter period December 14, and the average 
length of the last section of the winter period 16 days. 
In studying the variations in the weights of the cows from month 
to month, it should be kept in mind that the average time of calving 
for the 2 years represented in figure 7 was practicaliy the same as 
the time when cows were turned on to pasture. 
The average birth date of the 19 calves of lot 1 during 1915-16 
and 1917-18 was 2 days after the cows were turned on pasture; for 
Average length of feeding period. 
Winter period 128 days. Summer period 196 days. - 
RR 
28 56 84 112 128 28 56 84 112 140 168 196 
x 
Fie. 7.—Gains and losses in weight of cows. 
the 10 calves of lot 2 in 1917-18, 7 days before; for the 16 calves of 
lot 3 in 1915-16 and 1917-18, 6 dace after ; wal for the 10 calves of 
lot 4 in 1915-16, 1.5 days after. 
Figure 8. howe how the calves gained in oe dmeme 1915-16. 
The average weight of the calves for each weight day, designated by 
the vertical lines, was ‘obtained by dividing the total weight of the 
calves in each lot by the number of cows in each lot. It should be 
kept in mind here that most of the calves were dropped in April and 
in May and that about onezhalf were dropped before and the other 
half after the cows were turned on pasture. 
Figure 7 shows that the cows gained in weight during the winter 
period until they began to drop calves. This is generally expected 
in wintering beef cows. The cows lost in weight during the rest of 
the winter and continued to lose weight during the first 28 days 
, 
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