MANAGEMENT OF DAIRY CATTLE. 
519 
I have found it stated, on authority deserving attention, 
that store cattle of a fair size, and without other occupation, 
maintain their weight and condition for a length of time, 
when supplied daily with 120 lbs. of Swedish turnips and a 
small portion of straw. The experience of the district of 
Craven, in Yorkshire, where meadow hay is the staple food 
during winter, shows that such cattle maintain their 
condition on 1| stone of meadow hay each per day. These 
respective quantities of turnips and of hay correspond very 
closely in their nutritive properties ; they contain a very 
similar amount of albuminous matter, starch, sugar, &c., 
and also of phosphoric acid. Of oil — an important element, 
especially for the purpose of which I am treating — the stated 
supply of meadow hay contains more than that of turnips. 
If we supply cows in milk of average size with the kind and 
quantity of food above mentioned, they will lose perceptibly 
in condition. This is easily explained when we find their 
milk rich in substances which serve for their support when 
in store condition, and which are shown to be diverted in 
the secretion of milk. 
In the neighbourhood of towns where the dairy produce is 
disposed of in new milk, and where the aim of dairymen is 
to produce the greatest quantity, too frequently with but 
little regard to quality, it is their common practice to purchase 
in calving cows ; they pay great attention to the condition 
of the cow ; they will tell you, by the high comparative 
price they pay for animals well stored with flesh and fat, 
that condition is as valuable for them as it is for the butcher ; 
they look upon these stores as materials which serve their 
purpose ; they supply food more adapted to induce quantity 
than quality, and pay but little regard to the maintenance of 
the condition of the animal. With such treatment, the cow 
loses in condition during the process of milking, and when 
no longer profitable, is sold to purchasers in farming districts 
where food is cheaper, to be fattened or otherwise replenished 
for the use of the dairy-keeper. We thus find a disposition 
in the cow to apply the aliment of her food to her milk, 
rather than to lay on flesh and fat ; for not only are the 
elements of her food diverted to this purpose, but to all 
appearance her accumulated stores of flesh and fat are drawn 
upon, and converted into components of milk, cheese, or 
butter. 
As I am differently circumstanced, a considerable portion 
of my dairy produce being intended for butter, for which 
poor milk is not adapted, and as I fatten not only my own 
cows, but purchase others to fatten in addition, I have 
