MANAGEMENT OF DAIRY CATTLE. 
211 
during winter is markedly inferior; the common materials 
for dairy-cows in winter are straw with turnips or mangel, 
hay alone, or hay with mangel. If we examine these mate- 
rials, we find them deficient in oil, or in starch, sugar, &c. 
If a cow consume 2 stones or 28 lbs. of hay a day, which is 
probably more than she can be induced to eat on an average, it 
will be equal in dry material to more than 100 lbs. of young 
grass, which will also satisfy a cow. That 100 lbs. of young 
grass will yield more butter will scarcely admit of a doubt. 
The 28 lbs. of hay will be equal in albuminous matter and in 
oil to the 100 lbs. of grass, but in the element of starch, 
sugar, &c., there is a marked difference. During the growth 
of the plant, the starch and sugar are converted into woody 
fibre, in which form they are scarcely digestible or available 
for respiration. It seems, then, not improbable that, when a 
cow is supplied with hay only, she will consume some 
portion of the olein oil for respiration, and yield a less 
quantity of butter poorer in olein. 
If you assume summer butter to' contain of olein . 
„ „ of margerine 
/ 
If the cow consume of the olein 
If the quantity of butter will be reduced from 100 to . 61 „ 
And the proportions will then be, of olein . . 40 *„ 
of margerine . . 60 „ 
100 
If you supply turnips or mangel with hay, the cow will 
consume less of hay; you thereby substitute a material 
richer in sugar, &c., and poorer in oil. Each of these mate- 
rials in the quantity a cow can consume is deficient in the 
supply of albumen necessary to keep up the condition of an 
animal giving a full yield of milk. To effect this, recourse 
must be had to artificial or concentrated substances of food, 
rich in albuminous matter. 
It can scarcely be expected, nor is it desirable that prac- 
tical farmers should apply themselves to the attainment of 
proficiency in the art of chemical investigations ; this is more 
properly the occupation of the professor of science. The 
following simple experiment, however, seems worth men- 
tioning. On several occasions, during wdnter, I procured 
samples of butter from my next neighbour; on placing 
these, with a like quantity of my own, in juxtaposition 
60 per cent. 
. 40 „ 
100 „ 
. 36 „ 
