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DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 
investigator, made some very important experiments as to the relative 
valueof hot and cold preparation of flax-seed, lie took two animals, and ted 
the one on hot and the other on cold food. He had both weighed before 
he started, and both again weighed at the expiration of six weeks. The 
animal fed on cold food weighed, when put up, 107 stone 11 lbs. (1,509 
lbs.); that fed on hot, 108 stone 7 lbs. (1,533 lbs.) At the end of six 
weeks the first had gained 40 lbs. ; while the last, the one fed on hot 
food, had gained 71 lbs. To guard against the one having any special 
aptitude to fatten which the other did not possess, he reversed the order; 
and then it turned out that the animal now fed on cold food, and before 
on hot, gained 53 lbs., while the other, now fed on hot food, gained 
71 lbs. 
But not only on the animals did the results of cooked food show itself 
in this striking manner ; for, while one fed on hot food had only 80 lbs. 
of Swedish turnips per day, the one fed on cold food was not satisfied 
till his feed was increased to 87 lbs. of turnips in the same time, showing 
a greater consumption of other food to make up for the want of heat ! 
Food as Affecting the finality and Quantity of Milk. — Messrs. Dumas 
and Boussingault tried a number of very careful and interesting experi- 
ments on the quantity of milk and its products which would be given 
by cows fed on different kinds of food. They tried nearly all the com- 
binations usually given, except perhaps bean meal, and the result was, 
that the greatest quantity of milk was given when the cow had green 
clover, in every case, i. <?., that in each instance this yielded the greatest 
quantity of butter, and, with one exception, the greatest produce also 
of cheese ; and that exception was when the cow had been but one day 
calved, which would account for the abundance of cheesy matter in the 
milk. The table is so instructive, that we will quote one or two of the 
items : — 
Food. Days after calving. Milk. Butter. Cheese. 
Potatoes and hay 176 9.3 4.8 3.3 
Hay and green clover 182 8.9 4.5 4.0 
Green clover 193 9.8 2.2 4.0 
Clover in flower 204 7.8 3.5 3.7 
Potatoes 229 6.0 4.0 3 4 
Turnips 207 6.0 4.2 3.0 
Red beet 215 6.6 4.0 3.4 
Into their philosophical investigations and reasonings we shall not 
enter. Mangel-wurzel, bean meal, and grains, much increase the milk.* 
Good hay and oat mash much increase the butter, and turnips, though 
they give a disagreeable flavor, greatly increase both. 
To keep the cow as long as possible in milk is sometimes an object. 
Some cows dry early, — some may be milked through, though always 
with disadvantage to both the cow and the calf; both being feeble and 
impaired, if it is persisted in. In summer weather, however, when cows 
are very deep milkers, and in high condition, it is not only sometimes 
* Indian meal fed in cool weather, while it is a highly nutritious food, also adds 
greatly to the quantity and quality of the milk. The erroneous prejudice against its 
use for milch cows has been fully refuted by careful experiments. 
