Vol LXII1 fto 2863. NEW YORK, DECEMBER 10, 1904. 
QUESTIONS FROM A COW MAN. 
About Feeding and Watering Cattle. 
My plan for feeding 30 milch cows this Winter is to give 
the dry gluten and bran at 5 A. M., and after milking (at 
about 7 A. M.) give one bushel of corn silage each. Then till 
the cement manger with water for them to drink, allowing 
them, to lie quiet, chew their cud, drink and make milk until 
3 P. M., and give them a dry feed of cut stalks, hay or 
green cut oats, followed by a grain feed ; milking, silage and 
water again, allowing them to take up the surplus water with 
the grain and silage when they make clean work of all left 
in the mangers. I wish to learn of all the advantages and 
disadvantages I can from others' experience or judgment in 
regard to this plan of feeding and watering. Will this extra 
moisture or water taken up by eating their feed wet produce 
a bad result in regard to their not drinking as much water 
as they should, or will both work together to make more 
milk? Am I right in believing a cow is doing her best for 
profit when quiet enough to chew her cud for seven or eight 
hours during the (lay as well as in the night and while she 
is exercising, eating and drinking adds to the expense of car¬ 
ing for her? What am I to think of older dairymen I have 
seen (while visiting their stables) in morning who would make 
their cows get up (to be only 
looked at) when lying so very 
Comfortable making milk for 
the owner? Is it because he 
wants Iqss milk or can you 
give some better reason for 
teaching our boys a better way 
to do than this? f. d. k. 
Corfu, X. Y. 
Give Them Exercise. 
The inquirer leaves out 
what I think is one import¬ 
ant part of the care of a 
dairy, namely, exercise and 
fresh air, and if possible 
sunshine. I believe the rub¬ 
bing and licking does them 
good. My method would be 
about like this (I suppose 
he can let off water not 
readily drank) : 3 A. M., 
grain, milk, silage; 9 A. M., 
turn outdoors, clean stables, 
also mangers; then a gener¬ 
ous feed of hay, stalks or 
early cut oats; then stable 
and let alone until 3 P. M.; 
then feed grain, water, milk, 
lastly silage. I would feed 
a little salt once a day. 
There is another thing I 
have noticed. Some cows 
will get their teats and 
udders dirty, and the most 
satisfactory way for me to 
clean is with a dish of water and a cloth, or better, a 
woolen mitten. w. c. l. 
Homer, N. Y. 
Not Too Much Water. 
Unless these cows have bad habits 1 should milk them 
first tiling in the morning, then feed the silage and the 
dry grain with it. Experience seems to show that cows 
get more out of their grain when fed with the silage 
than when fed alone. After this turn on the water. 
Feed the silage and grain in the afternoon early enough 
to have it all cleaned up before milking. As soon as 
silage is eaten turn on the water. After milking draw 
off the water and give them their dry fodder of hay, 
cornstalks or oats'. In this manner of feeding after 
cows become accustomed to it there is no reaching after 
food while milking. They are at peace with themselves 
and the world and ready to give down their milk. The 
odor of silage is not present while the cows are being 
milked, as it often is in a barn where the silage is 
fed at milking time. I like to let the cow drink what 
she will after eating silage, also to give the coarse 
fodder at night, as they can clean up what they will 
through the night, and will eat it more cleanly than 
when only a short time is given for this feed. I be¬ 
lieve in quietness in the barn and allowing them to lie 
down as much as possible, but strange to relate, one 
Winter we visited a number of herds for one of our 
experiment stations, staying a week at a place and 
keeping careful record of all foods fed and the product 
received, and the man who apparently got the best 
results began to feed his cows at 4 A. M. and ended up 
at 8 P. M., feeding eight times through the day. But 
these cows didn’t stay long on the farm. Many shifts 
were made. I do not believe in forcing water into 
cows. If they have access to water they will naturally 
take all they need, and overdoing the matter by dilut¬ 
ing the feed with water or excessive salt means that 
she has to handle more than nature normally wants, and 
trouble comes later. h. g. Manchester. 
Two Feeds Per Day. 
I believe two meals a day to be the best method of 
foddering cud-chewing animals. It is economical 
of chore time, and gives a long period for rest and 
rumination. I like the automatic bucket system of 
watering better than cement mangers, because water 
is always in reach by the former and watering will not 
conflict with feeding; nevertheless that is a matter of 
personal preference, and there are arguments in favor 
of the latter method. I would re-arrange F. D. R.’s 
plan as follows: Feed one bushel of corn silage at 
5 A. M., and put the grain feed on it. At this point 
a local condition muust be satisfied. If his year’s stock 
of silage preponderates over his supply of coarse, 
dry fodder, make that bushel big enough to carry 
the cows till 4 P. M. or 5 P. M., as he chooses, length¬ 
ening the daytime rest and giving the water after this 
morning feed is disposed of. If, on tlic other hand, 
his supply of coarse, dry fodder is relatively greater 
than his silage, let him give a small feed of cut stalks, 
hay or oat hay as soon as the milking is done, following 
this with the water. This should comnlete the morning 
feed, and the cows may be left to themselves until 
perhaps 4 P. M., when the same routine can be gone 
over again. If feeding coarse, dry fodder only once 
a day let it be the last feed at night. If plenty of water 
is always accessible it is doubtful if dry or moist feed¬ 
ing, as distinguished from slop feeding, will make very 
much difference in the total daily water consumed. 
However, I believe that dry or moist feeding stimu¬ 
lates a greater secretion of saliva than slop feeding, and 
thereby induces more thorough digestion. Still if 
plenty of water is not accessible slop feeding may have 
its advantages. E. c. birge. 
Pres’t. Conn. Dairymen’s Ass’n. 
No Gain From Wet Food. 
The feeder’s preference may be consulted to advantage. 
1 can go to New York from my home over the N. Y. 
C. R. R., the West Shore, the N. Y. O. & W. and 
the D. L. & W.; I am in the city just the same, no 
matter which route I take. Now, there are many 
methods in cow management that bring practically the 
same results, provided, of course, that they are founded 
upon principles. The only objection to feeding before 
milking is the disturbance 
while milking, for usually 
we begin before they are 
done. I do not think the 
effect upon milk flow is ap¬ 
preciable in either case. 
Whether cows are fed twice 
or three times a day I be¬ 
lieve to be purely a matter 
of taste and habit. We have 
practiced both ways; which¬ 
ever practice seems best 
suited is the one to follow, 
only do the same thing each 
day. I am sure no gain will 
come from letting water 
stand in front of them in 
this way, because constant 
breathing upon it will re¬ 
duce its palatabilitv. Nor 
would I put the feed di¬ 
rectly into the water re¬ 
maining over. I may not 
be strictly orthodox upon 
this point, but I frequently 
ask a cow to get up (if she 
is a good one) when some 
one is with me looking at 
them. Simply because a 
cow is quiet does not mean 
that she is making milk. 
I could name a herd that 
has for years given less than 
half the amount of milk 
produced by our herd, and they probably, in the Sum¬ 
mer especially, lie down twice the number of hours. The 
amount of water required by a milch cow will be gov¬ 
erned by the individuality first, and the amount of di¬ 
gestible nutrients taken into the system. She will not 
take more water into her system daily by having her 
food wet. While I have no data at band, it is an 
opinion that she will take less. The facts, however, 
concerning milk flow are that nothing is gained from 
wet food unless it in some way increased the palatabil- 
ity, like cutting and wetting dry cornstalks. Studying 
the digestibility of feeds, using only those that con¬ 
tain the largest per cent of net available nutrition, will 
be of great value. A cow is not necessarily fed be¬ 
cause she is full. Again, the successful feeder is the 
one who gives uniformly full rations all the time, 
and not spasmodically, as he may feel or the market 
values change. h. e. cook. 
Respect the Cow's Nerves. 
In practice we have been well pleased with results 
when we began in the Fall and only fed our cows 
twice daily, and we have had equally satisfactory re- 
