14G 
WlSCOIiSII^ STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
equal in amount, and must contain all the ingredients of the milk 
produced, in addition to that portion required for her own sujDport^ 
This is a very commonpl-ice remark, yet, without doubt, it is 
one of the weakest points in the practice of American stock raisers. 
Very few men, I fear, having dairy cows in charge, consider that 
each 100 pounds of milk requires 4.8 pounds of nitrogenous sub¬ 
stance, about the same of sugar, 3.1 pounds of fat, three-tenths- 
of a pound of phosphates, mostly phosphate of lime, and as much 
more of other mineral matters, and know whether the food furnish¬ 
ed is sufficient to supply these amounts, in addition to that requir¬ 
ed to supply the bodily wants of the animal. 
But the power of these same animals to produce milk is as- 
dependent upon the supply of these materials, as is the miller’s 
power of producing flour upon the grain supplied him. Like- 
the miller, the cow creates nothing. The power of both i& 
limited to taking certain materials, and changing them from one- 
form into another, in which they are capable of use by man. 
Pasture-grass furnishes the different food ingredients in nearly 
the proportion required, but in this state, artificial food m.ust be at 
least partially depended upon by dairymen, for eight months of the 
year. The more nearly this artificial food resembles pasture-grass 
in composition, the more easily and thoroughly will it be digested^ 
and hence both so far as the use of the animal power in digestion^ 
and the waste of material are concerned, the more economical it 
will prove. 
During the months when the short pastures are supplemented by 
soiling, there is no great difficulty in furnishing food having nearly 
the composition, succulence, and ready digestibility of pasture- 
grass. Such food is found in the various soiling-crops, now so com¬ 
monly used — clover, rye, oats, lucerne, fodder-corn, etc. 
The want of winter food having the succulence, chemical compo¬ 
sition, and ready digestibility of the grasses, greatly complicates- 
the question of the economical feeding of dairy stock. For no one 
of these qualities can be neglected without sacrificing, to some ex¬ 
tent, the efficiency of food. 
For many years, at the Agricultural Experiment Stations of Ger¬ 
many, able chemists have been at work, endeavoring to obtain the 
data which would explain the intricate relations existing between 
the chemical composition of food and its economical value. 
