| pints. 
ascertain whether this was ascribable to the clo- 
ver, the experiment was extended through three 
subsequent stages. The cow was long kept ona 
daily ration of 16% lbs. of hay and a quantity of 
potatoes equal to 163 lbs. of hay, and, from the 
176th to the 182nd day after calving, she pro- 
duced 16'3 pints of milk per day, consisting of 3°3 
per cent. of caseum, 4°8 of butter, 5:1 of sugar of 
milk, 0°3 of ash of caseum, and 86:5 of water ; 
she was next kept, for eleven days, on a daily 
ration of 165 lbs. of hay and a quantity of clover 
equal to 16} lbs. of hay,—and she was then kept, 
for some time, on a daily ration of unmixed clo- 
ver equal to 33 lbs. of hay,—and, during the lat- 
ter period, she produced 17:2 pints of milk per 
day, consisting of 4:0 per cent. of caseum, 2°2 of 
butter, 4°7 of sugar of milk, 0°3 of ash of caseum, 
and 89'7 of water. Thus, in the early part of the 
| experiment, a change from hay and clover to 
clover alone was attended with an increase of 
butter from 35 to 56 per cent.; and in the 
later part of the experiment, a translation from 
potatoes and hay, through clover and hay, to 
clover alone, was attended with a decrease of but- 
ter from 48 to 2:2 per cent. “The small quan- 
tity of butter in this last instance,’ says M. 
Boussingault, “induced me to repeat the analysis; 
but the result came out very nearly the same, 
the quantity being still but 2°35 per cent.” Nor 
after the experiment was prolonged did any light 
arise either in favour of the alleged power of 
| clover or against it; for when the cow continued 
to be fed on clover beyond the 204th day after 
calving, she produced 13'7 pints of milk per day, 
consisting of 3°7 per cent. of caseum, 3°5 of but- 
ter, 5:2 of sugar of milk, 0:2 of ash of caseum, and 
87°4 of water. “It would therefore appear,” says 
the learned, indefatigable, practical experimen- 
ter, “ that fresh-cut clover has no such virtue as 
that of increasing the quantity of milk given by 
cows. Under the winter fare, in fact, the milk 
produced in the course of the 24 hours, amounted 
to 16°7 pints; under green clover, it was but 14:9 
It would be a great mistake, however, as 
I conceive, to ascribe the diminution here to the 
use of the green forage; it is due, I apprehend, 
exclusively to the greater length of time that had 
elapsed from the period of calving. The chemi- 
cal composition of the milk varied little. The 
differences in respect of the caseum, by which, 
let me say, I understand the whole of the azotized 
constituents, the whole flesh of the milk, rarely 
exceeded one-hundredth part. The proportion 
of the fatty element varies suddenly, and as it 
seems independently of the various circumstances 
in which the cows are placed. The general in- 
ference from these experiments, then, is that the 
nature of the food does not exert any marked in- 
fluence on the quantity and chemical constitu- 
tion of the milk, if the cows but receive the pro- 
per nutritive equivalents of the several sorts of 
provender.” 
Cows, then, ought always to be maintained in 
887 
good condition. When they are ill-fed in winter, 
they not only cease to give a due proportion, or 
even any proportion whatever, of milk, but they 
become so thin in their ordinary juices and so 
reduced in their whole substance, that, when re- 
stored in spring to a fair degree of feeding, they 
spend, in filling up the waste of their system, a 
large proportion of the time and the food which 
would otherwise be employed in the secretion of 
milk; and when they decline into poor condition 
during the months or even weeks immediately 
preceding their calving, they afterwards experi- 
ence so severe and prolonged a struggle between 
the process of secretion for making up their own 
substance and the process of secretion for supply- 
ing milk, that they will yield a comparatively small 
or decidedly scanty produce throughout even the 
best portions of the following season. They 
ought, during the whole winter, to be well-fed, 
comfortably housed, abundantly littered, regu- 
larly supplied with clean water, occasionally 
combed, and in general treated with considerate 
and kindly regard to their sympathies, suscepti- 
bilities, and wants. 
Cows, during summer, may either be milked 
in the field, or driven gently home and milked in 
the stall. Frequent milking, at perfectly regular 
intervals, is essential to the maintaining of a re- 
gular secretion of milk, and has a powerful effect 
in increasing the quantity of it, or in keeping it 
ata maximum. A general law in animal physi- 
ology stimulates increased secretion of a fluid | 
which is frequently withdrawn ; and this law has | 
full operation in the instance of cows’ milk. Yet 
frequent milking must be accompanied by an 
ample supply of the food out of which the ele- 
ments of milk are formed, else all increase in 
stimulating action will be a sheer wasteful ex- 
penditure of strength. Every milking ought to 
occur at a precisely regular interval from the 
preceding ; for if later than that interval, it will 
allow the udder to be gorged, and to throw back 
a portion of its contents into the cow’s system by 
absorption; and if earlier than the interval, it 
will occasion the udder to have too small capa- 
city for the milk which would naturally be se- 
creted during the longer interval that is to follow. 
Every drop of milk, also, ought to be drawn off at 
each milking; for when any portion is allowed 
to remain, it seems to be absorbed back into the 
system, or to serve as an indication to the secre- 
tory vessels to secrete a proportionally less quan- 
tity during the following interval; so that the 
quantity of produce at a milking after any por- 
tion of milk has been left in the udder is likely 
to be very perceptibly below the average. But 
a sufficient frequency of milking is thrice-a-day 
during the cows’ fullest period of milk, and twice- 
a-day during all other times of the year—Bous- 
singault’s Rural Economy.—Arton’s Dairy Hus- 
bandry.— Paper by Mr. Harley of Wellowbank im 
Quarterly Journal of Agriculiure—Curwin’s Heo- 
nomy of eeding Stock—Journal of the Royal 
