The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1872-11-26
agricultural department.
CONDUCTED By ALBERT CHAPMAN.
Rest Feed for Mich Cows.


The following is from an Essay read
before the Vermont Dairyman's Associa-
ton, by Alexander Hyde of Massachu.
sets
But the circumstance that most affects
the quality and quantity Of tho milk is
the food. The luxuriaut and succulcnt
grass of juno produces great flow Of
milk, but the per cent OF water in it is
much above the average Of 81. Take a
COW from gteen pasture and feed her on
dry hay and the quantity Of milk will be
be greatly diminished, while the quality
may be improved Everything a COW
eats affects her milk directly. We have
great faith in cabbages as producing an
abundance of rich milk, but unfortunately
the lady who presides over our household
has keen senses, aud detects in the milk
the least flavor Of turnip or cabbage. We
have sometimes evaded detection by feed
ing cabbage leaves moderately at first and
Immediately after milking, but the in
creased quantity and quality of the milk,
if not the taste. are apt to call out the
sly question, "What are you feeding your
COWS on now? ' Sweet corn fodder, we
are confident, gives richer milk than
common corn. Indian meal, all farmers
agree, gives rich milk, while buckwheat
increases the per cent. Of water more rap
idly than it does the more valuable prop
critics. Clover, cut green, greatly i'm
proves the quality of milk. Being le-
guminous plant, it should aid to its casein
rather than to its butter. Pea vines also
leguminous, are extensively used at the
South, where the grasses do not flourish,
as food for cows, and are said to produce
excellent milk. There can be no ques.
tion but that grain cut before it goes to
seed will produce more and better milk
THAI after all its virtues have been spent
in their legitimate purpose of producing
seed after its kind. If the hay has been
made from grass as dry and woody as oat
straw, it may be benefited by being cut
and moistened, but can never be restored
to its original nutrition any more than
the daughters of Tobias could rejuvenate
their aged father by cutting him up and
boiling him.
All the roots add to the flow of milk
and improve its quality. They furnish
both food and drink, being largely COM
posed of water. The feeding Of roots do
not save as much hay as some suppose.
They keep the animal in good health and
appetite. and are valuable in their SAM.
tary and manurial effects rather than as
an economizer of hay. The increase Of
milk and manure is very manifest from
the feeding Of roots. Potatoes make The
best of milk, but at present prices we can
hardly afford to feed those of merchant
able size and quality. The small pota-
toes can be put to no better use than food
for young stock and mich cows. They
furnish much saline matter, thus adding
to the specific gravity of milk and to the
material for building up the frame work
Of the young animal. As an observing
dairy woman once said to us, POTATOES
give body to milk"
1t is cruel to tax cows in winter for
milk and give them nothing but dry hay
from which to manufacture it. If cut
before maturity, this hay contains all the
elements of milk, but it is dry fodder,and
if it constitute the only food Of the COW.
day after day, for six months, there is a
sameness about it which is not provoca.
tive of a good appetite. AS men crave
and need variety of food, so do cows
A few beets, or turnips, or carrots should
be fed to them each day, and the sleek
coats Of the animals and the improved
quantity and quality of their milk will
indicate their appreciation of these roots.
One of the best and most economical
kinds of feed for COWS, both in summer
and winter, is the bran of wheat and rye.
The inorganic part of grain resides chief
ly in the husk or bran, as may be seen by
burning similar quantities Of fine -four
and bran. The ash of the latter will, on
the average, be six times the former, the
ash Of dry, fine -four being about one cent
and that of bran six per cent of the
weight of the whole. Bran, therefore,
though dry looking sort of fodder, is
rich in those elements which form the
frame work of animals, and DR.. Graham
was doubtless correct when he advocated
making bread from unboted -four. Many
dairymen practice putting a couple OF
quarts of wheat bran into six or eight
quarts of whey, and feeding it to their
cows night and morning, thereby improv.
ing their milk, their COWS and their pas.
lures. The Improvement Of the latter is
specially manifest, as the bran restores to
them the PHOSPHORUS, sulphur, potash
lime, Soda ETC., of which our old pastures
have become exhausted, these essential
constituents Of good soil having beer
carried off in the bones of the animals
and the grain and dairy products sold.