Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1872-12-19
BEST FEED FO. MTLCH cows.

fore the Vermont Dairymen's Association,
by Alexander Hyde, of Massachusetts:
But the circumstances that most affects
the quality and quantity of the milk is the
food. The luxarient and succulent grass of
June produces great flow of milk, but the
per cent. of water in it is much above the
average of 81. Take COW from green
pasture and feed her on dry hsy, and the
quantity Of milk will be greatly diminished,
while the quality may be improved. Every
thing COW eats affects her milk directly.
We have great faith in cabbages as produc-
ing an abundance ofrich milk, but unfor-
tunstely the lady who presides over our
household has keen senses, and detects in
the milk the least favor of cabbage or tur.
nip. We have sometimes evaedd detection
10y feeding cabbage leaves moderately ct
first and Immediately after milking, but
the increased quantity of the milk,
if not the taste, are apt to call out
the sly question, "Wbat are you
feeding your COWS on now?" Sweet corn
fodder, we are confident, gives richer milk
than common corn. Indian meal, all farm
ers agree, gives rich milk, while buck
wheat increases the per ceut. Of water more
rapidly than it does the more valuable
properties. Clover, cut green, greatly i'm
proves the quality Of milk. Being a legu-
minous plant, it should add to its case in
rather than TO its butter. Pea vines, also
leguminous, ara extensively used at the
South, where the grasses do not flourish,
IS food for COWS, and are said to produce
excellent milk. There can be no question
but that gr-ia cat before is goes to seed will
produce more and better milk than after
all its virtues have been 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 benefit
ted by being cut and moistened, but can
never be restored to its original nutrition
any more than the daughters Of Tobias
could rejuvinate their aged father by cut
ting him up ard boiling him.
All the roots add to the flow of milk and
improve its quality. They furnish both
food and drink, being largely composed of
water. The feeding of roots does not save
as much hay as some suppose. They keep
the animal in good health and appetite, an
are valuable in their sanitary and manurial
effects rather than IS an economizer of hay.
The increase of milk and manure is very
manifest from the feeding of roots. Pota-
toes make the best of milk, but at the
present price we can hardly afford to feed
those of merchantable size and quality.
They furnish much saline matter, thus add
ing to the specific gravity of milk, and to
the material for Hiding up the framework
of the young animal. As an observing
dairy woman once said to US, potatoes give
body to the milk"
1t Is cruel to tax COWS in the winter for
milk and give them nothing but dry hay
from which to manufacture it. If cut be-
fore maturity, this hay contains all the ele-
ments 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 same
ness about it which is provocative of good
appetite. As men crave and need variety
Of food, so do cows. A few beets or tur-
nips, 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 econom-
ical kind of feed for COWS, both In summer
and winter, is the bran of wheat and rye.
The inorganic part of grain resides chiefly
in the husk or bran, as may be seen by
burning similar quantities Of fine
latter will on the average be six
times that of the former, the ash of dry,
fine -four being about one per 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 ele-
ments which form the framework of ami
mails, and DR.. Graham was doubtless cor
rect when he advocated making bread from
unbolted flour. Many dairymen practice
putting couple of quarts of wheat bran
into six or eight quarts of whey, and feed
ing it to their cows night and morning,
thereby improving their milk, their COWS
and their pastures. The improvement of
the latter is specially manifest, and the bran
restores to them the phosphorus, sulphur,
potash, lime, soda, etc., of which our old
pastures have become exhausted, these es-
sential constituents of a good soil having
been carried off in the bones Of the animals
and the grain and dairy products sold.