Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1872-12-20
HEST FEED ron .uILCH cows.

The following Is from an Essay read be-
fore the Vermont Dairymen's Association,
by Alexander Hyde of Massachusetts.
1.-THE circumstance that most affects the
quality and quantity of the milk is the
food. The luxuriant and succuont grass
of June produces a great flow of milk, but
the per cent. of water in II Is much above
the average 81. Take a COW from a green
pasture and feed her on dry hay, and the
quantity of milk will be greatly diminish
ed, while the quality may be improved.
Everything COW eats affects her milk di-
rectly. 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, and detects
In the milk the least flavor of cabbage or
turnip. We have sometimes evade1 detec-
ton by feeding cabbage leaves moderately
at first and Immediately after milking, but
the increased 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 now9" Sweet corn fodder, we are
confident, gives a richer milk than COM
mon corn. Indian meal, all farmers agree,
gives 4 rich milk, while buck wheat increas-
es the per cent. of water more rapidly than
II does the more valuable properties. Clo-
yer, cut green, greatly improves the quail
ty of milk. Being !eguminous plant, it
should add to its casein rather than to its
butter. Pea vines, also legu minous, 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 question but that grain
cut before 1t goes to seed will produce more
and better milk than after all its virtues
have been spent in their legitimate pur-
pose 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
ed 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 cut
ting him up and boiling him.
"All the roots add to the How 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 az much hay AS some suppose.
They keep the animal in good health and
appetite, and are valuable in their sanitary
and manurial effects rather than as an e.
conomizer of hay. The increase of milk
and manure is very manifest from the feed
ing Of roots. Potatoes make the best of
milk, but at present prices we can hardly
afford TO feed those OF understandable size
and quality. The small potatoes can be
put 10 no better use than food for Young
stock and milch cows. They furnish much
saline matter thus adding 10 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 10
milk"
at Is cruel to tax cows in winter for
milk and give them nothing but dry hay
from which to manufacture IL. If cut be-
fore maturity, this hay contains all the ele-
ments OF milk, but 1t is dry fodder, and il
1t constitute the only food of the COW, day
alter day, for six months, there Is a same
ness about 1t which Is not provocative Of a
good appetite. As men crave and need q
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
CT these roots. One OF the best and most
economical kinds of feed for cows, both In
summer and winter, Is the bran OF whea
and rye. The inorganic part of grain re-
sides chiefly In the husk or bran, as may
he seen by burning similar quantities o
fine -four aud bran. The ash of the latter
will, on the average, be six times that o
the former, the ash OF dry, fine -four belni
about one per cent, and that OF bran sil
per cent, Of the weight of the whole. Bran
therefore, though dry looking sort of fod
der, Is rich in those elements which form
the frame work of animals and DIR Graham
was doubtless correct when he advocate,
making bread from unbolted flour. Man,
dairymen practise putting couple q
quarts OF wheat bran into six or eight quart
of whey, and feeding II to their COWS nigh
and morning, thereby improving thei
milk, their cows and their pastures. TIL
Improvement of the latter is specially man
ifest, AZ the bran restores to them the phos
phorus, sulphur, potash, lime, soda, etc
of which our old pastures have become ex
hausted, those essential constituents OF
good soil having been carried off in tn
bones OF animals and the grain and dalr
products sold"