Litchfield enquirer., 1875-01-21

quart. It is pretty generally known that early cut hay is one of the essentials, and very important one. but there are other ways of increasing the supply and I enclose you an article written by Prof. L.. B. Arnold in reply to the following ques- tiOn: "What feed can be given to COWS in addition to early cut hay that will in- crease the milk sufficiently to cover the cost?" which I am sure will interest your readers.
 Yours Truly J. c. SHERWOOD.
 Ans.Cer 6y Prot. [. B. Arnold
 The refuse of fouring mills, if fed with the hay by wetting the latter with hot water, and mixing the refuse with it, so that both shall be taken together, will, with fair Inilkers, pay its cost of $25 per ton. If the cows have recently come in, it will pay at greater cost, the feed being moderate one, say six or eight pounds a day. A large extra feed would be likely to serve as a substitute for hay rather than to increase the milk. A few roots, 15 or 20 pounds a day, fed with or just after each meal. would pay cost at 20 to 9 cts.
  ton of the other food, as well as in direct ly increasing the flow of milk. If the COWS have lately come in and are extra miIkers, they would pay for more mill l-feed and at higher prices. An exact result from given kind or quantity of food cannot be foretold with any certainty, the circum- stances which relate to the condition of the COW and her treatment modify. results 50 much.
 Eight to ten pounds of wheat shorts per day fed, either with wetted hay as above, or with sliced or pulped roots, to nat urally large milker, three weeks after coming in, would pay, in increased quan- tity of milk, at the rate of $40 to $50 per ton, the shorts being fed in addition to good early cut hay. Six months after coming in, the same feed, added to good hay would improve the quality of milk and prevent shrinkage in the mess, with probably increase in fat and flesh rather than any increase in quantity of milk. Under equally favorable circumstances a poorer milker might not make moro than fourth of the increase of milk from the same extra feed. A COW which in the Winter season is kept warm and comfort able, and quiet, with good water at 65 or 70 degrees always at hand, will more than
 
 what she would do if she was exposed to the cold, and otherwise uncomfortably cared for, as when compelled to go 40 or 60 rods to a stream to drink ice-water, which she would do but once day, and then stand and shiver for two hours after ward.
 Half the profits from liberal feeding de- pend on comfort and water supply. Upon the quantity of albuminoids which can be digested and appropriated in a given time, and the amount of water with which they are combined in the foods, depend chiefly variations in the quantity of milk, when other conditions are not adverse. In test ing skim-milk have found the quantity of albuminoids to be very nearly uniform They vary in milk much less than butter and sugar, and this circumstance has led to observations on feeding freely nitro genous food easy of digestion, with a view to increased flow. Upto certain limit this has been the most available method of increasing quantity within the range of my experience. To reach her best result. 1t would seem that COW must have all the albuminous food she can appropriate; that she cannot reach her outside limit in quantity without full supply of nitro genous food, but that she may reach 1t without full supply of -nitrogenous food. Hence the yield of milk keeps pace with the amount of food appropriated of the former rather than of the latter kind. For example, in brewers gains the per cent of nitrogenous matter IS large in com parison with the On-nitrogenous-abou one of the former to little oyer two of the latter-whereas there should be one of the former to four or five of the latter.
 The treatment to which brewers grains are subjected render them easy of diges- tiOn. In feeding milch cows freely with such grains, they digest and appropriate a large amount of fesh-forming material. with defective supply of fat-forming material, and the consequence is, large flow of milk poor in butter. Brewers grains have & strong tendency to increase quantity, but unless fed with some other fat-forming food it is always defective in the clements of butter. Rapid digestion should be a matter of primary consider ation in milk production If COW has all the good grass she can make use of, whether green or dried, an addition to her feed of corn meal, though very much moro concentrated and richer than the grass, would be more likely to diminish the quantity of milk than to increase it, because the grass, being SO much easier of digestion, would furnish the greatest quantity of food in a day, or any given time. If the meal was fed in connec- tion with food more difficult of digesti on than itself the effect would be reversed. If the meal could be made as easy of dig estion as the grass, it would increase the flow, and might pay as substitute in part for the grass.
 Succulence is also a matter of great im- portance in developing quantity, A dried turnip will not produce as much mil as a green one, nor dried corn as much as green. The dried food may in time dig est as perfectly as the green; but because of its slower digestion it falls short of the best results.
 in Winter at a profit on the cost of feed will see that there are several things es- sential to his success. He must have good mIlkers, which have not been long in milk, to begin with. Let him feed what he will, he cannot get his money back in feeding highly moderate milkers, or those which have been so long in milk as to become half dried of their messes, With small milkers, and COWS which have been giving milk six or eight months, the limit of milk production is soon reached and the extra food which is crowded into them will go to make fat and flesh rather than milk. There will be an increase in milk, but it will be too small to pay the cost of feed. Those who can make the extra fat and flesh available may make money in feeding such COWS. But our in. tergrogator does not ask how to make mon. ey out of beef, but how to make feeding fol milk pay, and that point only must be kept in view.
 Having selected good new milch COWS the next thing will be to see that they have warm and comfortable quarters Comfort for the herd is sine qua nor for paying returns from feeding for milk It will matter little how good or how cheap his food may be, if any consider able part of it must be used to warm the celestial spaces; or even that portion oi she atmosphere floating over his premises, pay cost. But with herd of good new milch COWS kindly cared for. almost any o