The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1877-12-29
Cows in Early Winter.

Cows in Early Winter.
At no season of the year, says the
Rural NeU- Yorker, do COWS need better
and more generous diet than in early
winter. The change from grass to dry
fodder is of itself sufficient cause to
produce more or less arrangement of
health. But when the animals tone
and vigor have been lowered by long
period of milking, and she is then sub
jected, at the same time, to the rigors
of winter and change of food from
nutritious heritage to dry, coarse, and
often innutritious fodder, a severe tax
is laid on her system. Yet, on many
farms, it is the practice to feed to cattle
in early winter only coarse and inferior
fodder and the poorest hay, because
these articles have been slowed last in
the barn, or on the top of the mows, and
must, therefore, be disposed of before
the better portions of the supply can be
reached. This, however, is great mis-
take, as the best food should be given
when the cows go into winter quarters
Afterward, when they have been dried
of their milk and have grown accus-
toned to the change of diet, the poorer
food may be used, or, better still, as an
imals, like men, are fond of variety in
their diet, the coarser and less nutri-
tious fodder may be advantageously
used in conjunction with that of bet
ter quality.
Through neglect of this precaution,
however, it frequently happens that
cows in milk lose flesh during NOvem-
Der and December, and sink into bad
condition to endure the still more severe
weather yet to be expected To avoid
this misfortune, in cases where poor
or damaged fodder has necessarily to
be given out first, the feed should be
supplemented with rations of ground
grain, oat, and cOrn-meal mixed, bran,
or ship-stutf, to add proper amount
of nutriment to a given bulk of fodder
Compelling cows to consume an excess
sive bulk of inferior food in order to
enable them to support life and yield
milk, Overcrowds the stomach, tends
to derange health, and is by no means
a rare cause of serious ailments.
Among these the least disastrous is a
serious liability to abortion, caused by
an undue pressure of the food upon the
parts. Moreover, on the score of self
interest, as well as of humanity, cows
should not be allowed to lose flesh in
early winter; for it would require much
more food to restore them to good con-
ditiOn in cold weather than in summer.
Besides this, as lean animals are more
susceptible to cold than those in flesh.
and proportionately larger amount of
the food they consume is therefore eX-
pended in generating a sufficiency of
animal heat, it would require considera-
BILE more food to carry poor beast
through winter than fat one, even
though nothing may be added to the
animals condition.
The necessity of shelter for all kinds
of stock from the storms, frosts, and
inclemency of this bleak season has
been frequently dwelt upon in these
pages, and its economy as well as its
humanity fully demonstrated.
Another case of injury to COWS is that
they are often MIXED too long in the
season. Every COW that drops a calf
annually should go dry, for the purpose
of rest and recuperation, not less than
say six weeks before calving; and in
many instances this time should be ex-
tended to ten or twelve weeks. If the
animal is in full flesh, and about to
come in during the pasturing season, she
may, as a rule, be MIXED ten or twelve
months in the year; whereas when the
same COW is expected to calve during
the foddering season, she ought to go
dry at least for two months; and an ami
NAL in thin flesh should have three
months for recuperation and rest. This
interval allows her time to make up the
wastes of the system, so as to produce
a healthy offspring and be in condi-
ton to yield a full supply of milk the
following season. Cows that do not
readily dry of their milk will, of course,
require to be MIXED somewhat later,
but these are exceptional cases. If a
COW in poor condition is MIXED during
most of the winter months, more will
be lost in the production of butter and
cheese the following summer than was
gained by milking her through the WIN
ter.
In drying cows, care should be taken
that all the milk should be drawn at
each milking. The habit which some
have of only partially emptying the I'D
der from time to time, when drying
cows, is highly Objectionable, as the
milk left in the bag becomes thick and
putrid, causing irritation andinhamma-
ton, and not unfrequently resulting in
the loss of teat or a portion of the bag
the next season. When cows are being
dried off, they should be examined at
intervals of few days, and every drop
of the accumulated milk should be
drawn from the udder. Indeed, with
cows that are supposed to be dry, it is
| advisable to try their teats at least once
a week to see if there be any accumula-
ton of milk.
Ridpath's school History.
Recently, in these columns, reference was