The Hickman courier. [volume] (Hickman, Ky.) 1859-current, 1878-01-18
FARM AND HOME.
Feeding Dairy Cows.


"Meal Feeding and Animal Digestion
is the title of a new work by Linus w.
Miller. Mr. Miller is an experienced
dairyman, and gives the results OF his
long experience in a comprehensive form.
The gist of Mr.. AIiller's system is the
feeding of cows during winter with three
quarts of Indian meal per day. He as
serts that this amount of good Indian
meal, fed under proper conditions: Is
more than the co uivalent for eli the good
hay a COW can be coaxed to eat-that the
animal does not need TO have its stomach
distended with q great bulk OF woody
fsre, which imposes upon the system
large amount of extra mechanical work
both in the processes OF digestion and re-
mastication-thati in brief, bulk in food
Is not advantageous, but to the contrary,
and that natriment in food governs the
condition and health of the animal, and
that condensation of nutriment is true
economy. Mr. Miller has conducted
physiological investigations into the
functions of the four stomachs of the COW,
whence it appears that meal follows the
same course as herbaceous food, and
stays los ger in the rumen than coarse
food. while it also digests more thor
oughly than when the energies of the
stomach are divided between meal and
coarse heritage.
Whatever may be the correct theory
in this regard, results of actual practice
appear to bear out Mr.. NIiller's views.
The report OF committee, appointed to
examine inuo the system by the western
New York dairymen's association, shows
the following facts: The examination
WIS conducted upon Mr.. Miller's herd OF
Chatauqua county native cows, the aver
age live weight OF which was 900 pounds.
This herd were fed exclusively upon
coTn-meal sor seven weeks, ach animal,
accor6i g ~ its digestive capacity, max
ing an average of about three quarts OF
meal per day or each COW. The animals
did not rumiuate, did not manifest so
much oesire for foed rs cows led on hay
alone in the usual way, little less than
they will eat, showed no signs of unrest
or suffering, and at the time Of going
back to hay, the cows had neither lost
nor gained flesh. After returning to hay,
their stomachs filed and Eliminating
went on normally, healthy calves were
dropped, and when turned to grass the
animals took on flesh faster than those
wintered in the usual ways. Their daily
yield of milk was twenty pounds three
ounces, or one pound eleven ounces per
COW more than that of any other herd
sent 10 The same cheese factory.
As regards the economy OF meal feed
ing, Mr. Miller points out that one
bushel of corn, ground and tolled, will
last an ordinary sized cow OF 900 pounds
weight twelve days, and is equal to 24O
pounds of hay. Corn at sixty cents per
bushel is therefore the equivalent of hay
at IS per ton of 1000 pounds, and where
it can be had at that rate the cest of
wintering the snimal will range from 81
TO SO, according to GOODNESS and length
of the foddering season. But hay as a
rdle, costs at least so per ton, and
frequently much more. Hence, the es-
timated saving By meal feeding is placed
at from s. to $50 per animal, according
10 the respective prices of corn and hay.
-TRyf, Field and Farm.