The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1878-01-05
Ghe 6armer.
Improved Method Of wintering Cows.


Mr.. Linus w Miller Of Stockton, New
York, an experienced dairyman, advocates,
in pamphlet entitled, !" Meal Feeding
and Animal Digestion, system Of feed
ing cows during winter which involves the
use of but three quarts of meal per day.
He asserts that this amount Of good Indian
meal, fed under proper conditions, is more
than the equivalent for oil the good hay
COW can be eoaxed to eat that the animal
does not need to have its stomach disten-
ded with great bulk of woody fibre,
which imposes upon the system a large
amount of extra mechanical work both In
the process of digestion and dremastication !;
that, in brief, bulk in food is not advan-
tageous but to the contrary, and that
nutriment in food governs the condition
and health Of the animal, and that con-
densation Of nutriment is true economy.
Mr.. Miller has conducted physiological
investigations into the functions of the
four stomachs of the COW, whence it ap-
pears that meal follows the same course as
herbaceous food, and stays longer in the
rumen than. coarse food, while It also di-
gests more thoroughly than when the ener-
gies of the stomach are divided between
meal and coarse herbage.
Whatever may be the correct theory in
this regard, results of actual practice ap-
pear to bear out Mr.. MiIler's views. The
report Of committee appointed to exam
Inc into the system By the Western New
York Dairymen's Association shows the
following facts: The examination was
conducted upon Mr.. Miller's herd of Cha
tauqua county native cows, the average
live weight of which was nine hundred
pounds. The herd were fed exclusively
upon corn meal for seven weeks, each ami
NAL, according to its digestive capacity,
making an average Of about three quarts
Of meal per day for each COW. The ami
mails did not ruminate, did not manifest
so much desire for food as cows fed on hay
alone in the usual way, little less than
they viii eat, showed no signs of unrest or
suffering; and at the time Of going back
to hay, the cows had neither lost or gained
flesh. After returning to hay, their stom-
achs filed and ruminating went On nor
mally, healthy calves were dropped, and
when turned to grass the animals took on
flesh faster than those wiutered in the
usual way. Their daily yield of milk was
twenty-nine pounds, three ounces, or one
pound eleven ounces per COW more than
that of any other herd sent to 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 nine hundred pounds
weight, twelve days, and is equal to two
hundred and forty pounds of hay. Corn
at sixty cents per bushel is, therefore,
the equivalent of hay ut So per ton
Of two thousand pounds, and where it can
be had at that rate the cost of wiuterine
the animals will range from 81 to $40
according to coldnsss and length of the
foddering season. But hay, as a rule,
costs at least $40 per ton and frequently
much more, hence the estimated saving
BY meal feeding is placed at from So to
$40 per animal, according to the respec-
tive prices of corn and hay.-Scieatitfc
american.