Good milking animals of every breed possess certain qualities in common, which gable the farmer in profitably recruiting his dairy-stock. They have neat, tapering, well-placed heads; large, prominent, bright eyes; small and rather narrow necks; light fore-quarters; oblique rather than upright shoulders; large and shapely udder, well under the belly; largely developed milk-veins; a pliant mellow skin, veil covered with soft silky hair; thin tail, with a good brush at the end of it; small and fine below the knee. Of great importance, also, is the fact of the animals being descended of parents possessing good milking qualities, for certainly no property is more distinctly hereditary. The milk of small and young cows is usually richer than that of larger or older animals. From four to eight is the most profitable age for the dairy-cow; after that, the milk is poorer; the animals eat more food, especially during winter; and, moreover, become less profitable when dried for feeding. The stock is usually recruited by heifers bred on the farm, which are generally preferred to those bought in. Of course in the larger dairies about Glasgow, the w. of Scotland, in the midland and southern counties of England, and in America, the cows cannot be all, or nearly all, bred and reared. Many must therefore lie bought in, though they seldom turn out quite so well as the others. Heifers should not be put to the bull before they are two years old, and the milking properties of the animals will not be fully developed until they have had a second or third calf. Red and roan are the favorite colors.
In no department of the farm are carelessness and irregularity more injurious and ruinous than in the dairy portion. To produce large quantities of good milk, it is abso lutely necessary that the cow be supplied with the materials which conduce to a great flow. These briefly consist of albuminous materials and phosphates for forming the caseine, and oily matters for producing the butter. In the ordinary or ancient dietary of cows, these materials, especially during winter, are seldom present in sufficient 'mount to produce, without waste, a copious flow of good milk. Cows fed on meadow hay, when producing from 12 to 16 quarts of milk daily, require something more than even 20 lbs. of turnips or mangold to sustain them. A still greater falling-off in flesh and fat—a con stant robbing, In fact, of the materials of the body to supply the' secretion of milk—is observed in the case of some milk cows kept on the Scotch system on straw and a full allowance of turnips. Under better management, the expensive hay and roots may bo materially reduced in quantity, and the adequate amount of nutriment supplied by such articles as bean-flower, rape, or cotton cakes, bran, malt coombes, and the like; whilst sufficient bulk—an important matter in the feeding especially of ruminants—is attained by the use of chopped straw. The cutting of straw into chaff insures the eating of a larger amount, and thus becomes nearly twice as valuable as when employed merely as litter. Bean-straw, when steamed or fermented with pulped or grated roots, loses entirely its bitter flavor, and being rich in albuminous matters, is specially adapted for milking cows. A portion of the mots, or all of them where the supply is small, should be pulped, mixed with the cut chaff, and the mixture allowed to lie in a heap for a day or two before being used. With the roots should be added 3 or 4 lbs. or rape-cake and 2 lbs. of bran for each cow. The moisture and flavor of the succulent roots permeate the dry food, inducing fertnentatiou, with the development of sugar, and the mass thus becomes more palatable and digestible. Sometimes the mixture is steamed and given
warm; and for milk-cows in cold weather, one or two such messes given daily, usually pay for the cost and trouble of steaming. Of the mixture thus fermented or steamed. the cows should have as much as they can cat thrice a day. Cows in full milk, or intended to be speedily fattened, should have sprinkled over it a small quantity of bean or wheat meal, to the extent of 1 lb. or even 2 lbs. daily. After each meal, give 3 lbs. of good meadow hay, and be careful never to allow of hay or anything else more than can be cleared up at once and with relish. In most parts, especially of England and w. of Scotland, cab bage and green rape form the best succulent food for the first two winter-months; turnips and Swedes for the next two; whilst mangold should serve until the grass is abundant in spring; but it should ever be borne in mind, that animals thrive best on varied and frequently changed food. A few feeds of mangolds, when the Swedes are the staple root, and rice tend. besides being a pleasing variety, will be found to augment the quan tity of the milk. Rape-cake answers for milk cows quite as well as the more expensive linseed-cake, especially when its bitter taste is got rid of, as already advised, by fer menting or steaming. The increased 'produce, improved condition of the cows, and enhanced value of the manure, amply repay the trouble and the cost of this higher sys tem of feeding, which amounts to from is. 6d. to is. 9d. per head daily.
The summer-feeding of cows is more natural and less expensive than the winter. In the English dairy counties, they are grazed upon the old pastures which are for this purpose preferred to those more recently laid down; whilst in Scotland they are often pastured upon the clovers. They should never have to work hard for their meals, and should further receive in the house, when brought in for milking, cut clover and rye grass. Unless in the case of very fine and rich pastures, an allowance of rape-cake is also advisable. Such management not only improves the yield and quality of the milk, hut supports the cows in high condition, and maintains the pastures in high and increasing fertility. This last matter is worthy of consideration, for under the older system, many of the once-famed dairy-farms of Cheshire and other counties rapidly declined in value. The tons of butter and cheese carried away from the soil left it poor and unprofitable. In such circumstances, the use of bones and other such manures, by improving the condition of the soil, greatly improved the nutritive quality of the grass and hay. The produce of good land in high condition is always more valuable alike for dairy and for feeding purposes. A given acreage will support more animals, if the produce be cut and brought to them, than if they arc permitted to departure it. The advantages of both systems are, however, secured by running the cows at grass during part of the day and giving them cut clover in the house during the remainder. Throughout the early and later part of the season, it is bettdr that the animals be out during the day, and in at night; but in the intense heat of a warm summer, their being housed in the day secludes them from the attacks of trouble some flies, and permits their grazing undisturbed during the cool of the night. When cows run and jade themselves in the pastures during oppressive heat, their value as milkers is depreciated.