Moisture,14.47
Albuminous mater,16.38
Oil or fatty matter,2.23
Woody fibre,25.84
Starch, gum, etc.,31.63
Mineral matters,9.45
Total100.00

In albuminous matter, which is especially valuable for milch cows, it has nearly double the proportion contained in meadow hay. Bran also undergoes a great improvement in its flavor by steaming, and it is probably improved in its convertibility as food. It contains about fourteen per cent. of albumen, and is peculiarly rich in phosphoric acid, nearly three per cent. of its whole substance being of this material. The properties of rape-cake are well known: the published analyses give it a large proportion (nearly thirty per cent.) of albumen; it is rich in phosphates, and also in oil. This is of the unctuous class of vegetable oils, and it is to this property that I call particular attention. Chemistry will assign to this material, which has hitherto been comparatively neglected for feeding, a first place for the purpose of which I am treating. If objection should occur on account of its flavor, I have no difficulty in stating that by the preparation I have described I have quite overcome this. I can easily persuade my cattle (of which sixty to eighty pass through my stalls in a year), without exception, to eat the requisite quantity. Nor is the flavor of the cake in the least perceptible in the milk or butter.

During May, my cows are turned out on a rich pasture near the homestead; towards evening they are again housed for the night, when they are supplied with a mess of the steamed mixture and a little hay each morning and evening. During June, when the grasses are better grown, mown grass is given to them instead of hay, and they are also allowed two feeds of steamed mixture. This treatment is continued till October, when they are again wholly housed.

The results which I now proceed to relate are derived from observations made with the view of enabling me to understand and regulate my own proceedings.

Gain or Loss of Condition ascertained by weighing Cattle Periodically.

—For some years back I have regularly weighed my feeding stock, a practice from which I am enabled to ascertain their doings with greater accuracy than I could previously. In January, 1854, I commenced weighing my milch cows. It has been shown, by what I have premised, that no accurate estimate can be formed of the effect of the food on the production of milk, without ascertaining its effect on the condition of the cows. I have continued the practice once a month, almost without omission, up to this date. The weighings take place early in the morning, and before the cows are supplied with food. The weights are registered, and the length of time (fifteen months) during which I have observed this practice enables me to speak with confidence of the results.

The cows in full milk, yielding twelve to sixteen quarts each per day, vary but little; some losing, others gaining, slightly; the balance in the month’s weighing of this class being rather to gain. It is common for a cow to continue a yield from six to eight months before she gives below twelve quarts per day, at which time she has usually, if not invariably, gained weight.

The cows giving less than twelve quarts and down to five quarts per day are found, when free from ailment, to gain, without exception. This gain, with an average yield of nearly eight quarts per day, is at the rate of seven pounds to eight pounds per week each.

My cows in calf I weigh only in the incipient stages; but they gain perceptibly in condition, and consequently in value. They are milked till within four weeks to five weeks previous to calving. I give the weights of three of these, and also of one heifer, which calved in March, 1855:

No. 1854.1855.Gain.
cwt.qr.lbs. cwt.qr.lbs.lbs.
1Bought and weighed,July.10 120April.11 3 0148
2Bought and weighed,“ 8 210“10 2 0214
3Bought and weighed,“ 8 2 0“10 0 0184
4Heifer, which calved also in March, 1855, weighed“ 7 0 0“ 9 3 0300