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Show I BJF I RY 1 N G WINTER RATIONS FOR DAIRY COWS. Jk . tB By E. L. Vincent. WL FART FIRST. Jbv, Knijty mangers and full milk'pMHp do not go together. Just now as most kinds of feed arc high in price, there is a groat temptation temp-tation on the part of the dairymen to scrimp his cows. Very frequently you hear the statement, "I can't afford af-ford to feed much grain. It costs ()!" 1 remember hearing a young fanner say this last August in speak-' ing of feeding hogs. I was interested in following this thing up, and il turned out about as I had expected. That farmer's hogs were far below! what. they should have been, and his receipts for pork were correspondingly correspond-ingly shortened. The fact is, cows must have plenty to eat if .we would get from them the best returns. And this docs not simply sim-ply mean that wc arc "to fill our cows up with something, it does not matter mat-ter much what. The cast wind is filling, but there is not very much nourishment about it. Take straw for example. A cow might stand at a strawstack all day and stuff herself, but -there would not be any satisfactory satisfac-tory return by the woy of the milk pail. Milk requires a moist juicy food. It is, more difficult to furnish this in winter than in summer; wc all know that. The cows arc no longer able to go out in the fields and cat fresh succulent grass; they arc shut up in the barn and must take what is set before them. Most of the feed wc have access to is dry, ensilage being one markod exception. Hay, straw, corn curod in the field oil thest must naturally be tlruml hard to eat and digest. The problem with us all is, how to supply the needed succulcncy. A ' it is n ferious one, too. Bills keep running run-ning on for help, in the winter the stttnc as in summer. Hired men must be paid, and it is astonishing how fat the months roll around, Other expenses keep pace with the bills for hired men, and we must somehow j keep the checks coming in. Only foresight can enable us to meet these conditions a they should be met. If wc have not remembered the days of winter and made provisions, provis-ions, accordingly, we arc now in sore straits. Wc must to a large cxttnt depend on mill stuffs. And of all Ahcsc none stands higher in the eS-jnationof eS-jnationof the best dairymen than gQoay!Mi5BbjantOr as it is common" ly known nowadysjv?lPcat feed. This is a feed rich in just the elc-ments elc-ments that cows need to give growth to the comi;ig calf and ft the same time keep the system of the cow in good condition. Add to this a fair proportion of corn meal or' gluten, which is coming to be highly esteemed esteem-ed by dairymen and we have a fair ration, provided there bt a good ensilage, en-silage, with some timothy or clover hay and now and then a ration of t roots. o |