FATTENING AN OLD MILCH COW.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LVI, Issue 6502, 29 December 1881, Page 6

FATTENING AN OLD MILCH COW.

This is generally a slow and expensive process. A writer in the Chicago National Lh>« Stock Journal, who bai mode good beef of cow* at 18 to 19 year* of age, causing them to weigh 1001 b to 2501 b more than at any period during their younger life, thus describes hit process, which be ha*, without exception, found satisfactory, the «tiwa< always a little more than paying at the pail for all feed consumed, and sometimes a good deal more t—lf the old cow is quite thin and skinny, as she is very likely to be, she should not bo plied strongly with ram meal on the start. This 1# apt to make her feverish, and to induce « state opposed to thrifty fattening t besides, this feverish state will render her tmlfc gargety. Give her slightly loosening and moling food at first, such os pumpkins, potatoes, sweet apples, succulent rowen grass, one or two pounds of oil meal, cheap molasses and clover hay, or better, green clover, and with any of these may be givsn on the start one or two quart* of corn meal per day. The food must be gradually increased. A pint to three pints of cheap molasses, diluted with three parts of water and mixed with one-half bushel of cut clover bay, will keep the stomach and bowels in excellent condition when beginning the ram ratal. And alt these food* will make prime milk. Another food that will bo found successful, end in many place* cheap, is one bushel of (lax seed ground with fifteen bushels of corn, This flax weed will vender the corn meal just laxative enough for health, and the flax seed U worth, »e

fool, all it usually costs. Cotton seed umd may also bt fed to advantage up to three pounds per day. Linseed meal made by the new praoeee is excellent to feed with corn meal, *§ it hae a large proportion of nitrogen, and thus balances the eow tnrtti i hut two pooad* pea day Is sufficient of this. The prioeipa! grain food may property be corn meal, which Is usually cheaper for fattening thin any other grain, iltan and corn meal go well together for feedinf aa old cow, and after Ihe tot gets accustomed to the use of lb# grain you may feed her six quarts of bran «wf*|* quarts of corn mud in three feeds per day. II Is always better to begin feeding her on pasture, beginning ihe use of grain lightly as mentioned, and iocrcMlne, little by Utile, up to her capacity. If the oow bo young that you desire to get rid of bscaute she It 100 smalt» milker, you may be surprised at her sudden improroment in milk when you try fattening her on the plan| suggested. Many dairymen do not know the capacity of their oowsto gif# milk, lieauuiw they have never fairly tested it by full feeding.