s seldom given. Cooked food is well adapted for milch
cows. Mangels, kohl-rabi, and cabbages are each of them better food than
turnips, as the latter is apt to impart a disagreeable flavour to the
butter. Three feeds in the day is a sufficient number for cows. The
first meal should be early in the morning, and may consist of roots,
mixed with straw or hay. Some feeders prefer using dry fodder, or cooked
food of some kind, and not raw roots. The second meal is given at
mid-day, and the third in the evening. The daily allowance of roots
varies from 2 to 8 stones, depending upon the quantities of other foods
used. Mr. Horsfall's diet is as follows:--Hay, 9 lbs.; rape-cake, 6
lbs.; malt-combs, 1 lb.; bran, 1 lb.; roots, 28 lbs. These substances
are mixed and cooked, and the animals receive them in a warm state.
In addition to this food, Mr. Horsfall's cows get bean-meal--a cow in
full milk 2 lbs., others from 1/2 lb. to 1-1/2 lbs.; cost per week per
cow, 8s. 7d.[21] Mr. Alcock, of Skipton, feeds his cows as follows:--Raw
mangels, 20 lbs.; carob beans, 3 lbs.; bran and malt-combs, 1-3/4 lbs.;
bean-meal, 3-1/2 lbs.; rape-cake, 3 lbs.; per diem. A steamed mixture
of wheat and bean straws and shells of oats _ad libitum_. Oats, to the
extent of 2 or 3 lbs. daily, are an excellent food for cows.

An important point in dairy economics is the feeding of the cows at
_regular_ intervals. If the usual time for the feed be allowed to pass,
the animals are almost certain to become very uneasy--to _worry_; and
every feeder knows, or ought to know, that a fretting beast will neither
fatten nor yield milk satisfactorily. The cow-house ought to be kept as
clean as possible; and the excreta, therefore, should be removed several
times a day.

Mr. Harvey, of Glasgow, has probably one of the largest dairies
in the world. His cow byres, 56 yards long, and from 12 to 24 feet
wide--according as one or two rows of cows are to be accommodated--stand
closely packed, the whole surface of the ground being thus covered by
a kind of roof. From 900 to 1,000 cows are constantly in milk. They are
fed during winter partly on steamed turnips (7 tons being steamed daily
in order to give one meal daily to 900 cows), partly on coarse hay, of
which, as of straw, they get between 20 and 30 lbs. a day each. They are
also fed on draff, of which they receive half a bushel daily each; on
Indian corn meal, of which they have 3 lbs. daily each; and on pot-ale,
of which