There is a great deal being said and written nowadays about standard rations for cows, and much science is brought into requisition to make those rations correctly balanced to fit the physical requirements of the ' cows. Every young farmer who hopes to be come successful in dairying should study such tables and becomo accus tomed to the technical terms, so that he will know just what they mean wherever he sees them. Having done this, ho should learn the coat of different cattle foods delivered on Mb farm, whether raised or purchased. Knowing this, he should then make his own standard ration, and whenever he cannot get the materials for making that standard without paying too much, he must look for substitutes iu kind and quality. The ration, as estimated, is most conveniently the food for twenty-four hours for a cow weighing between eight hundred and one thousand pounds. This much can be done wjfch books, and is a very useful part of the lesson. The real test of merit in this work comes from the actual feeding of the cow T s. 'J he rations may be most scientifically correct, and fed in exact proportions, and yet fail to produce or return the first cost, which should not have exceeded from fifteen to twenty cents a day per cow. The best dairy men claim to make butter worth fifty cents a pound on a ration not exceed ing thirteen cents a day. But it will be seen that when the ration cost* twenty cents, the cow must give at least one pound of butter a day in order to pay her board, bill and do much better than this if any money is to be made out of her. With a cow in good condition, fab and fresh, and the ration properly mixed, the test may be said to have just begun. The individual character istics of each cow ai » not to be studied. One will find big eaters and small eaters, big milkers and small milkers, rich milkers and those that give thin, pc or milk. All the virtues, or all the frail ts are not to be found in any single cow. A general average must be reached. For this do as little guess ing about them as possible. Weigh

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NEW ZEALAND MAIL.
