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: -+--------------------+-------------------++-------------------------- N| | || o| | || .| | 1854. || 1855. |Gain. -+--------------------+-----+-------------++------+-------------+----- | | |cwt. qr. lbs.|| |cwt. qr. lbs.| lbs. 1|Bought and weighed, |July.| 10 1 20 ||April.| 11 3 0 | 148 2|Bought and weighed, | “ | 8 2 10 || “ | 10 2 0 | 214 3|Bought and weighed, | “ | 8 2 0 || “ | 10 0 0 | 184 4|Heifer, which calved| | || | | |also in March, 1855,| | || | | |weighed | “ | 7 0 0 || “ | 9 3 0 | 300 -+--------------------+-----+-------------++------+-------------+----- These observations extend over lengthened periods, on the same animals, of from thirty to upwards of fifty weeks. A cow, free from calf, and intended for fattening, continues to give milk from ten months to a year after calving, and is then in a forward state of fatness requiring but a few weeks to finish her for sale to the butchers.