A variation from a balanced ration does not immediately affect the cow and usually one change offsets another. Experienced feeders of record-making cattle make use of the chemical analysis of feeds in their intense effort to have the cow digest a very large amount of food, yield a large amount of milk, and still keep her bodily weight about normal. But for farm conditions we should know that too great an amount of alfalfa, bran, and like feeds usually results in sleek, fat cattle and that cows fed principally corn and carbohydrates, if they are milking well, will look rather rough and get too thin. The writer at one time had alfalfa in such abundance that he let the milk herd run out in the field and eat all they wanted from the stack. They had silage and other feeds about as usual, but they did not eat as much silage as they should have. The result was that the herd looked fine and thrifty but produced less milk. Many people think that a cow is either lean or fat and if she fills out in her body she is always taking on fat, but the amount of lean meat on the body also varies. Protein feeds are muscle builders. They make animals grow. Carbohydrates supply fat and energy which is a separate thing from muscle. Many times if cows become overweight we reduce the total amount of feed consumed and get a large yield in the milk pail. “The eye of the feeder fattens his cattle.” It also fills the milk pail. Scientific knowledge can help a good feeder but I doubt very much if it alone can make one. Rules and system can not be made to take the place of interest and attention. For those who care to go thoroughly into the subject of feeding I recommend “How to Feed the Dairy Cow,” by Hugh Van Pelt, Editor of Kimball’s Dairy Farmer, Waterloo, Iowa. I have referred those who wish to go deeply into the subject of feeds to more eminent authorities because I have never raced cows in a record contest and am not an authority on the subject. The reason I have for writing is that I have viewed the subject from the standpoint of profit making rather than that of high production. Feeding for profit has been too little considered.