A poorly balanced diet may be fed for several months before any results begin to show. Cattle do fairly well on the corn plant (mainly carbohydrates), and they also do well on pure alfalfa (a protein feed). They do better on a combination of the two, but the combination does not have to be in just the right proportion. In deciding what to feed a cow the good feeder uses his eyes more than his pencil. If the muscle and body of the animal needs building up, he uses protein feeds in large proportions. Cattle inclined to be too sleek and fat often milk better if fed more carbohydrates in proportion. But we should never pass up one or the other completely. Notice that I speak of only two substances in food--protein and carbohydrates. There are others, but we need not be concerned about them. All we want to know from the chemist is approximately the amount of these two elements the feed contains. Fat is considered the same as a carbohydrate but has more than two times the value of carbohydrates. Dairy cows should be kept sleek and thrifty, but lean while they are producing milk. The dry cow should be allowed to get as fat as possible, for the fatter and more thrifty she is the more milk she will give, after freshening. To maintain the cow in the right condition, we consider both the kind and the amount of feed. Many times we decrease the grain ration to keep a cow from getting fat and going dry too soon. Too much grain fed is a great waste. The right amount to be fed can not be figured so much by the size of the cow as by what she does with it. The milk pail contains the answer to most feeding problems. Increase the feed slightly and if no more milk is produced, begin to decrease and watch what happens. We have to do this for each cow just as we have to adjust the carburetor on a Ford. Elsewhere in this book, I discuss pastures and how to make the most of them. I get grass that is tall enough for the cattle to eat to the best advantage and I keep it from getting old and tough by using the system of divided pastures described there. But in doing this, the grass must be pastured off fairly close before turning the cattle into the next pasture. If care is not taken, the cattle are having alternately a feast and a famine by the change. To offset this, I usually feed as much good alfalfa as the cows will eat all of the time. It does not require much hay but it makes up for the variation in pasture. Even when on fine pasture, cows like a little hay and should have it. I usually pasture cows at night as well as during the day. By all means feed cows at night if they are required to stay in the lot.