70 



EXPERIMENTAL FARMS 



MILKING EXPERIMENTS. 



2-3 EDWARD VII., A. 1903 



A summary is here presented of four experiments recently conducted to gain some 

 information as to the eft'ect of milking cows at unequal intervals upon the quantity and 

 quality of the milk produced. 



In each case, each part of each experiment, characterized as ' Irregular ' or 

 ' Regular ', lasted some 1 days or more longer than indicated in the tables. Any 

 sudden change in the hours of milking appeared to excite some cows and aflfect tempo- 

 rarily the quantity and quality of milk yielded in the day. To avoid the possibility of 

 such temporary variations being alloAved to affect the results, about 10 days was allowed 

 for the subsidence of any excitement due the suddenness of the change in hours of 

 milking. 



Experiment I, was conducted in the fall ; Experiment II, in the spring and Expe- 

 riments III, and IV, in the summer. 



The experiments appear to indicate that : — 



1. Slight inequalities in the intervals between milkings do not affect (a) the average 

 per cent of fat in the daily yield of milk, nor, (b) the average daily yield of milk. 



2. Very considerable inequalities in the intervals between milkings would appear 

 to affect slightly both the quantity and quality of the milk produced ; the quantity 

 being reduced, and the quality somewhat inferior. The amount of butter-fat in 100 lbs. 

 of milk seemed to be reduced by about Sh per cent. 



3. Very considerable inequalities in the intervals between milkings affected the 

 amount of milk and the per cent of fat in the milk at the different milkings. The 

 amount of milk after the long interval was much greater than that yielded after the 

 short interval, but the percentage of butter-fat in the milk after the long period was 

 much lower than the per cent of fat in the milk after the short interval. 



4. On the .whole, it would appear that inequalities in the intervals between milk- 

 ings need arouse no anxiety as to their effect upon the quantity or quality of the pro- 

 duct, provided no considerable sudden changes are made. 



DAIRY RECORDS. 



The effort to interest dairymen in the returns from their individual cows has been 

 continued, and very many farmers seem to be awakening to a knowledge of the fact that 



