The Relation of Food to Milk-Fat. 51 



" Tliat the results of tliis experiment tend to coiitirm the conchi- 

 sions expressed in previous bulletins from this Station ; that the 

 composition of a cow's milk is determined by the individuality of 

 the cow, and that although an unusual food may disturb for a time 

 the composition of the milk, its effect is not continuous." 



Hills* studied the effect of heavy feeding of grains on milk pro- 

 duction by giving two cows for two months a continually increas- 

 ing amount of grain nntil tliey were receiving all they would 

 eat. He found that there was little change in the composition 

 of the milk on increasingly heavy grain feeding, and that no con- 

 nection could be traced between the quality of the milk and the 

 food given. 



Again, t in a series of feeding tests covering five periods of four 

 weeks each, and usino- thirtv-one cows, he exoerimented with vari- 



O t> ■'1. 



ous coarse fodders, grains and mixed feeds. The invariable conclu- 

 sion was that there M'^as no matei'ial change in the quality of the 

 milk as a result of the change in ration. 



Cooke,:}: in reporting an experiment in feeding sugar meal, cream 

 gluten meal, and germ meal to nine cows for four months in periods 

 of four weeks each, says : "• We are led to the conclusion that sugar 

 meal and cream gluten have a slight effect toward an increase in the 

 richness of the milk." 



Lindsey§ fed six cows in nine and fourteen-day periods with 

 seven days preliminary feeding to each period on rations containing 

 amounts of protein which varied from 1.3 to 3.76 pounds per head 

 daily, and the nutritive ratio varied from 1:4.4 to 1:10. The periods 

 were rather short, but the '' indications are that the composition of 

 the milk, especially the fat, appeared to be favorably affected by the 

 addition of protein up to three pounds, although there was consider- 

 able difference in the cows in that respect." 



Lindsey, Holland and Billinglj varied the nutritive ratio of the 

 ration from 1:3.86 to 1:9.43 while feeding six cows in two lots of 



* Vermont Station, Annual Report, 1890, p. 75. 



t Same, 1895, p. 303. 



t Vermont Station, Bulletin 31, 1893. 



§ Massachusetts (State) Station, Annual Report, 1894, p. 42. 



II Massachusetts (Hatch) Station, Annual Report. ls!):j, p. lOO. 



