78 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



silage fed cows after being accustomed to other milk, the difference 

 is often noted and possibly objection made by some. However, 

 no one objects to milk from silage fed cows when they are ac- 

 customed to it. 



Any feed having a marked taste is liable to flavor the milk 

 more or less, but the most common examples are onions, turnips, 

 certain weeds and green rye. We can understand how these feeds 

 affect the milk more clearly by considering what happens when a 

 person eats onions. For about an hour after eating onions there 

 is no noticeable effect, then the breath begins to smell of onions 

 and soon the taste of onions is in the mouth. The odor of the 

 breath comes from the onion products being given off by the lungs 

 and the taste is due to the onion products coming into the mouth 

 with the saliva. The entire circulation is filled with the volative 

 product and it passes out of the body in every excretion and secre- 

 tion. The same thing happens when a cow is fed a feed with a 

 strong odor or taste. As soon as it is digested it passes into the 

 circulation and into every secretion, including the milk. By think- 

 ing of these facts we can see clearly that a feed liable to give a taste 

 to the milk should be fed either immediately before milking so 

 there will not be time for it to be digested, or at once after milking 

 so it may get out of the body before another milking. 



If a cow is sick, has indigestion for example, the milk may 

 have an objectional odor or taste which has been absorbed from 

 the alimentary canal by the circulation. Clean milk from a healthy 

 cow has no cowy odor or animal odor, as is fully believed by many 

 dairymen. The so-called animal odor comes either from an un- 

 healthy animal, or from dirt in the milk. 



Any taste or odor that milk has when freshly milked is due to 

 one of the causes mentioned, but further, it should be clearly un- 

 derstood that any odor or taste not present in the fresh milk but 

 developed later does not come from the cow nor her feed. For 

 example, if milk becomes slimy or bitter or smells bad after stand- 

 ing some time, do not lay it on the cow, unless it has the same con- 

 dition when freshly milked. Taints from the feed are driven off 

 almost entirely by heating the milk. The smell of onions or tur- 

 nips may be removed almost entirely by this means. In some lo- 

 calities, especially in the South Atlantic States, milk is often 

 pastureized with this object alone in view. 



Under usual conditions this source of tastes and odors is of 

 comparatively little importance. As a rule the cow produces milk 

 pure and the responsibility for the many troubles that appear in 



