672 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. [Vol 40 



A peculiar egg abnormality, B. R. Weimer (Jour. Ainrr. Assoc. Instr. awl 

 Invest. Poultry Huso., 4 (1918), No. 10. pp. 78, 79, pi. 1).—A large soft-shelled 

 egg much constricted in the middle is described and figured. Only one lobe 

 contained a yolk. Literature references to double eggs are given. 



DAIRY FARMING— DAIRYING. 



Feeding dairy cattle, W. W. Fitzpatkick (South Carolina Rta. Tipt. 1018, p. 

 25). — A preliminary report of a study to determine the relative economy of 

 velvet bean meal, coconnt meal, wheat bran, and molasses feed as partial sub- 

 stitutes for cottonseed meal in feeding dairy cows. Four lots of five cows each 

 were used, each group receiving one of the feeds under comparison for one 

 month. Velvet bean meal was found to be the most economical under the 

 conditions of the experiment, with wheat bran a close second. The other two 

 were of about the same value. 



Variations and mode of secretion of milk solids. J. W, GOWEN (Jour. Apr. 

 Research [17. 8.1, 16 (1919), Wo. S, pp. 79-102).—" The Investigation reported in 

 this paper is an attempt to analyze the variations and associations of the con- 

 stituents of Holstein-Friesian milk [so as] to furnish definite mathematical 

 evidence bearing on the problem of the kind of mechanism liberating these 

 constituents to form the fluid known ns milk." The paper is one of a series 

 of milk studies being published by the Maine Experiment Station. The mate- 

 rial consists mainly of the ."•"•"> semiofficial (yearly) Holstein Advanced Regis- 

 try 1 records in which data on sollds-not-fal are provided. The other data ex- 

 tracted from these r rds are age at beginning of lactation, pounds of milk per 



year, percentage <>f butter fat and weighl of butter fat. The means, standard 

 deviations, coefficients of variation, and the mutual correlations (if these vari- 

 ables have been computed for this group of cows and are presented in tables. 

 One of the solids-not-fat observations was sufficiently different from the others 

 to make the author suspect an error. He accordingly presents his solids -not-fat 

 data with and without this record. The figures quoted here Include the aber- 

 rant observations. No noteworthy differences were found between the two 

 sets of computations. 



The correlations between a_ r e at test ami percentage of butter fat ( 0.0546 t 

 o.oisi) and between weight of milk and percentage of sollds-not-fal (— 0.0553± 

 0.0367) were so small in comparison with their probable errors that they are 

 not considered significant, it Is therefore concluded that "the quantity of 

 milk produced for one year is Independent of the concentration of the sollds-not- 

 fat. Tins, from a genetic viewpoint, moans that the hereditary factors for 

 high or low milk production are separate and distinct from those causing a high 

 percentage of solids not fat." On the Other hand, the Correlations between 



weight of milk and percentage of butter fat ( — 0.0f>77±o.oi."G) and between age 

 at test and percentage of solids not-fat ( — O.CL10l±O.P: , .riU are regarded as 

 significant. "The data above presented give us a criterion to judge the value 

 of any hypothesis for the origin of the milk solids from a commmon mother 

 substance. . . . The correlation of the solids not fat and fat might lead 

 one to suppose such a common origin for some component of such solids and 

 the fat. This can not be the case, however, as the correlation of fat ami of 

 SOlids-not-fat with amount of milk anil age precludes that possibility, for if 

 such a common origin occurred, the fat and solids not-fat would necessarily be 

 correlated to these other variables by comparable amounts. The milk com- 



1 Advanced Reg. Holstein-Friesian Asosc. Amer., vols. 18-28 (1907 1017). 



