496 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
Here we see in every instance a marked relative increase of the but- 
ter, and to a less extent of the other milk solids whenever the sugar 
meal — rich in fat and albuminoids — was furnished. The opposite 
theory having been largely taught, it becomes needful to thus sustain 
the old and well-founded belief of the dairymen. 
Not only does the richness of the milk vary with the nature of 
the food, but it varies also according to the time of the day when it 
is drawn, the morning milk giving 714 per cent of cream and the even- 
ing milk 9% per cent (Hassall). Boedecker found that the morning 
milk had 10 per cent of solids, -while the evening milk had 13 per 
cent. Again, the milk first drawn at any milking is always poorer 
thrai the last drawn. The first may have only one-half, or in extreme 
cases one-fourth, the cream of the last. Once more, when the cow 
is in heat the milk becomes richer in solids (casein and butter), and 
contains granular and white blood cells like the colostrum, and often 
disagrees with the young animal living on it. Now, while these various 
modifications in the amount of solid matters may prove harmless to a 
strong and vigorous calf, they can easily be the occasion of intestinal 
disorder in a weaker one, or in one with health already somewhat im- 
paired by sickness, exposure, or unwholesome buildings. The casein 
of the cow's milk coagulates in one solid mass, and is much less easily 
penetrated by the digesting fluids than the fine flaky coagula of wo- 
man's or mare's milk. An excess of casein, therefore, thrown on an 
already overtaxed stomach can all the more readily induce disorder. 
So with butter fat. While a most important element in nutrition, it 
may be present in the stomach in such amount as to interfere with 
the action of the gastric juice on the casein, and with the interruption 
of the natural stomach digestion the fats themselves undergo decompo- 
sition with the production of offensive and irritating fatty acids. 
The milk of the very young cow is usually more watery than that 
of the mature animal, and that of the old cow has a greater liability 
to become acid. It varies much with the breed, the Channel Island 
cattle being notorious for the relatively large amount of cream, while 
the Holsteins, Ayrshires, and Shorthorns are remarkable rather for 
the amount of casein. The milk cows fed on potatoes and grass is 
very poor and watery; that from cows fed on cabbage or Swedish tur- 
nips has a disagreeable taste and odor (from the former an offensive 
liquid has been distilled). 
Cow^s fed on overkept, fermented, and soured rations have acid 
milk which readily turn and coagulates. Thus old, long-kept brewer's 
grains, swill, the refuse of glucose factories, and ensilage v/hich has 
been put up too green, all act in this way. The same may come from 
disease in the cow's udder, or any general disease of the cow with at- 
tendant fever, and in all such cases the tendency is to rapid change and 
unwholesomeness. If the milk is drawn and fed from a pail there is 
the added danger of all sorts of poisonous ferments getting into it and 
multiplying; it may be from the imperfect cleansing and scalding of 
the pail; from rinsing the pails with water that is impure; from the 
