1 68 Journal of Agricultural Research voi. vi. No. 4 



Holtsmark (6) reports that there is no decrease in the fat content of 

 the milk of cows on a liberal daily ration of concentrated feed and cut 

 straw, with as much as jj pounds of turnips per head, after this ration is 

 substituted for one consisting of hay, straw, concentrates, and a small 

 quantity of roots. 



A writer in the Journal of the Board of Agriculture (3), JUondon, Eng- 

 land, concludes from a study of the work of various investigators that, 

 although many feeds have a specific effect on the yield and quality of milk, 

 it may be attributed to stimulating substances in the feeds rather than 

 to water content. These substances have a physiological rather than a 

 nutritive effect and are present in feeds in small quantities only. 



As the result of a number of experiments conducted and a review of 

 previous work of the same character, Jordan (8, p. 69) states that, "Con- 

 trary to a notion held by many, it is not possible to water a cow's milk 

 through her drink or through the ingesting of watery feed." 



The Journal of the Board of Agriculture, London (2), reports that a 

 dairyman was convicted in the French courts for selling adulterated milk. 

 The conviction was based upon the assumption that it is possible to 

 water milk either by feeding cows on watery feeds, by causing them to 

 drink water in large quantities, or by making them drink immediately 

 before milking. To prove the fallacy of this assumption, the Board con- 

 ducted experiments with a number of cows. After feeding them an 

 excess of common salt (sodium chlorid), or limiting the water drunk 

 after free access to it, or permitting them to drink only immediately 

 before milking, it was found that no change is produced in the composi- 

 tion of the milk. 



At Offerton Hall, Durham, England, a series of experiments was con- 

 ducted to determine how the composition of milk is affected by feeding 

 wet brewers' grains. The first of these experiments (7, p. 35) indicates 

 that the feeding of these grains to cows whose milk is habitually low in 

 butter fat is not to be recommended, especially during the earlier stages 

 of the lactation period, when the grains tend slightly to reduce the yield 

 of fat. The writer advises dairymen to use such grains sparingly. Later 

 experiments (13, p. 19-20) indicate that the grains may be fed safely if the 

 ration contains other feeds also, and that there is no appreciable lowering 

 of the butter fat when the grains are fed in moderate quantities. 



In a general article upon the effect of difterent feeds upon the quality 

 of milk, McConnell (11) says: 



It is a matter of common knowledge that the lush grass of spring, an excess of man- 

 golds, or too many brewers' grains will promote a great flow of milk, but that that milk 

 will be poor, and farmers who do not do anything to modify such feeding will find their 

 milk coming dangerously near the "standard." 



Hansson (4), of the Stockholm Agricultural Experiment Station, in a 

 review of the work of various investigators concerning the effect of dif- 

 ferent feeds upon the fat content of milk, concludes that there are on 



