DIGEST OF STATE REPORTS. 367 



In maintaining that superior cows will always respond to increase of 

 food to a larger extent than inferior ones, Dr. Sturtevant states that in 

 just so far as animals have been removed from the natural state through 

 breeding will they be influenced in their product by a more nutritious 

 and concentrated kind of food ; for natural food may not be the best 

 attainable under an artificial environment whichnot only exists, but has 

 been of long continuance, although the same food may be the best in a 

 state of nature. The art of man consists in intensifying natural condi- 

 tions in the direction toward his own desires. The natural food of ani- 

 mals, although best for the wild condition, cannot be considered as nat- 

 ural food when the whole condition of life of the animal, and her habits 

 and functions, have been modified to a very large extent from those 

 habits and functions of the undomesticated state; for artificial methods 

 of long continuance, and artificial conditions brought about through 

 artificial environment, tend to so completely change the conditions of 

 being of the wild animal, that what in the wild animal might be an arti- 

 ficial food may be the natural food for the domesticated animal, and vice 

 versa. In fact, the establishing of harmony between form and function, 

 food and desired product, is the using of the laws of nature through 

 man's j^ower for man's own good. 



The practical fact which is worthy the attention of all those who keep 

 cattle is that an increase of food, gained by the feeding of meals and 

 other concentrated and artificial foods, may perhaps bring profit to the 

 owner of superior animals, while the same course i)ursued by the owner 

 of indifi'ereut animals would be surely done at a loss. One farmer can 

 feed grain to his better cows and receive a profit on the extra cost, 

 while his neighbor, perhaps, with inferior stock, can increase his prod- 

 uct but very little by the same means, and then this increase will not be 

 sufficient to compensate for the extra expense. Improvement in breed, 

 therefore, should go hand in hand with improvement in feed. The 

 dairy-farmer who believes in artificial feeding, which experience shows 

 to be the true course, must also, for the most profitable results, believe 

 in an artificial breed. As the milk-functions are entirely the creation, in 

 their usefulness, of man, and are hence artificial, the sui)erior cow will 

 pay a larger profit on concentrated food than will another animal, her 

 inferior, while the inferior animals, under the feeding requisite to ob- 

 tain the best results from a herd as a whole, are kept at a loss. 



He closes this paper with the following summary of conclusions from 

 the propositions advanced : 



First. That the prodnction of butter is largely dependent on breed. 



Second, That there is a structural limit to the production of butter to each cow. 



Third. That when the cow is fed to this limit increased food cannot increase tbe 

 product. 



Fourth. That the superior cow has this structural limit at a greater distance from 

 ordinary feed, and more ready to respond to stimuli than the inferior cow. 



Fifth. That consequently ihe superior cow is seldom fed to her limit, while the in- 

 ferior cow may be easily fed beyond her limit ; and, as a practical conclusion, increased 

 feed witli a superior lot of cows will increase the butter liroduct, but if fed to an in- 

 ferior lot of cows waste can be but the result. 



Sixth. That the character of the food has some influence on the character of the but- 

 ter, but even here breed influences more than food. 



Seventh. That there is no constant relation between the butter product and the 

 cheese product. 



Eighth. That the casein retains a constant percentage, and that this percentage does 

 not appear to respond to increase of food. 



Ninth. That the casein appears to remain constant, without regard to the season. 



Tenth. That increase, in the quantitj' of milk is followed by an increase in the total 

 amount of casein. 



Eleventh. That insufficient feed acts directly to checli the proportion of butter, and 

 has a tendency to decrease the casein of the mUk and substitute albumen. 



