416 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 



fancy or supposed needs. The type of the dairy-cow is the wedge-shape, that results 

 from the superior development of those parts concerned in the production of milk. 

 These two forms may be considered the most perfect representation of animals fitted 

 for the two requirements of civilization : cheap and therefore abundant meat, and 

 cheap and therefore abundant milk. 



In describing a breed, therefore, we must describe the typical animal, and not the 

 exceptional cow which departs from these shapes. The typical cow, again, is an em- 

 bodiment of the forms considered the most profitable by the owner ; or, in other words, 

 is an expression of the average opinion of the best breeders of the form which is co- 

 rclated with their uses. The corollary to this proposition is, that the more simple are 

 the requirement of uses, the better defined is the type of the breed in its shapes. For 

 illustrations we may bring forward the well-known breeds. The short-horn, massive 

 and square-built, is desigued by his breeder for beef, and we have accordingly the form 

 most economical for this purpose. 



When a family of this breed has been bred for generations for the dairy, we have a 

 departure from this massiveness of form and an approach toward the type of the dairy 

 breed. In the Ayrshire cow we have the form most economical for the production of 

 milk, and this form is one of great uniformity, except in localities where, under the in- 

 flueuce of the ideas of beauty adapted for short-horn breeders, the fancy has allowed a 

 deviation from type. 



Of milk, the writer says, the approximate elements are butter, cheese, 

 sugar of milk, salts, and water. The water, on an average, is about 87 

 per cent. ; the cp.seine or cheese, in its natural condition in the milk, is 

 recognized as being insoluble by the addition of acid or rennet. The 

 butter, the proportion of which is very variable, occurs in the milk in 

 the form of small globules inclosed by an enveloping membrane, and 

 these globules are what give color to the milk, and affect in a large de- 

 gree its weight. As the result of a large number of experiments with 

 milk Irom different breeds, Mr. Sturtevant presents the following cou- 

 clnsions: 



First. The butter-globules of the milk show a certain and definite relation between 

 the qualitj' of the milk and the breed. 



Second The breed determines, to a large extent, the composition of the butter. 



Third. The breed determines, to a large extent, the most economical and advantage- 

 ous manufacture of cheese. 



In the Ayrshire and Jersey breeds he considered his experiments fairly 

 complete; in the Dutch or Holstein breed, more limited. As to the 

 characteristics of the milk of these diliereut breeds, as indicated by his 

 experiments, Mr. Sturtevant says : 



The milk-globule of the Jersey breed is larger than is the corresponding globule of 

 the other breeds mentioned, and there are fewer globules under a certain size, one 

 twenty-seven thousandth of an inch, and such, for convenience, I shall call granules. 



The milk-globule of the Ayrshire breed is smaller than that of the Jersey, and in- 

 termediate in size between those of the Jersey and Holstein, and the milk from individ- 

 ual cows of the Ayrshire breed can be grouped into two classes or grades, according to 

 the size and distribution of the globules. This milk abounds in granules. 



The milk-globule of the Holstein is the smallest of the three. The globules are more 

 uniform in their size than in the Ayrshire milk, and there are fewer granules. 



The globules determine some of the physical characteristics of the milk. If samples 

 of the Jersey, Ayrshire, and Dutch milk are placed in a percentage-glass, under like con- 

 ditions, it will bo noticed that the cream will rise in each sample with a diflerent rapid- 

 ity ; the larger globules, on account of their less specific gravity, reaching the surface 

 first. As a matter of experiment, some Jersey milk threw np its cream in four hours, 

 leaving a blue skim-milk ; some Ayrshire samples, in about ten hours, leaving a white 

 sliim -milk scarcely recognizable as such ; some Dutch milk, in about five hours, leaving 

 a blue skim-milk. 



The larger milk-globules and few granules being in part the explanation of the first, 

 the evenness of size of milk-globule and few granules the interpretation of the reaction 

 of the third, and the numerous granules and unevenness of eizo of globule offering a 

 solution for the appearance and action of the second sample. » * * 'j'jio milk of 

 these breeds acts differently in the churn. The larger tht^ globule, the quicker is the 

 butter produced from the milk; and the more uniform the size of the globule, the 

 larger the yield of butter from a given quantity of cream of equal richness by analysis. 

 The globules of similar size appear to be evenly affected by the process of churning, 



