Milk and Milking. 15 



pose, greatly influenced by the quality of food, the 

 management of the feeding and the breed and indi- 

 viduality of the animal. 



Medicinal qualities contained in the food or pasture 

 eaten by the cows may reappear in the milk and 

 trouble the consumer ; for instance, the feeding of 

 cabbage leaves to cows produces flatulence 

 and pains in most infants which consume 

 such milk ; also the acidity of feed like that 

 in wet and acid brewers' grains passes into 

 the milk and makes it unfit for infants' food. 

 Increased feeding of albuminoids favors an in- 

 creased production of fat in the milk, while 

 a feeding with a preponderance of carbohy- 

 drates is followed by a loss of albumen and 

 fat in the milk. The quantity of milk is in- 

 fluenced also by the periods of lactation ; im- 

 mediately after parturition it is at its height, 

 and from that time decreases generally, not 

 gradually but in about three well defined peri- 

 ods the duration of which is naturally depend- Dair ^ her _ 

 ent on the entire duration of lactation, which, mometer - 

 as we all know, is exceedingly variable, both as to every 

 separate animal as also in the. several lactations of 

 one and the same animal. A lengthened period of 

 lactation is acquired by heredity and confirmed by 

 judicious management at the hands of the milker. 



Concerning the qualitative changes of milk during 

 the period of lactation, there is no harmony of opin- 

 ion prevailing, yet a majority of investigators claim 



