392 Feeds and Feeding. 



but whether it has really disappeared or we only fail to notice it, we 

 do not know. It is possible that after a time the cow more completely 

 eliminates such volatile oils than at first. Bad flavors can be largely 

 avoided by feeding whatever causes them immediately after milking 

 so that the volatile oils they furnish, which are the source of the 

 trouble, can the more completely escape from the body before the next 

 milking. 



It is possible that the facility with which flavors and odors pass 

 from feed to milk or are eliminated from the body when once within 

 it varies with different cows. The flavors and aroma of butter are 

 mostly due to fermentation of milk sugar, so that this matter rests 

 only in part on feeding. 



Sometimes, long after a cow has freshened, her milk grows bitter 

 and distasteful thru no influence of feed. It is doubtful if the prog- 

 eny of such cows should be reared. 



It is probable that the milk of every cow, aside from the influence 

 of feed, possesses a distinctly individual flavor too delicately fine to 

 be observed by most humans. It may be that in the future, when the 

 grosser problems now perplexing dairymen have been solved, it will 

 be found that certain cows yield a peculiarly palatable milk. If this 

 should prove to be the case, then thru selection there may be estab- 

 lished breeds or families possessing this ultra-refined and most desir- 

 able quality. 



The whole subject of odors and flavors in milk and dairy products 

 generally is greatly complicated by the fact that there is a wide 

 range in the ability of individuals to detect and distinguish them. 

 Flavors or odors plainly evident to one person are unnoticed by 

 another. Often odors and flavors charged to feed or cow are due 

 to stable contamination of milk after it is drawn from the cow. 



