78 FEEDING FARM ANIMALS 



decades or even centuries. The short, rich grasses of the 

 Channel islands have certainly exercised an influence on 

 the richness which characterizes cows of that breed, and 

 the more abundant and more succulent foods grown in 

 Holland have also exercised an influence on the abundant 

 milk flow which characterizes Holstein cows and the rela- 

 tively low amount of butter fat found in the same. Would 

 not the task of producing a Jersey in Holland and likewise 

 a Holstein in Jersey have been difficult? 



But food may also influence the constituents of milk 

 even perceptibly for a time under certain conditions. Ex- 

 perience has shown that if a cow has been grown under 

 conditions adverse to good development, and if she has 

 been kept upon inferior food, and low in nutrition for a 

 considerable time, it is possible in such an instance to secure 

 perceptible increase in the percentage of butter fat in the 

 milk. It is brought about probably by renovating the system 

 of the cow, through the more or less prolonged feeding of 

 nutritious and suitable food. Such increase, however, is not 

 marked. 



Certain foods affect the flavor of milk adversely, even 

 though eaten in limited quantity. Such are leeks (Allium 

 tricoccum), sometimes found in wild pasture, penny cress 

 (Thlaspi arvense), found sometimes in those that are tame, 

 and the leaves of certain vegetables, as cabbage, fed in a 

 state of partial decay. Other foods give the milk an un- 

 desirable odor only when fed in too large quantities and 

 too near the usual milking period. Such include rape, ru- 

 tabaga and turnip tops and also rutabagas and turnips, con- 

 centrated foods also, as brewers' grains for instance that 

 have reached the borderland of putrefaction, will produce 

 offensive odors in milk. 



A normal amount of development of bone in domestic 

 animals can only be secured by feeding them on food suffi- 

 ciently supplied with ash and v protein, particularly the 

 former, since these are nutrients required in building bone. 

 Where these are insufficient in the food, the development 



