1890.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 4. 219 



Extensive manufacture of our skim-milk into cheese, then, 

 seems at present out of the question. 



And indeed, although the actual money return from the 

 milk may be greater when skim-milk is made into cheese 

 than when it is fed, yet the problem which is best is not so 

 simple as it might seem. When cheese is made and sold, 

 most of the valuable elements of fertility in the milk are 

 sent away from the farm ; but if the milk is fed out, there 

 remains considerable fertilizer value derived from it in the 

 excrements of the animals fed. The proportion so remain- 

 ing cannot be estimated at less than seventy to eighty per 

 cent of the total plant-food elements in the skim-milk, which 

 would make the manurial value of the residue, after feeding 

 to animals such as pigs, equal to about seven-tenths of a 

 cent per gallon. In other words, every gallon of skim-milk 

 fed adds more than half a cent to the value of the manure 

 pile ; this, in the course of a year, with say a dozen good 

 cows, would amount to the very respectable sum of fifty-six 

 dollars. True, it might be considered preferable to get this 

 or a larger sum in excess of the feeding value by sale or 

 cheese-making, and to spend it for fertilizers ; but yet it 

 is important to recognize this saving in the case of feeding, 

 in order that we may be prepared to do the system justice. 



And, after all, are we not driven to conclude, that to feed- 

 ing it out the majority of Massachusetts -dairymen must at 

 present look for a profitable disposition of their skim-milk ? 

 We have pointed out that Init few of them can sell it ; we 

 have further noticed the difiiculties in the way of cheese- 

 making, so long as the cream-gathering system is the one 

 pursued. Our farmers, then, must for the most part feed 

 their skim-milk at home ; and this is equally true, whether 

 butter is made at home or cream is sent to the factory. The 

 next question, then, is. To what animals shall it be fed? 

 Every farmer knows the great value of sweet skim-milk in 

 rearing young animals of any kind ; and very many use con- 

 siderable in rearing or fattening calves. Others use it for 

 colts, and still others give it to their cows to drink. Any 

 or all of these uses are of course legitimate ; but in the ma- 

 jority of cases giving skim-milk to cows is not looked upon 

 with much favor, and the number of calves and colts to be 



