68 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



The Chairman. I see assembled here upon this occasion 

 more practical dairy farmers, more creameries represented, 

 than I ever saw before in Berkshire County or in the State 

 of Massachusetts. We have, gentlemen, about two hours 

 to comment upon and criticise the interesting address to 

 which we have listened. I hope the gentlemen will avail 

 themselves freely of the opportunity, but I will ask you to 

 limit your remarks to about ten minutes, as there are a great 

 many here. 



Mr. M. I. Wheeler (of Great Barrington). The lect- 

 urer stated that the quantity of milk was decreased in con- 

 sequence of exposure to storm in summer. I would ask 

 him whether that w^as due to the elFect upon the animal or 

 to its eflfect upon the feed that the cows took, whether the 

 added moisture to the grass does not so reduce it rather than 

 the effects upon the animal herself. 



Ex-Governor Hoard. There is a great deal about this 

 question which I do not know. I am not able to say, but 

 both mioht exist. I am convinced that the chief factor was 

 the effect upon the animal herself, for the reason that corre- 

 sponding experiments along those lines have shown me — 

 and 1 think you, Mr. Wheeler, will remember it, if you 

 reflect — that any disturbance of the comfort of a cow has 

 an effect upon the character of the milk. AVhen a long 

 storm ensues and the cow gradually begins to feel a sense of 

 discomfort, there is a disturbance of nervous action, and 

 nervous action has a wonderfully quick influence upon lac- 

 teal secretion, and particularly upon the butter-fat content, 

 which is the most variable of all the contents of the milk. 

 Therefore I reason that this was due largely to the disturb- 

 ance upon the cow herself, and may be that in affecting the 

 food it did the same thing also, 



Mr. Wheeler. That question was suggested by the fact 

 that I read a great many years ago in the ' ' Country Gen- 

 tleman " an article by Mr. Atkinson, in which the writer 

 asserted that shade trees in a pasture were an absolute dis- 

 advantage to cattle that were pastured there ; that in the 

 summer they were seeking their own comfort under the shade 

 trees, and they filled their stomachs with the grasses which 

 were reduced in concentrated food elements by the dews of 



