1891.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 4. 153 



Professor Roberts. How long after the ordinary feed 

 of those dairies was changed to better food were the samples 

 taken ? 



Mr. Fitch. Sometimes the samples were taken right 

 along, perhaps one a week through the autumn. Sometimes 

 the feed would be changed for a week, and then samples 

 taken ; sometimes changed for a day. I do not differ from 

 what the gentleman has said. I do not say there is no 

 change, but I say that I have taken one of my cows and had 

 her milk analyzed by a competent chemist, and the amount 

 of solids one day was 11.1 09 per cent, and the very next 

 day it w r as 12.20 per cent with the same feed. That was 

 the change inside of forty-eight hours, but that had nothing 

 to do with the feed. But our standard is a certain amount 

 I do not see how we can bring our cows up to that standard. 



Professor Roberts. I merely want to say that I should 

 think it would take at least three months of careful, 

 systematic feeding, before you would see any marked change 

 in the solids of the milk of a dairy. 



Mr. Fitch. In the case of certain herds that had been 

 fed with corn meal, cotton-seed meal, wheat bran and other 

 such feeds by men that were trying their best to give a 

 balanced ration, the meal was taken almost entirely away, 

 and the amount of solids would come up. Now, that means 

 this, that they had been feeding them in a wrong way ; they 

 had been crowding them too much, and when the grain was 

 taken away and they were fed with hay and other things, 

 perhaps ensilage, they were brought nearer to their normal 

 condition. 



Mr. Peterson. It seems to me, Mr. Chairman, that at 

 this, the last stasje of this discussion, science has become 

 completely baffled. Although we have learned a great deal 

 in regard to these matters, yet upon this question, where the 

 field of discovery and of knowledge seems to be laid before 

 us, we older ones feel as though we do not know much, after 

 all. Now, will a little bit of experience be of any advantage 

 to the audience? I do not pretend to any scientific knowl- 

 edge, and all through my experience with cows I have fed 

 for family use, for butter, for milk, and for the health of my 

 family, and I claim that I have had some regard also for the 



