INFLUENCE OF THE HEALTH OF THE ANIMAL. 535 



ture from the ordinary composition of milk is observed in the heistingSy 

 colostrum or first milk, yielded by the animal after the birth of its young. 

 This milk is thicker and yellower than ordinary milk, coagulates by 

 heating, and contains an unusually large quantity of casein or cheesy 

 matter. Thus the first milk of the cow, the ass, and the goat, consisted, 

 in some specimens examined by Henry and Chevallier, of — 



Cow. Ass. Goat. 



100 100 100 



The increase in the proportion of cheese is peculiarly great in the first 

 nilk of the ass and the goat. 



This state of the milk, however, does not long continue. It gradually 

 assumes its ordinary qualities. After ten or twelve days from the time 

 of calving, its peculiarities disappear, though in tlie celebrated dairy dis- 

 tricts of Italy it is considered that the milk does not reach perfection until 

 about eight months after calving. [Cataneo, 11 iatte e i suoi prodoUi, p. 

 27.] 



2°. Age of the anim.al. — It is observed that milk of the best quality is 

 given only by cows which have been already three or four times in calf. 

 Such animals continue to give excellent milk till they are ten or twelve 

 years of age, and have had seven or eight calves, when they are 

 generally fattened for the butcher. 



3°. Climate and season of the year. — Moist and temperate climates 

 are favourable to the production of milk in large quantity. In hot coun- 

 tries, and in dry seasons, the quantity is less, but the average quality is 

 richer. Cool weather favours the production of cheese and sugar in the 

 milk, while hot weather increases the yield of butter, [Sprengel, Che- 

 mie fiir Landwirthe, ii., p. 620.] 



In spring the milk is more abundant and of finer flavour. In autumn 

 and winter, other things being equal, it yields less cheese, but a larger 

 return of butter.* Where cattle are fed upon pasture grass only, this 

 observed difference may be derived from a natural difference in the 

 quality of the herbage upon which the cow is fed. 



4°. Health and general state of the animal. — It is obvious that the 

 quality of the milk must be affected by almost every change in the health 

 of the animal. It is sensibly less rich in cream also, as soon as the cow 

 becomes pregnant, and the same is observed to be the case when it shows 

 a tendency to fatten. The poorer the apparent condition of the cow, 

 good food being given, the richer in general is the milk. 



5°. Time and frequency of milking. — If the cow be milked only once 

 a day, the milk will yield a seventh part more butter than an equal 

 quantity of that which is obtained by two milkings in the day. When 

 the milk is drawn three times a day, it is more abundant but still less 



* British Husbandry, ii., p. 404. This opinion seems to contradict that o-f Sprengel in the 

 preceding paragraph. Does this difference arise from the locality and other unlike circum 

 stanceB in which the observations of the two writers were severally made — or are there no 

 accurate experiments upon the subject from which a correct result can be drawn 7 



