Testing Milk on the Farm. 157 



During all these changes of feed there was, therefore, 

 not much change in the richness of the milk, while the 

 flow of milk was increased by the heavy grain feeding 

 for several months, as well as by the change from grain- 

 feeding in the barn to pasture feed with no grain. 1 As 

 a general rule, the test of the milk will be increased by 

 a few tenths of a per cent, during the first couple of 

 weeks after the cows have been turned out to pasture 

 in the spring. The increase is perhaps due as much to 

 the stimulating influence of out-door life after the con- 

 finement in the stable during the winter and spring, as 

 to the change in the feed of the cows. After a brief 

 period the milk will again change back to its normal fat 

 content. 



177. The increase which has often been observed in 

 the amount -of butter produced by a cow, as a result of 

 a change in feed, doubtless as a rule comes 'from the 

 fact that more, but not richer milk is produced. The 

 quality of milk which a cow produces is as natural to 

 her as is the color of her hair and is not materially 

 changed by any special system of normal feeding. 2 



1 For further data on this point, see Cornell (N. Y.) exp. sta. bulle- 

 tins 13, 22, 36 and 49 ; N. D. exp. sta., bull. 16 ; Kansas exp. sta., re- 

 port, 1888 ; Hoard's Dairyman, 1896, pp. 924-5 ; W. Va. exp. sta., b. 

 109. 



2 On this point numerous discussions have taken place in the past in 

 the agricultural press of this and foreign countries, and the subject 

 has been under debate at nearly every gathering of farmers where feed- 

 ing problems have been considered. Many farmers are firm in their be- 

 lief that butter fat can be "fed into" the milk of a cow, and would take 

 exception to the conclusion drawn in the preceding. The results of 

 careful investigations by our best dairy authorities point conclusively, 

 however, in the direction stated, and the evidence on this point is over- 

 whelmingly against the opinion that the fat content of the milk can be 

 materially and for any length of time increased by changes in the sys- 

 tem of feeding. The most conclusive evidence in this line is perhaps 



