Vol. XVI., Second Series. 



ROCHESTER, N. Y., DECEMBER, 1865. 



No. 12. 



-PEINCIPLES OF IMPEOVING DOMISTIC ANIMALS. 



CHAPTER V. 

 DAIRY STOCK. 



There are at this time about six and a half million 

 cows in the United States, most of which are bad 

 milkers, and nearly worthless for breeding purposes. 

 In a territory so extensive, there are large districts, 

 particularly in the Southern States, where it appears 

 to be difficult to prosecute dairy husbandry to any 

 advantage. Cows give very little milk, butter is 

 largely imported, and one may travel a thousand 

 miles without meeting with a single cheese dairy. In 

 such districts and States, the inducements to improve 

 dairy stock are small in comparison to the benefits to 

 be attained in the Northern and North-Western 

 States, by increasing the yield of milk as compared 

 with the food consumed. To augment the product 

 of milk per cow is of little advantrge provided the 

 larger quantity of milk obtained from a single animal 

 s the result of the consumption of an equally larger 

 amount of food. Substantial improvement implies 

 the obtaining of an increased quantity of milk, butter, 

 and cheese, from any given quantity of aliment con- 

 sumed by dairy cows. They transform grass, roots, 

 and other suitable vegetable substances, into anima 

 substances of great value as food for the human fam- 

 ily. Viewed either in its physiological or economi- 

 cal aspect, the milk-forming process presents several 

 points of general interest. Poor milkers, whose lac- 

 tiferous organs are imperfectly developed, yield not a 

 fourth of the return for their keep that is obtained 

 from the best dairy cows ; and yet the former out- 

 number the latter as twenty to one, take the country 

 together. 



Among our twenty-six millions of people there is 

 scarcely a family but wants milk every day in the 

 year ; and any serious defect and loss in its produc- 

 tion may be regarded ae a national evil It is much 



easier to point out the prevalent errors in the manage- 

 ment of dairy stock than to persuade the millions 

 who keep cows to remedy them. A failure to milk 

 cows dry, or as long as any remains in the udder, 

 and to draw the milk gently and speedily, is a very 

 common error where milking is entrusted to servants, 

 children, or careless adults. Intelligent farmers have 

 frequently complained in the hearing of the writer, 

 particularly in the Southern States, of the neglect of 

 servants in this regard. We can do no more than 

 call attention to the matter and leave the correction 

 with whom it may concern. No cow can be expected 

 to give a generous quantity of milk morning and eve- 

 ning for many months in succession, unless she be 

 milked regularly, and clean. If this operation be 

 properly performed, and the cow be fully and wisely 

 fed, the organs of lactation will expand and her blood 

 will tend more in that direction — ^increasing the se- 

 cretion of milk and lessening the tendency to form fat. 



Nothing will contribute more to the improvement of 

 the dairy stock of the whole republic than the study 

 of the variovs organs concerned in the elaboration of 

 milk, and of the adaptation of different kinds of food 

 to the production of this abundant and important se- 

 cretion. Of all quadrupeds and mammalia, the cow 

 is best for the protracted and liberal separation of 

 milk from her blood, althoug-h goats, sheep, and mares, 

 furnish milk to large numbers of mankind. 



The secretion of 7nilk consists of water holding in 

 solution svgar, various saline ingredients, and a pe- 

 culiar albuminous substance termed casein (cheese), 

 and having oily particles suspended in it. The con- 

 stitution of this fluid is made known by the ordinary 

 processes to which it is subjected in domestic econo- 

 my. If it be allowed to stand for some time, exposed 

 to the air, a large part of the oleaginous globules rise 

 to the surface, being of less specific gravity than the 

 fluid through which they are diflFosed. At the same 



