42 DAIRYING 



their effect on milk production. The general impression seems to 

 be that so much of the cow's time is wasted in fighting flies, 

 when they are exceptionally numerous, that she does not have 

 sufficient time to eat feed enough to keep up her milk supply. 



Beach* tried a proprietary remedy for flies on the Experiment 

 Station herd for two years, and found that while the cows were not 

 troubled by flies when these remedies were used, there was no 

 change in the milk flow that could be attributed to the fly pro- 

 tectors. He concluded that the annoyance of cows by flies is 

 overestimated. Carlyle* ' kept a herd of 14 cows in a well venti- 

 lated and fly screened stable where they were protected from flies, 

 and by comparing their milk and butter production with that of 

 14 cows given the same treatment excepting that they were kept 

 outside in a shaded paddock where flies were numerous, he found 

 that the cows protected from flies "produced more butter fat, but 

 the increase was not sufficiently great to pay for the trouble and 

 expense." 



One of the best protections from flies that has been found in 

 recent years is a barnyard floor built of concrete. When the 

 manure of the stable is removed from the barn and the barnyard 

 is kept clean and dry, the number of flies is greatly diminished and 

 the cows as well as the milkers are relieved from a large share of 

 the usual annoyance from flies. 



W. The Effect of Drought 



201. It is a well known fact that the lack of feed for cows 

 during a long and continued drought will diminish the flow of 

 milk and usually when a cow "dries up" the per cent of fat in the 

 milk increases. It has been noticed however, that during a severe 

 summer drought, the yield of cheese per 100 pounds of miik is not 

 what would naturally be expected from, normal milk of a giver, 

 per cent fat. This led to an investigation by Babcock which showed 

 that the per cent, of solids-not-fat in the milk, wHch usually is com- 

 paratively uniform was decidedly low in the milk of cows receiving 

 scant feed during a dry season. 



At a factory where the milk of 50 patrons was received the 





 *P>ul. 32 Conn. Storrs. Expt. Sta. 



**Wis. Expt. Sta. Report 1899, p 92. 



