46 AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. [Jan. 



The one-sided increase in the milk fat in case of individual 

 cows Avas parallel with the increased supply of digestible 

 protein. Different concentrated feeds appeared also to 

 have increased the percentage of fat.* A previously well- 

 fed cow, fed so as to be poorly nourished,! would decrease 

 in her flow, and the quality of the milk would be, as a rule, 

 gradually impah'ed, though not radically aftected. Upon 

 these experiments of Wolff and Klihn is based our present 

 knowledge of the subject under consideration. 



In 1891 W. Fleischmann :j: presented the results of his 

 studies upon a large herd of cows. He did not study this 

 especial point, namely, the effect of increasing amounts of 

 protein on the quality of the milk ; but he makes, in con- 

 nection with his conclusions, the following interesting obser- 

 vation : "The fact long believed to be true in practice, 

 namely, the increasing the amount of food nutrients to 

 make the milk of cows richer in fat absolutely as well as 

 relatively, would seem to be fully confirmed." 



Kochs and Ramm § studied this subject in 1891, using 

 three cows of different breeds, and concluded that in case of 

 their experiment the food had no effect upon the fat content 

 of the milk. 



From 2.2 to 4.4 pounds of digestible true protein were fed 

 daily, and approximately 21 to 23 pounds of total digestible 

 organic matter, on the basis of 1,000 pounds live weight. 

 The weakness of this experiment is at least twofold : first, 

 because of the few cows used ; and second, because each 

 cow was not fed with the exact ration belonging to her, but 

 the entire food weighed out for the three cows was given to 

 them collectively. 



It will be noticed that the smallest amount of protein was 

 2.25 pounds. The amount of total digestible organic matter 

 fed was, however, above Wolff's standard, so that the nutri- 

 tive ratio was 1 : 8.00. 



'* Palmiiut meal and bean meal. 



t I wish to state that a milch cow can be poorly nourished in two ways : first, by 

 not getting sufficient food to eat ; and second, while she may get enough to eat, the 

 food for milk production miglit be what is termed an improperly balanced one. 

 Hay, for example, contains a large excess of carbohydrates and not enough protein. 



t Landw., Jahrb., 20, 1891, Supplement II ; E.6sum6 in Experiment Station Record, 

 Vol. Ill, p. 424. 



§ Landw., Jahrb., Bd. xxi, 1892, p. 809. 



