PRODUCTION OF MILK FOR CITY USE. 123 



applied by means of the spray pump, such as is used in spraying potatoes or 

 other garden crops. It should be used on sides and ceiling twice a year 

 and on the stalls oftener. The disinfection by formaldehyde or sulphurous 

 acid gas is not practicable in barns. 



The newer idea of having a large enclosed shed or yard has much to 

 commend it. The cattle are given their liberty at all times except while being 

 milked and fed. They may move about from place to place to feed 

 and may drink whenever they so desire. They have light exercise, are 

 assured protection from the storms of winter, and the extremes of summer, 

 have plenty of light and ventilation and are more easily kept clean than, 

 under any other condition. The milking stable can be kept cleaner, and 

 free from odor, a marked advantage in the handling of the milk. There 

 is no full gutter or breath-fouled air to give up its objectionable properties. 

 The shed scheme is the sanitary idea and rapidly growing in favor where 

 understood. It is economical in construction but much more so in the 

 cattle management. A large number of tests of the air in such a shed and 

 milking room have been compared with the conditions found in all sorts of 

 dairies with the advantage decidedly in favor of the shed. The barn idea with 

 all its ancient history will not be soon displaced by such a scientific im- 

 provement. 



The teaching at the present time is to the effect that food has but 

 little influence upon the quality of milk, that quality is dependent upon 

 breed characters. Food may temporarily change the quality as in the 

 better feeding of an animal that is in a very poor condition will increase 

 the per cent, of fat, but not beyond the normal, and it will remain there 

 after the animal body has attained its equilibrium. Some foods exercise 

 a prejudicial effect as onions, cabbage, turnips, etc.. decayed foods, and 

 milk from animals fed upon such food is considered adulterated. Ensilage, 

 especially if quite sour, and brewers' grains will give an unusual flavor that 

 will almost wholly or completely pass away after continuous use of the feed. 

 The effect of food upon the quantity of milk is very much greater than 

 upon the quality. 



There has never been any question as to the use of hay, fodder, straw, 

 and the grains and mill by-products as feed for dairy cattle. There has 

 been objection to the use of brewers' grains, distillery slops, the swill from 

 starch factories and other fermented foods. In a few instances ensilage has 

 come under the ban as objectionable. The feeders have maintained that 

 these were proper food stuffs and have been supported in their contention 

 by chemists and experimenters. Boards of Health have often maintained 

 that the milk exercised some injurious effects. In our investigations we 

 found it to be an almost invariable rule that the milk from dairies in which 

 such feeds were used, that there would be a more rapid souring of the milk 

 than from the dairies in which sweet feed alone was used. Whether 

 this change was due to the greatly increased number of fermentive bacteria 

 present in such stables, or to some less stable compounds in the milk, was 



