212 THE CREAMERY PATRON'S HANDBOOK. 



individual peculiarities of the animal and so long as sufficient' food is sup- 

 plied and consumed, very little depends upon the kind of food. External 

 conditions, which often are not apparent, seem to have a greater influence 

 upon the richness of milk than the kind of feed. This is shown by the 

 fact that the daily variations in the per cent, of fat in the milk from the 

 same cow, when no change has been made in the ration are often greater 

 than occur when a radical change in the food is made." Furthermore-, the 

 same ration will affect different animals differently. According to this theory, 

 the man who endeavors to keep up the standard of his milk by careful feeding 

 cannot attain that end, and has no advantage over his neighbor who uses 

 the cheapest ration possible. 



According to other writers, as Youatt 1 and Wing 2 the food has consid- 

 erable influence upon the quality, but not to the same extent as the quantity. 

 In fact, with cows kept under favorable conditions, with an abundant 

 supply of food, it is hardly possible to increase the proportion of fat to other 

 solids by a change in the food. While the total solids cannot be easily 

 affected, the character of the constituents may be influenced and this is 

 notably so of the fat. For example linseed meal, gluten meal and certain 

 other foods make a soft oily fat, while cottonseed meal, the seeds of the 

 various legumes, and wheat bran make a hard fat. The constituents,, 

 other than fat, are not so easily affected, when cows are fed on watery 

 herbage, brewers' grains or other food containing a high percentage of water, 

 the milk becomes poorer in solids. The explanation offered for this last 

 condition is based on the assumption of a more watery character of the blood, 

 due to excess of water in the food. A poor, watery diet impoverishes the 

 blood, and leads to the production of watery milk. 



The assumption of a watery diet producing a watery milk is not fully 

 in accord with close observation, as it has been found that the fat content 

 is not diminished by turning cattle from dry feed to pasture. It is in line, 

 however, with the statements so frequently accredited to health boards, 

 that cattle fed on brewers' grains and starch refuse, have a lower fat con- 

 tent in the milk than those using dry feeds. My own analyses do not 

 show sufficient difference to be able to decide from the milk test alone 

 which dairy uses sloppy feed and which uses dry feed and pasture. The 

 average of a large number of analyses from dairies using slop feed shows 

 about one-half per cent, less fat than dairies using dry feed and pas- 

 ture. No factor other than food seems to account for the difference. 



As this phase of the subject has received so much attention from station 

 workers, the following summaries of experiments may be of special inter- 



est COMPARISONS OF GRAINS AND BY-PRODUCTS. 



CORN MEAL AND SHORTS. An experiment was conducted by the New 

 Hampshire Experiment Station, 3 to compare corn meal and shorts. The 



1 Complete Grazier, 1893. 2 Milk and its products, 1897. 



3 Bulletin No. 8, New Hampshire Experiment Station. G. H. Whitcher. 



