108 THE CHEMISTRY OF THE FARM. 



The quality of the milk is considerably influenced by 

 the richness of the diet. A diet of watery grass will pro- 

 bably yield a moderate quantity of poor milk, the addition 

 of oilcake will increase both the yield of milk and also its 

 richness. The alteration in the composition of milk by 

 poor or liberal feeding is chiefly an alteration in the per- 

 centage of solid matter ; the relative proportions of casein, 

 butter, and sugar are scarcely affected by the character of 

 the diet. 



The quality of the butter is more or less influenced by 

 the character of the food, some foods producing a hard, 

 and others a soft butter. Rape cake, oats, and wheat 

 bran are reckoned in Denmark as first-class butter foods ; 

 palm nut cake and barley as second-class foods ; while 

 linseed cake, peas, and rye are placed in the third class. 

 The first-class foods produce a soft butter, the third class 

 foods a hard butter. By the employment of first and 

 second class foods with straw chaff, hay, and roots, an 

 abundance of excellent butter may be produced through- 

 out the winter. Turnips strongly flavour both milk and 

 butter ; mangels are a better food for milk cows. 



As milk is a product far more nitrogenous than the 

 increase of carcase obtained when an animal is fattened, 

 cows in full milk will require a tolerably nitrogenous diet. 

 Such a diet is naturally provided when cows feed on young 

 grass and clover; when hay, straw, and roots form the 

 bulk of the food, it is imperative that cake or corn be also 

 employed if abundance of milk is desired. Wolff gives 

 1 : 5 as the albuminoid ratio most suitable for the diet of 

 cows in full milk : deducting amides, the ratio will pro- 

 bably be about 1 : 6 — 7. 



