CHAPTER XIII 



INFLUENCE OF DIFFERENT FOODS UPON THE QUALITY 

 OF MILK AND DAIRY PRODUCTS 



114. Food and Milk Secretion. There is a close 

 relationship between milk secretion and the food 

 supply. It was formerly believed that the percent- 

 age amounts of the milk solids could be materially 

 influenced by the character of the food consumed. 

 In the numerous experiments that have been made, 

 a few cases showed the composition of the milk to have 

 been influenced, but it was not possible in most cases 

 to materially increase or decrease the percentage of fat 

 or other constituents of the milk. The total amount 

 of all of the compounds present, however, can be ma- 

 terially increased by judicious feeding, and thus, 

 while it is not possible for the farmer by liberal feed- 

 ing to increase the per cent of fat in his milk, he 

 practically accomplishes the same result by increas- 

 ing the amount of milk. 



It was formerly believed that the fat in the food 

 was the main source of the fat in the milk. A good 

 cow, however, will produce during a year a much 

 larger amount of fat in the milk than she consumes 

 in the food, showing that the fats are in part pro- 

 duced from other nutrients. 



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