Influence of Food on Kind of Milk 319 



the same food the Jersey cow will make Jersey milk 

 and the Holstein cow Holstein milk, that a cow which 

 starts in life giving thin milk is never transformed into 

 a producer of rich milk, we can easily understand the 

 general failure to find a recipe for feeding fat into milk. 

 Experimenters who have added large quantities of fat 

 or oil to a ration have in all but a very few instances 

 failed to permanently or even temporarily increase the 

 percentage of fat in the milk solids; and, on the other 

 hand, rations rich in protein do not appear to cause a 

 larger relative amount of proteids in the milk dry sub- 

 stance than rations with a wide nutritive ratio. As a 

 matter of fact, after years of investigation and intel- 

 ligent observation, we are not able to affirm that the 

 proportion of fat to other milk solids is in any way 

 related to the feeding of the cow, and if apparent ex- 

 ceptions to the general experience have been noticed, no 

 one has discovered any general method or law whereby 

 the exception may be made the rule. In view of our 

 present knowledge, certainly no more absurd view pre- 

 vails to-day than the belief that the composition of 

 the milk solids is subject to the will of the man who 

 feeds the cow.* 



(c) It should not be inferred from the previous state- 

 ments that none of the compounds of the food enter 

 the milk as such, or that the qualities of the milk are 

 in no way influenced by the character of the ration. 

 Such conclusions would not be consistent with the out- 

 come of numerous investigations. While it has be- 

 come quite evident that the composition of butter, and 

 therefore its qualities, such as hardness and melting 



* See note. p. 323. 



