322 The Feeding of Animals 



It is probably safe to assert that compounds in the food 

 may pass into the milk as such, and the superiority of 

 June butter, if such exists, may be due to the almost 

 imponderable volatile odors which are derived from the 

 young grasses. Nothing is more certain than that the 

 deleterious odors of certain foods and those that per- 

 tain to the stable are often absorbed by milk, as, for 

 instance, when cabbage, turnips and onions are fed. 



It is generally believed that odors or flavors from 

 the foods which affect milk in so marked a manner 

 may enter it in two ways, by transference through the 

 animal and by absorption from the air of the stable. 

 Unfortunately, however, the various views which are 

 accepted regarding this matter are not based upon sat- 

 isfactory experimental evidence. Some farmers declare 

 in most positive terms that they can feed turnips to 

 their cows with no harm to the quality of the butter, 

 while others assert that this cannot be done. It is 

 claimed that the time of feeding, whether just before 

 or just after milking, has a marked influence upon the 

 extent to which turnips and similar materials impart a 

 flavor to the milk. Concerning all these points, we 

 have but little evidence other than the somewhat loose 

 observations of practice. 



The results of a few quite recent experiments are 

 worthy of mention in this connection. King and Far- 

 rington, of the Wisconsin Experiment Station, declare 

 that their experiments show beyond question that when 

 silage is fed before cows are milked a sweetish flavor 

 is imparted to the milk, and that such a flavor is not 

 detected when the silage is fed after milking. These 



