PRACTICAL HINTS FOR DAIRYMEN. 



merits ensue. Not only is there a considerable waste of food, but the 

 constitution of the animal becomes seriously injured. 



When roots and straw chaff are mixed together for the purpose of 

 being given to the cows, they should be mingled for a few hours 

 before being required for use, as a slight fermentation will then have 

 taken place, wlr'ch is much relished by the animals. 



Good sound hay, it must be admitted, is good 'for cows, but It is 

 an expensive method of feeding, and not so great a supply of milk is 

 to be obtained as where more generous food is given, the cost of 

 which, by various economical contrivances, can be very much reduced 

 and better returns obtained. 



Regularity in the time of feeding is of the utmost consequence, and 

 the cows should be disturbed as litt'e as possible when^fed upon the 

 soiling, or house-feeding system; un : nterrupted high feeding while they 

 are in full milk is the surest way to profit. Cows resemble human 

 beings in liking a change of -food, and where thev appear to surfeit 

 upon any particular one it is very easy to make a change for them. 



By giving concentrated food to the cows the yie'd of milk is in- 

 creased and its quality is also greatly improved, which is a very im- 

 portant point in butter making. 



It is common for many farmers to turn their cows out into a poor 

 run when dry'; but this is a very bad plan, for although it is not neces- 

 sary to keep them in full flesh, yet if allowed to fall off until they 

 become lean, not only will their milk become poor when the time of 

 calving has arrived, but will be deficient in quantity, and the loss in 

 dairy produce will be much greater than any saving effected in fodder. 



It should ever be remembered that it does not pay to feed dairy 

 cows insufficiently ; with a view of obtaining full profit every owner 

 should give them a sufficiency of appropriate food. 



Milk may be described as the secretion of the mammary glands of 

 the female m;arrmal. It is a fluid which is secreted for a Jonger or 

 shorter period after giving birth. 



The exact method in which milk is formed in the udder is, as yet, 

 far from having been clearly demonstrated. Two important theories 

 have been advanced (a) Milk is formed directly from the blood, and 

 is, in fact, a sort of filtrated blood ; (b) milk is the product of the 

 decomposition of the epithelial cells. 



The composition of the milk of different animals is practically the 

 same, although a considerable variation occurs in the proportions in 

 which its different constituents are present. The amount of milk 

 yielded by a cow depends on the activity of the millc glands in the 

 udder ; and this, in its turn, is influenced by a number of conditions. 



The number of changes which are constantly going on in milk are 

 borne witness to by the rapidity with which that valuable -food sours, 

 coagulates, changes, and color, &c., when kept for any time. These 

 changes are, many of them, of a very complicated nature, and as yet 

 little understood by scientists. 



Milk, as it comes from the udder, may be described as of practically 

 uniform composition. If, however, we let it stand at rest -for some 

 time, we find that the uniformity of its composition is disturbed by an 

 accumulation which takes place more or less quickly on its surface, 

 of its minute fatty globules. Concurrently with this separation of 

 f he fat, a change takes olace in the color of the main body of the 

 milk. 



On its arrival at the dairy, milk is alwavs more or less infected with 

 bacteria, it being impossible to protect it entirely from infection in 

 practical dairying. Bacteria are the tiniest forms of organic life 



279. 



