CHAPTER III 
THE PRODUCTION OF MILK—DAIRY CATTLE 
THE prosperity of any dairy industry is very largely 
_ dependent upon the economic production of the raw 
material, namely, milk. Unless milk is produced at 
a profit to the farmer or. dairyman, it is impossible 
to establish a permanently successful manufacturing 
industry upon it. 
While it is without the scope of this work to dis- 
cuss all the phases of economical milk production, 
every manufacturer of milk products should have at 
least some understanding of the various conditions 
which so closely underlie the prosperity of the industry. 
Milk a maternal function.—As has been mentioned 
in a preceding chapter, milk is produced as a part of 
the maternal function of the females of the class mam- 
malia, but while maternity is the efficient stimulus to 
milk production, the commercial production of milk in 
the highly civilized and specialized animal known as 
the dairy cow, is influenced to such a degrée by so 
many other conditions that we are in danger of over- 
looking the part that maternity plays in milk secretion. 
Wild animals, and, as a matter of fact, practically 
all domesticated animals, secrete milk solely to supply 
the young with food until such time as it is able to 
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