FOOD AND QUALITY OF MILK 127 



produce an abnormally hard butter, particularly if com- 

 bined with overripe, coarse dry fodders. This tend- 

 ency of some food stuffs to produce an abnormal butter 

 is eliminated when foods are properly combined. 



117. Production of Soft Butters. — Wliile cotton- 

 seed meal produces a hard butter, linseed meal, the 

 product obtained after removing the oil from flax- 

 seed, produces a soft butter when fed alone and in 

 large amounts. Cotton-seed meal and linseed meal 

 liave somewhat the same general composition ; both 

 are rich in protein and fat, but when fed they have 

 directly opposite effects upon the character of the 

 butter. 



118. Effects of Individual Foods. — There are a 

 number of individual food stuffs that have a notice- 

 able effect upon the quality of the milk and butter. 

 Gluten meal, a product obtained in the manufacture 

 of cornstarch, produces a softer butter tiuin corn 

 meal ; oats, when fed alone and in large amounts, 

 produce a mediumly firm but rather crumbly butter; 

 when oats and corn are fed together, the quality of 

 the butter is much improved. Wheat by-products, 

 as shorts and bran, produce a mediumly firm butter 

 of good quality; wheat and barley -coarsely ground 

 also produce normal butter. 



There is but little difference in the milk-producing 

 power of the different farm grains when fed in mixed 

 rations. Of the coarse fodders, clover hay, corn 

 silage, and well-cured corn fodder produce the largest 

 flow aud also milk of the best quality for butter and 



