ON THE MILK OF THE COW. 329 



From this result, as it stands by itself, I can see no gain or profit from feeding over half a 

 bushel of grains per day, especially when the animal receives a suitable amount of hay. Food, 

 in order to influence the secretions, must be assimilated, and it may be that a bushel is more 

 than the digestive organs can assimilate. The milk was neither improved in quality nor in- 

 creased in quantity. 



Milk as influenced by temperature. 



The quality of the milk has proved better during the coldest weather than when it has been 

 mild or warm : the quantity, however, has been less. This is agreeable to all former observa- 

 tions. The waste of the tissues is greater — more matter is consumed in preserving the normal 

 temperature. This waste must diminish the "quantity of material which would otherwise be 

 directed to the mammary gland ; but the waste is less diluted with liquids, and hence the milk 

 contains more albuminous or cheesy matter. It appears that oleaginous matters are not em- 

 ployed exclusively in making the butter ; at least the butter is not necessarily increased by 

 those substances which contain oil in abundance, as we have seen in the use of oil cake. The 

 best food for milk is that which is capable of being converted into muscle and bone. Food 

 containing oil or fat is however necessary : most of the secretions require, for this purpose, fat 

 or oil, or at least the secretions themselves contain it : the brain itself is rich in those bodies. 

 Fat, therefore, is used in the animal economy for various purposes. It keeps the animal 

 warm, forms a part of the essential organs, enters into the secretions, and gives that roundness 

 of form which is usually regarded as essential to beauty. 



The season of the year may, therefore, be regarded as a cause capable of altering the quantity 

 and quality of the milk. The butter amounts to only four per cent, in the summer, in some of 

 the breeds, when they feed upon grass. The same result is also obtained in winter, according 

 to Boussingault, when cattle feed upon roots. The butter and cheese being increased con- 

 siderably in winter, by the food, it is highly probable that butter and cheese might be made in 

 winter with as much profit as in summer, provided the farmer supplied himself with suitable 

 accommodations. 



Quality and quantity of milk furnished by the different varieties ok breeds of 



cows. 



It is a well established fact that there is a constitutional susceptibility, by which, not only 

 certain cows yield a larger quantity of milk, but also that of a quality superior to other cows. 

 This constitutional power to produce more and better milk is transmissible to offspring, and 

 hence, it follows that certain breeds or varieties possess an excellence and value which is not 

 common to the species. Those breeds or varieties possessing those important peculiarities are 

 the more valuable in consequence of the expense required to keep them : the value of the 

 products is not dependant upon the cost of their keeping, hence the greater profit arising 

 from the raising of the better varieties of stock ; indeed it not unfrequently happens that an 

 inferior variety will consume a greater amount of food than those which produce the best and 

 greatest amount of milk. 



[Agricultural Report — Vol. hi.] 42 



