334 ON THE MILK OF THE COW. 



England and New- York. So it is said that the Jersey cow fattens rapidly while in the stall, 

 and that she produces excellent beef, though, to the eye of some, it may be too yellow. There 

 will arise an advantage to the butter maker in possessing one or more of the Jersey cows, as 

 their cream will impart to the butter of several cows the rich color of their own, and to some 

 extent the flavor also. It is observed by Col. Le Couteur, that in Jersey the calf is taken im- 

 mediately from the cow, and brought up by hand. This plan is objectionable in all cases, and 

 the practice of killing the calf at two or three days old is reprehensible. It is, perhaps, fol- 

 lowed with apparent gain for the time, but still the milk of the cow is not fully established in 

 that time, and no milkers can effectually develope the secretion of milk so well as the offspring. 

 In the long run it has an injurious tendency, and the mammary gland will never attain to that 

 perfection that it will when the calf is allowed to suck three or four weeks. 



It may be interesting to state the composition of the milk of the female of our own species. 

 The following result was obtained by an analysis of the milk of a person who had been nursing 

 some two or three months. Four hundred grains gave, 



Per cent. 



Sugar, 19-35 4-83 



Butter, 5-39 1-34 



Casein, 12-17 3-04 



Water, 363-11 90-77 



Human milk, therefore, contains more water than that of the cow, and more sugar. The 

 casein, or cheese, is about the same, while the butter is considerably less again. In preparing 

 milk for the infant which is to be fed, the cow's milk requires dilution with water, and an addi- 

 tion of white sugar ; or the milk may be skimmed, after standing' six or eight hours, and the 

 sugar added. The respiratory movements of the infant do not require that amount of oil or 

 carbon to sustain them as the adult. The large proportional amount of casein furnishes abun- 

 dant material for the infant's growth and development. The absolute quietude of most infants 

 for the first month, does not enable it to consume a large amount of carbon in its respirations. 

 When however it begins to exercise, the carbon may be increased by giving it milk richer in 

 butter. The error which nurses often commit, by giving infants the top of the milk as it is 

 called, is quite obvious when the composition of its natural food is consulted. 



Conclusions and summary respecting the relations of food to the quantity and quality 



of milk. 



1. The casein and butter may be changed relatively as to quantity and quality. 



2. The butter is increased at first by brewers' grains, and in some instances the butter may be 



raised to the maximum quality. 



3. Barley screenings scarcely maintained the amount of butter up to its standard, yet the quan- 



tity of milk increased. • 



