54 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 



Next to human food, the most profitable use to which skim milk can be 

 applied is in feeding domestic animals of various kinds. Reports and 

 bulletins of the agricultural experimental stations of Europe as well as 

 American contain numerous results comparing skim milk with other 

 articles for stock feeding and showing its successful use, especially with 

 young arid growing animals. 



The important fact which seems to be proved by these experiments are 

 as follows: First, skim milk gives the best results when fed to very young 

 animals, constituting the greater part of their food; second, it is next best 



| for animals making rapid growth, but which need food other than milk and 



* mainly of a carbonaceous character; third, except for the very young, skim 

 milk gives much better results when used in combination with other ma- 

 terials, generally grain, than when fed alone; fourth, no class of live 

 stock gives a better return for skim milk fed to it than poultry of various 

 kinds. 



The New York Experiment station reports growing chickens success- 

 fully upon a diet which was mainly skim milk, although they had the run 



; of the fields. It was estimated that while allowing 25 cents per 100 pounds 

 for the milk and some other food in proportion, the cost of producing a 

 pound of live weight was less than eight cents up to the time the brids 

 weighed three pounds. The milk was fed sweet in this case, but it was 

 found equally satisfactory to use it when loppered and quite thick, and in 

 the latter form there seems to be less waste. Several careful feeders be- 



? ; lieve skim milk to be worth fully 30 cents per hundred pounds when judi- 

 ciously fed to turkeys and poultry. 



Skim milk for hogs. — The greatest number of experiments recorded are 



< in connection with feeding skim milk to swine. Director Henry of Wiscon- 

 sin has written as follows on this subject: 



'Skim milk has a higher value with stockmen than merely serving as 

 a substitute for grain. All the constituents of milk are digestible and this 



/ by-product of the creamery is rich in muscle and bone-building consti- 

 tuents. The writer conducted experiments in which milk and other foods 

 were fed to pigs for the purpose of ascertaining the effect of these foods 



