35 



Feeding experiments conducted with a number of 

 animals usually show that they are affected differently 

 by a change of ration. With some cows the milk 

 may contain the same per cent, of fat as before the 

 change ; with others, it may be richer, and with others 

 poorer. The general average may be for or against a 

 given ration, but it is quite often the case that the two 

 sides are so nearly balanced that leaving out a single 

 animal would change the whole result. These individual 

 peculiarities, which appear to be due to heredity, make 

 it very difficult to determine satisfactorily the influ- 

 ence of food upon the quality of milk, and are undoubt- 

 edly the chief cause for the conflicting opinions which 

 exist regarding the value of certain foods for milk pro- 

 duction." 



G. H. Whitcher, New Hampshire Station, says : 

 " Long-continued feeding in special lines becomes a 

 factor in breeding ; but only a limited factor, the char- 

 acter of the ration, if ample and reasonably well bal- 

 anced, will not vary the quality of the milk appreciably, 

 that is, food produces milk of such character as the 

 individuality of the cow prescribes, and any attempt to 

 feed Jersey milk into a Holstein cow will prove a fail- 

 ure. 



A deep milker may be a good dairy cow even if her 

 milk is relatively low in butter fat. Ten thousand 

 pounds of three per cent, milk give 300 pounds of 

 actual butter fat, while 5,000 pounds of six per cent, 

 milk give only the same amount. Quality alone does 

 not decide the merit of a cow, hence the error in as- 

 suming that only Channel Island cattle are suited to 

 dairying. Many and, in fact, most cows which give 

 very rich milk give a small quantity, while the converse 

 is also true, that " big milkers " as a rule give poor 



