37 



centage of fat in a cow's miJk is not materially 

 influenced by the selection of foods, provided she is fed 

 a generous and well-balanced ration. 2. In a large 

 amount of feeding of milch cows which this station has 

 done during the last five years, we have observed that 

 changes in food have produced changes in the amount 

 of milk rather than in its character. Generally speak- 

 ing, an increase of the total amount of fat produced 

 has been accompanied by a corresponding increase in 

 the other solids, as well as in the volume of milk. 3. 

 This question was answered in my first statement. 

 A big milking cow belonging to certain breeds that 

 produce thin milk can not have Jersey quality fed into 

 her milk any more that one can feed brains into a 

 Digger Indian. That quality must come into an ani- 

 mal of those breeds, if it comes at all, through a pro- 

 cess of selection and persistent good feeding, and will 

 be attained only after several generations, perhaps not 

 then." 



After an exhaustive treatise on each of these ques- 

 tions by scientific men the following answers are 

 deduced: 



W. W. Cooke, Vermont Station, says: 



" If a cow is well fed on good nourishing food which 

 she relishes,is well cared for and is comfortable in all her 

 surroundings, she will give a certain normal quality of 

 milk. The normal quality can not be raised to any ap- 

 preciable extent by any change of feeding that can be 

 made, whether from dry to succulent or from succulent 

 to dry; either by a change from bran to corn meal and 

 oats or any of the common changes of food believed by 

 farmers to influence the quality of milk. So much for 

 the cow in a good healthy condition. Now if the food 

 of this cow is increased we may get and probably will 



