112 ILLINOIS DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 



tion, I want to point out a few salient features about the dairy 

 cow. Her form does indicate something- of her capacity as a 

 milk producer. If it be wedge shape and conforms in all respects 

 to the ideal pointed out by Mr. Glover, it means that the cow 

 produces a large quantity of milk. Unfortunately I know of 

 no sign whereby the richness of the milk can be even guessed at. 

 I remember when I used to suppose that the yellow color of the 

 skin gave some indication of rich milk, but the test has shown 

 us that cows with white and papery skins sometimes give very 

 rich milk. Then we had a time when the amount of oily secre- 

 tions from the hide was used as a guide, but the Babcock test 

 has disabused our minds of this idea. I do not know, therefore, 

 how to select a cow to give rich milk. I have no other guide 

 than the form. Some observations made at the Michigan station 

 in regard to the changes in the richness of milk may be of interest. 



It was noted that the milk of the heifer was approximately 

 as rich as the milk of the mature cow. In other words, a careful 

 examination of the milk with the first calf will give a pretty 

 clear indication of what the quality of the milk may be expected 

 to be when the same heifer is older. Some cows, like College 

 Pogis III did seem to make radical changes in the richness of the 

 milk from one period to another. She jumped up from 3.5 

 per cent to. 4. 5 per cent for reasons which I cannot find, the 

 quantity of milk remaining about the same in the two succeeding 

 periods. On the other hand some of our other cows dropped in 

 the per cent of fat in succeeding periods. It is understood, of 

 course, that by the per cent of fat used in this expression, I mean 

 the per cent obtained by dividing the whole fat yield of the year 

 by the amount of milk given in the year. I think it is safe to 

 say that a cow is set to give milk of a certain richness and the 

 quality of the milk is not materially changed by her age nor by 

 her feed. 



This latter statement will, of course, be questioned, as it 

 always is, but it is still true that there are few changes in the 

 per cent of fat in the milk that can be ascribed to changes in 

 the feed. Even such fundamental changes as turning cows out 



