36 ILLINOIS dairymen's ASSOCIATION. 



much milk as formerly when fresh, I was surprised to get only 12 ounces 

 of butter, when I expected 30 or more. We at once examined her milk and 

 found it to be as rich in butter fats as ever. So I tried again, got 12i ounces 

 of butter from first churning of 87 pounds of milk, and then churned the 

 same milk (buttermilk, now, you may call it) and got 12 ounces more of 

 butter. A third churning of the same milk gave 5i ounces, and a fourth, li 

 ounces— a total of 31i ounces of butter from 37 pounds of milk. Churned a 

 fifth time, the milk failed to yield any butter. This incident put us on the 

 line of thought and action, which results in what I olffer you here to-day. 



Great care has to be taken to avoid error in all experimental work. In 

 making a cow test, the nature of the food consumed prior to the period of 

 observation is of importance, for the effects of a change of food upon the 

 product of a cow are not immediate and are prolonged. 



Twenty-six careful observations made at Houghton Farm at different 

 times, show that changes in either kind or quantity of food effect the milk 

 product for several days, varying from one to five with different animals, and 

 averaging three and one-half days. It is therefore necessary to wait a few 

 days after a change of food before its effects can be noted with any certainty 

 and also to allow some time to elapse after stopping a certain food, before 

 any conclusion can be reached as to its results. 



Abundant evidence exists, not only that the quantity and quality of the 

 food exerts its influence upon the butter product, but that the power of the 

 churn to convert the fats of the milk into butter, largely depends upon the 

 character of the food. In this connection your attention is asked to the val- 

 uable dairy experiments conducted at the New York Agricultural Experi- 

 ment Station during January and February, 1883. [See Dr. Sturtevant's 

 published bulletins Kos. 33 to 37.] *These indicate the importance of a care- 

 ful study of the effect of food upon the churning quality of milk ; they show 

 a greater variation between the actual fat in the milk and the butter ob- 

 tained, as the result of difference in food, than has been heretofore recog- 

 nized. 



At Houghton Farm, the records of feeding experiments contain the fol- 

 lowing results bearing on this point. Without repeating the details (pub- 

 lished in the annual report of the New York State Dairymen's Association 

 for 1882, but with some figures erroneously transcribed) the comparison be- 

 tween the actual butter fat contained and the butter obtained from the same 

 by the churn, being the average products of the same lot of cows, fed differ- 

 ently in different months, is given in this table : 



FOUND IN 100 LBS. 

 OF MILK. 



Actual fat 



Butter obtained. . 



DRY FED,— HAY 



AND GRAIN 



IN APRIL. 



5.12 pounds. 

 4.95 '' 



FED CORN ENSIL- 

 AGE AND GRAIN 

 IN MARCH. 



4.37 pounds. 

 4.36 '' 



ON GOOD PASTUR- 

 AGE ALONE 

 IN MAY. 



4.13 pounds. 

 4.21 '^ 



*How far west these bulletins of the New York Station are pulished, I do not know; 

 but no newspaper with a rural constituency in the Empire State now regards its issue as 

 complete without the weekly bulletin from Geneva. They are copied in a^icultural 

 journals in other eastern states, and the example might profitably be followed over a 

 wider territory. 



