430 MAKUAT. OF CATTLE-ITEEDIKG. 



Influence of Fodder on Quality of Butter. — Be- 

 sides the well-known effect of certain fodders in imparting 

 an undesirable flavor to butter, it is a fact of common ex- 

 perience that winter butter is inferior to that made on good 

 pasturage. These differences in quality, however, seem to 

 be due rather to the presence or absence of minute quan- 

 tities of coloring and flavoring matters than to an j recog- 

 nizable change in the chemical composition of the fat. 



Butter-fat consists essentially of a mixture of stearin, 

 palmitin, and olein, and it is sometimes stated that when 

 an animal is kept on poor fodder, particularly coarse fod- 

 der, the proportion of the solid stearin increases, and that 

 of the softer palmitin and olein decreases. 



Some recent experiments by Weiske "^" seem to indicate 

 that this is not the case. They, at least, failed to show 

 any alteration in the composition or melting-point of the fat 

 of goat's milk as a consequence of poor or good feeding. 



Other Conditions Infiuaneing Quality of Milk. — 

 Various circumstances, largely independent of the indi- 

 viduality or the feeding of the animal, affect the quality 

 of the milk, especially its percentage of total dry matter. 

 The milk of a large milker is generally more watery than 

 that from a cow which produces a less <piantity. With 

 the same animal the percentage of total dry matter in- 

 creases with the time that has elapsed since calving ; that 

 is, as the quantity gradually decreases, the milk grows 

 more concentrated, the relative quantity of casein generally 

 increasing somewhat at the same time, and thaj of fat 

 decreasing. Similarly, as the yield of milk increases from 

 one year to another up to a certain age of the animal, the 

 percentage of dry matter decreases. 



Jour. 1 Landw., 1878, p. 447. 



