io44 Summary of Agricultural Experiments, [march, 



bred " hoggs were fed indoors in two lots, one receiving- a ration con- 

 taining 10 lb. swedes a day, while in the other swedes were replaced by 

 | lb. maize meal and i lb. oat straw. * The lot receiving swedes 

 increased at the rate of i'o6 lb. per head weekly, the others at the 

 rate of i'22 lb. Owing, however, to the greater cost of the second 

 ration, the financial results were practically the same for the two 

 lots. 



4. The Feeding Value of Digestible Albuminoids and Amides. — 

 From an experiment designed to test the feeding value of amides, it is 

 concluded that the flesh-forming value of amides is negligible, but that 

 for all practical purposes the digestible total albuminoids (which in- 

 cludes amides) may be taken in calculating rations. 



Dairying. 



Milking Machine Trials (Midland Agric. and Dairy Coll., Bull. i> 

 1911-12). — In 1909 and 191 1 trials with a well-known milking machine 

 of the suction type were carried out to test its efficiency, to see if 

 machine-milked cows become "dry" sooner than hand-milked ones, and 

 to observe the effect of the system of milking on the chemical composition 

 and on the purity, from a bacteriological point of view, of the milk. 



In each year one group of cows was milked as completely as 

 possible by machine, and then stripped by hand (it was found impos- 

 sible to reduce the strippings to less than 1^ to 2 lb. from a cow 

 yielding 20 lb. of milk) ; the other group was milked entirely by hand. 

 In 1909 the average fall over a period of ten weeks in the milk yield 

 of machine-milked cows was 26 lb. a week, as compared with 21*6 lb. 

 a week in the case of hand-milked cows. In 191 1 it was not possible 

 to prolong the test for more than four weeks, and in this period the 

 average weekly decline in the yield of milk given by the two groups 

 of cows was the same. 



As regards the fat content of the milk, there was practically no 

 difference between that obtained by the two systems, though it must 

 be remembered the cows were stripped by hand after the machine. 



To test the cleanliness of the milk obtained in the two ways 

 separate cheeses were made, and also direct bacteriological examina- 

 tion was carried out. In the first season, when the machine was run 

 without special care and under conditions similar to those which would 

 obtain on an ordinary farm, the milk was often of a bad flavour, and 

 unless special precautions were taken in making, the resulting cheese 

 was inferior in flavour and quality. In the second series of trials the 

 machine was placed under the charge of a skilled person, and special 

 measures, such as soaking the teat-cups in various solutions, were 

 adopted to keep the important parts clean. As a result of this there was, 

 a marked improvement in the cleanliness of the milk, and cheeses with 

 a better flavour than before were obtained. 



It was found that the number of bacteria in machine-drawn milk 

 was greater than in the hand-drawn milk. A curious feature of the 

 machine-drawn milk was that, though it contained sometimes as many 

 as ten times the number of bacteria in hand-drawn milk, it took longer 

 to ripen. It is pointed out that the total number of bacteria present in 

 milk was not by itself a reliable guide, as many of the organisms had? 

 no action on milk. 



