48o 



Concentrated Foods and Milk. 



1897, was due to a rise taking place in the summer of 1898 

 without a subsequent reduction in the winter. 



The Northern counties have been excluded from these 

 calculations, as the greater number of labourers there are 

 hired by the year or half-year. Wages in these counties 

 during 1898 were well maintained, and at some ot the hiring 

 fairs there was an upward tendency. 



Effect of Concentrated Foods on the Production 



OF Milk. 



In an earlier number of this Journal* an account was given 

 of the results of an experimental inquiry, carried out by Mr. 

 John Speir on behalf of the Highland and Agricultural 

 Society, to ascertain the effects produced by various kinds of 

 what are known as concentrated " foods upon the milk yield 

 of cows, and upon the butter manufactured from the milk of 

 cows which received such foods. The foods employed in this 

 investigation included vetches, maize, beans. Paisley meal, 

 oats, linseed and cottonseed cake, grey peas, sugar-meal, 

 meat-meal, brewers' grains, and a mixture of grains, bran, 

 treacle, and potatoes. A detailed statement of the observa- 

 tions made during the course of the inquiry will be found in 

 the Annual Report of the Board of Agriculture on the Distri- 

 bution of Grants in Aid of Agricultural Education for 1896-97 

 (C. 8,690). The principal conclusions deduced were that 

 rations with a very high albuminoid ratio seemed to have a 

 depressing effect on the milk yield, and that, provided 

 extremes be avoided, the dry matter in the food seemed to be 

 the chief controlling factor in the production of milk or 

 increase of live weight, and was of greater importance than the 

 albuminoid ratio. It was also found that every food 

 when first given seemed to have more or less effect in 

 increasing or decreasing the percentage of fat in the milk; 

 but that this effect was transitory, and that the milk returned 

 to its normal composition about the end of the fifth week — 



*Vol. IV. No. 3, December, 1897, page 347. 



