20 BULLETIN 945, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
CONDENSED HISTORY OF THE EXPERIMENTAL ANIMALS. 
Table 1. — Animals from the general herd used both as experiments and controls. 
Date of birth. 
Breed. 
Date of calving. 
Days dry. 
Milk yield.* 
Fat yield.* 
'fS 
B 
1 
O 
Con- 
Phos- 
After 
After 
After 
After 
After control 
feeding. 
After phos- 
phate feeding. 
trol 
phate 
con- 
trol 
feed- 
phos- 
phate 
feed- 
con- 
trol 
feed- 
phos- 
phate 
feed- 
fc 
ing. 
ing. 
ing. 
ing. 
S Days. 
Days. 
Lbs. 
Lbs. 
Lbs. 
Lbs. 
17 
1909. 
Grade Jersey. . 
Dec. 11,1918 
Mar. 29,1920 
122 
122 
847 
858 
33.9 
33.5 
49 
Oct. 22,1914 
Grade Guern- 
Dec. 25,1918 
Jan. 14,1920 
71 
36 
831 
953 
40.7 
43.8 
m 
Oct. 25,1914 
GradeHolstein 
June 3, 1920 
Dec. 20,1918 
73 
98 
995 
972 
38.8 
38.9 
54 
Jan. 22,1915 
Grade Guern- 
sey. 
May 14,1917 
June 2, 1919 
First 
calf. 
61 
669 
1,027 
24.1 34,9 
63 
Oct. 17,1915 
GradeHolstein 
Feb. 1, 1918 
Apr. 25,1919 
..do.. 
103 
422 
1,018 
15. 5 34. 1 
71 
July 15,1916 
Grade Guern- 
Dec. 11,1918 
Mar. 1,1920 ..do.. 
60 
632 
1,121 
29.1 
49.3 
81 
Feb. 19,1917 
do 
Apr. 24,1919 
Apr. 6,1920 ..do.. 
44 
685 
936 
26.0 
42.1 
1 The figures given in these columns represent the number of pounds of milk and fat given from the 
tenth to the fortieth day after calving, except in the case of cow 54. In this case it was necessary to take 
the figures for the yields from the eighteenth to the forty-eighth day after calving, as the daily milk records 
from the tenth to the seventeenth day in 1917 had been lost. 
The following comments are made on the animals in Table 1 : 
Cow 17. — This animal gave very little more milk after the phos- 
phate feeding than after the control feeding. She had a long dry 
period in both cases. It seems likely that the long dry period enabled 
her to restore any insufficiency of bone material which may have ex- 
isted at the beginning of the experiment. She had a uterine infection 
after the experimental feeding, which may have reduced her milk 
somewhat in the experimental period. 
Coic \9. — This animal aborted during the period of phosphate 
feeding 39 clays before term. The abortion greatly shortened her 
dry period on the phosphate feeding and prevented her receiving the 
more liberal grain ration which she had eaten for 23 days before 
calving during the control period. In the general herd, abortions 5 
weeks or more before term have decreased the first two months' milk 
yield from 30 to 50 per cent. We have no way of accounting for the 
increased milk which was given in this case after the abortion, except 
as the result of the phosphate feeding. 
Cow 50. — This animal was fed a much more liberal grain ration 
than the others in both the control and experimental periods. She 
" leaked " milk from her udder to a considerable extent through the 
experimental period, and she had a uterine infection after calving 
in the control period, which may have somewhat reduced her milk 
yield. She gave a little more milk in the control period than in the 
experimental period. The numerous disturbing circumstances make 
it difficult to interpret the results, but they seem to us to indicate 
that often the addition of phosphate will have little effect when the 
basal grain ration is as high as 5 pounds daily. 
