526 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
JULY 18 
FEEDING PAIL OR PARENT. 
1 8 Quality Bred or Fed Into a Cow? 
Is a cow a machine T What conditions will increase the 
butter fatT Different rations for different cows; 
quantities of fat in different quantities of water; a 
biq cow suitable for a dairy; food makes the quantity , 
heredity does the rest; breeding for ihin milk cows; 
we cannot estimate the influence of “ life.” 
1. Take a good milch cow fed upon a generous and well 
balanced ration • can any subsequent feeding of selected 
foods increase the per cent of fat In her milk ? 
2. If an Increase of fat results, will there not be an In¬ 
crease in the other solids and a corresponding increase 
of fluid, so that It Is really the same class of milk ? 
3. If we can feed quality into milk cannot any big milking 
cow be made to answer for the butter dairy t 
Individual Characteristics Due to Heredity. 
My opinion is that the quality of milk so far as it is 
measured by the per cent of fat depends almost entirely 
upon the individual peculiarities of the animal and, so 
long as sufficient nutriment is supplied and consumed, 
very little upon the kind of food. Of course, the food 
must be of such a nature that it will be relished by the 
animal and sufficiently concentrated to supply the needed 
nutriment in a moderate bulk, otherwise a cow will not, 
or cannot eat enough to maintiin the normal functions of 
the body. If the kind of food has a material influence 
upon the composition of milk, it would be possible by 
modification of the ration to so change breed character¬ 
istics that a typical Holstein cow would give Jersey milk 
or a Jersey cow Holstein milk. This, so far as I am aware, 
has never been accomplished in a single generation, and I 
do net bflleve that the individual character of any animal 
so far as it is manif* sted in the quality ~ 
of milk, can be materially changed by 
the kind of food. I have known Holstein 
covs that gave very rich milk, and I have 
known Jersey cows that gave very poor 
milk, but these cows always did this Inde¬ 
pendently of tl e ration. 
External conditions, which often are not 
apparent, seem to have a gretter influence 
upon the richness of milk than the kind of 
feed. This is shown by the fact that the 
dally variations in the per cent of fat, in 
milk from the same cow, when no changes 
have been made in the ration, are often 
greater than occur when a radical change 
In food is made. Change of environment, 
change of milkers, in fact anything which 
tends to excite or worry the cow will 
often cause a decided variation in the per 
cent of fat in her milk even when the jield 
is practically the same. Moreover, the same 
conditions which increase the fat in the 
case of one cow may diminish it with 
another. Feeding experiments conducted 
with a number of animals usually show 
that they are affected differently by a 
change of ration. With some cows the 
milk may contain the same per cent of fat 
as before the change; with others, it may 
be richer, and with others poorer. The 
general average may be for or against a 
bntter dairy. In fact, I think it is safer to r’sk getting a 
profitable butter dairy cow from a big milking cow by 
careful feeding than it Is to rely entirely upon breeding. 
As I said in the outset, no one condition can be considered 
as wholly determining the quality of milk that a cow will 
produce. We have common grade cattle that will surpass 
many cows that have been carefully bred both as to 
quality and quantity of the milk produced. While I 
would not for one moment underestimate the effect of 
careful breeding, yet I believe that the successful practical 
dairyman will find more profit in feeding big milking 
common cows with a view to increasing the quality of 
their milk than by investing too much money in blooded 
animals. In other words, I believe that fully as much if 
not more—depends upon the judicious feeding and careful 
attention to cattle as upon careful breeding. 
West Virginia Station. JOHN A. myers. 
Quality Is Bred not Fed Into a Cow. 
Long-continued feeding in special lines becomes a factor 
in breeding; but onlv a limited factor, the character of 
the ration, if ample and reasonably well balanced, will not 
vary the quality of the milk appreciably, that is, food pro¬ 
duces milk of such character as the individuality of the cow 
prescribes, and any attempt to feed Jersey milk into a 
Holstein cow will prove a failure. 
A deep milker may be a good dairy cow even if her milk 
is relatively low in butter fat. Ten thousand pounds of 
three percent milk wive 300 pounds of actual butter fat, 
while 5,000 pounds of six per cent milk give only the same 
amount. Quality alone does not decide the merit of a 
cow, hence the error in assuming that only Cnannel 
Island cattle are suited to dairying. Many and, in fact, 
most cows which gi?e very rich milk give a small quantity 
general average may De ior or against a 
given ration, but it is quite often the case BEST AMATEUR STRAWBERRY GARDEN IN MASSACHUSETTS. Fig. 193. 
At -A- A_1 _A__ n*A DA rtfiQrllT lauloriPpH ( See PflifC 528.) 
that the two sides are so nearly balanced 
that leaving out a single animal would 
change the whole result. These individual peculiarities, 
which appear to be due to heredity, make it very diffi¬ 
cult to determine satisfactorily the influence of food 
upon the quality of milk, and are undoubtedly the chief 
cause for the conflicting opinions which exist regarding the 
value of certain foods for milk production. 
Madison, Wis. S- BABCOCK. 
Big Milkers are Safe Dairy Animals. 
I think it is fully demonstrated that no one thing alone 
determines the quality of the milk. Any individual cow 
will give milk varying through more than one per cent of 
butter fat, depending upon the nervous condition of the 
animal, the food supplied and the care bestowed upon her. 
A change in the weather, especially if the cow is chilled by 
a drizzling rain, or any sudden meteorological changes 
that will affect her physical comfort, will correspondingly 
affect the quality and generally the quantity of milk pro¬ 
duced by her. The qua ity of the milk of any cow may be 
changed within narrow limits by modifying her rations. 
The same ration will not produce the same effect upon 
different animals, neither will it always produce the same 
effect upon the same animal; but taking it as a rule, the 
quality of the milk given by a cow can be improved up to 
a certain extent by a generous and well balanced ration. 
Beyond this limit, further effort in that direction is un¬ 
fruitful. 
A variation in the amount of fat in milk does not appear 
to correspond with changes in the other milk solids, or at 
any rate, the fat may Increase or decrease considerably 
without appreciably affecting them. In the analjses of 
milk, the results are given in percentages, so that it makes 
no difference so far as the quality of the milk is concerned 
whether the cow yields one quart or six gallons of milk a 
day. The statement for the composition is as correct for 
a ton of milk as it is for a pound. It generally so happens 
that conditions favorable to the increase of butter fat in 
milk, ara also favorable to a moderate increase of the 
volume of the milk and the food ingredients which tend 
fo increase the quantity of fat in milk, generally con¬ 
tribute to inc ease the other solids, such as casein and 
milk sugar, but the variation in the ash ingredients in 
milk is extremely small. 
I know of no reason why any big milking cow by judi¬ 
cious feeding and care may not very fully answer for a 
(See Page 528.) 
while the converse Is also true, that “big milkers” as a 
rule give poor milk: quantity and quality are antagon¬ 
istic; if you breed for quantity you breed away from 
quality and vice versa. 
The following conclusions taken from Bulletin No. 9 of 
the New Hampshire Experiment Station, I have as yet 
seen no reason to change : 
“ I feel warranted in saying that a given animal by he¬ 
redity is so constituted that she will give milk of a certain 
average composition; by judicious or injudicious feeding 
the amount of milk daily may be very largely varied, but 
the quality of the product will be chiefly determined by 
the individuality of the cow. We may fertilize the soil 
around our grafted apple tree and cause It to produce 
double the amount of fruit that it would have produced 
uncared for, but we shall never change the Baldwin Apple 
into a Pound Sweeting, or the Crab apple into a Pippin ; 
the kind of apple is determined by the character of the 
tree, the amount by the character of the food ; so of the 
cow. A Short-horn cow can never, by feeding, be changed 
into a Jersey, and the man who starts out to increase the 
fat In milk by simply changing the food has, in my opinion, 
a very difficult task to perform. Slight variations are al¬ 
ways cropping out, whether we change the food or not, 
but changes of per cent of fat, of any considerable amount, 
do not appear to trace to food influence, so long as the food 
is reasonably well proportioned and sufficient in quantity. 
Quantity is the result of food influence. Quality is the 
result of the make-up of the animal.” G. H. whitchhr. 
New Hampshire Station. 
Feeding Brains Into a Digger Indian! 
Quality of milk is unquestionably bred into a cow, and 
not fed in. My own convictions in regard to the points 
which you raise areas follows : 1. The percentage of fat in 
a cow’s milk is not materially influenced by the selection 
of foods, provided she is fed a generous and well-balanced 
ration. 2. In a large amount of feeding of milch cows 
which this station has done during the last five years, we 
have observed that changes In food have produced changes 
in the amount of milk rather than in its character. Gener¬ 
ally speaking, an increase of the total amount of fat pro¬ 
duced has been accompanied by a corresponding increase 
in the other solids, as well as in the volume of milk. 3. 
This question was answered in my first statement. A big 
milking cow belonging to certain breeds that produce thin 
milk can not have Jersey quality fed iDto her milk any 
more than one can feed brains Into a Digger Indian. That 
quality must come into an animal of those breeds—if it 
comes at all—through a process of selection and persistent 
good feeding, and will be attained only after several gen¬ 
erations, perhaps not then. w. H. JORDAN. 
Maine Station. 
The Cow Not Exactly a Machine. 
1. I am of opinion that a specific answer which will be 
applicable to all cases and cows, cannot be given to the 
question: “Is quality of milk bred or fed into a cow ? ” 
The relative and everchaDglng influences of heredity and 
environment, which may be taken as other terms for ex¬ 
pressing breeding and feeding, cannot be expressed in 
accurate or mathematical formulae. 
2 The percentage of fat in the milk of any cow is seldom 
constant from one season to another. To what the varia¬ 
tion or variations are directly due has not yet been made 
clear. The quantity and quality of the milk stem to de¬ 
pend upon the condition of the system, which in all ani¬ 
mals varies in some measure from day to day and from 
week to week. While a cow has been called a milking 
machine, the subtle factor in her existence called life, 
cannot be controlled and directed as successfully as the 
mechanical contrivances of aoy purely material device. 
3 Sometimes an increased percentage of fat is found in 
milk without any increase in the percentage of the other 
solid constituents. 
4. Quality may be fed into milk, but only after it has 
been fed into the cow, that is, the feed must have produced 
a physiological change in the cow before it can to any ap¬ 
preciable extent produce a change in the relative propor¬ 
tions of the several constituents of milk. 
This law will hold good : Wnolesome, suit¬ 
able feed, fed in such quantities as will best 
promote the apparent health of the cows, 
will give the best return in quantity and 
quality of milk. 
Can. Dairy Com. jas. w. robertson. 
We Can Breed Thln-MIlked Cows. 
If a cow is well fed on good nourishing 
food which she relishes, is well cared for 
and is comfortable in all her surroundings 
she will give a certain normal quality of 
milk. The normal quality cannot be raised 
to any appreciable extent by any change of 
feeding that can be made, whether from 
dry to succulent or from succulent to dry ; 
either by a change from bran to corn meal 
and oats or any of the common changes of 
food believed by farmers to influence the 
quality of milk. So much for the cow 
in a good healthy condition. Now if the 
food of this cowls increasf d we may get, 
and probably will get an increased pro¬ 
duct, that is, we will get more butter fat 
in 24 hours, but the increase will be due to 
the increased quantity of milk not to its 
increased richness. When we passouteide 
of these conditions I do not believe any one 
is smart enough to tell what Is going to 
happen. 
If we change from good food to poor and 
insufficient food a cow will certainly shiiuk 
in quantity. She may give the same quali¬ 
ty of milk or milk richer in butter fat. 
A cow that is being actually starved will usually give milk 
richer in butter fat than under normal conditions, but of 
course the quantity of milk will be small and when a cow 
is changed from starvation rations to an abundance of ex¬ 
cellent food there will be usually at first a decrease in the 
quality of the milk and just what is going to happen in 
any individual case cannot be foretold. There are in¬ 
dividual cases in which a cow on an increasingly heavy 
grain feed has given richer milk, and such cases are put 
on record and it is claimed that they show that richness 
can be fed into milk. There are plenty of other cases in 
which the increase of feed has produced a large flow of 
milk of a medium quality or even of a poorer, and this 
they say nothing about. 
If one were to take 100 milch cows that had not been re¬ 
ceiving heavy fted and give them all good liberal rations 
for 12 months in the year, he would probably find a small 
number that would show an increase in the per cent of fat 
in the milk. If 50 out of the 100 that gave the richest milk 
at the end of the year were selected and bred from, and if 
their calves were tested in the same way and the half 
which gave the richest milk again were selected and so 
bred from and selected for 20 generations, it would be pos¬ 
sible to get a herd of cows giving extra rich milk. If at 
the same time the other half of the herd had been selected 
and bred for the cows giving a thin quality of milk and 
that testing and selection were carried out for 20 genera¬ 
tions we would get a herd of cows giving thin milk, even 
if all the cows in both experiments had received exactly 
the same kind of food. 
I do not think that any observing farmer would deny 
the truth of this last statement, although in the same 
breath he might claim that the food did have a good deal 
to do with the quality of the milk. 
Now answering the three questions categorically: 
1. The answer would certainly be “ No.” 
2. The added butter would be obtained from the added 
quantity of milk rather than from increased richness. 
But another point comes in there: when a man begins on 
a test of changing the food, he is quite apt at the same 
time to take more care In the setting, skimming and 
churning, and especially when he comes to the weighing 
of the butter, he will weigh it as soon as worked, before 
packing and very olten before salting, and judge from the 
