1904. 
695 
A WOMAN'S FARM NOTES. 
Bitter Milk. —On page (503 I read of the 
experience of a woman farmer, and she 
speaks of bitter milk. I never heard of such 
a thing till this year. I bought what I sup¬ 
posed was a nice Jersey cow, and her milk 
is bitter; can make no use of the bitter milk 
at all. I would like to know if it is the fault 
of the cow, or is it due to some weed she 
cats in pasture? Another question, will you 
tell me what the phrase means which dairy¬ 
men use in telling how much milk and butter 
fat a cow gives? I heard of a two-year-old 
Jersey which made 30(5.80 pounds butter, and 
her highest test was 0.8. I would like to 
know what 0.8 means. L. L. B. 
Crugers, N. Y. 
It is niy opinion that it is the fault of 
the cow, and not of the food she eats. 1 
am glad this subject has been brought up, 
for it is one I am greatly interested in, 
and 1 do not think it is very well under¬ 
stood by the majority of dairymen. In-, 
deed, many people never heard of such a 
thing. In the first place it should be un¬ 
derstood that this bitterness—or “strong” 
flavor, as some people call it—is not caused 
by the eating of turnips or cabbage, which 
impart an entirely different taste to the 
milk. I do not know whether bitter weeds 
would cause bitterness in the milk, never 
having experimented with them, and the 
cows I have had experience with that 
gave hitter milk had no bitter weeds to 
eat, but on the contrary had the best or 
hay and grain. The taste may be very 
faint, so that ninety-nine people out ot 
a hundred would not notice it, or it may 
be so pronounced that almost anyone 
would taste it. Usually the milk tastes 
all right when first drawn, but becomes 
bitter in a short time, and gets worse the 
longer it is kept. It is worse in cola 
weather, and is more likely to come on 
when a cow is advanced in lactation, 
though the worst case we ever had was a 
new milch cow. She gave no trouble 
when drying off in the Summer, but after 
calving, in cold weather, the milk was 
very bitter. 
When we had trouble of this kind, 1 
tried to find out the cause. I tried chang¬ 
ing, entirely the grain ration; I fed more 
grain, as a milkman who had experienced 
the same trouble, told me that the only 
case he ever had where a cow got over it 
was one lie grained highly; I tried scalding 
the milk. These changes, however, die 
not make any difference in the case under 
my observation. I asked a veterinarian 
about the trouble; he thought it was in 
the feed. I wrote to an eminent dairy au¬ 
thority; he said the bitter taste was caused 
by bacteria floating in the air, which got 
into the milk after it was drawn. I could 
not accept either of these opinions, because 
the other cows, receiving the same feed, 
milked in tne same barn, and treated in 
every way the same, gave very nice tasting 
milk. 
Why should the trouble not be with the 
cow? I remember that at one time we 
carefully tested the milk of three cows, 
after it had stood for some time. Numbet 
1 was decidedly bitter, Number 2 had no 
bitter taste, but was not fine flavored, 
lacking sweetness, while Number 3 was 
exceptionally fine flavored, being very 
sweet and with no hint of any unpleasant 
taste. Now if there was that difference 
between Numbers 2 and 3, a difference 
which was not caused by anything fed to 
the cow, nor by any treatment of the milk, 
but which was characteristic of the two 
cows, why might not a difference go a step 
further and bitterness be characteristic of 
the cow ? 
As for the bacteria theory, if the bitter¬ 
ness in the milk was caused by the bac¬ 
teria in the air, how did the milk of the 
cow standing next the one whose milk was 
bitter escape? and why was it always the 
milk of that particular cow, and never of 
any other, that was affected? One man 
we had was of the opinion that in one 
case the cow had a yellow dandruff, which 
he thought fell into the milk while it was 
being drawn, and might have caused the 
bitterness. We did not keep her long 
enough to test this theory. All the cows 
we have had that gave hitter milk were 
Jerseys and gave very rich milk. I wish 
this matter could be thoroughly investi¬ 
gated at the experiment stations. If it 
should be shown, as 1 believe, that the 
trouble is in the cow, and then if a cause 
and cure could be discovered, it would be 
a blessing to the dairymen. Could it be 
that cows of this kind have been stunted 
and had setbacks when they were calves.'' 
Does the subscriber who asks about this 
matter know the history of her cow? 
A certain amount of milk and a certain 
amount of sulphuric acid is put into a 
test bottle, and then whirled rapidly in the 
machine; then hot water is added to bring 
the fluid into the graduated neck of the 
TIIE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
test bottle. After it is whirled again, the 
fat rises to the top and can be “read.” 
When, for instance, the fat is 4.8 per cent, 
it means that in 100 pounds of milk there 
are four and eighti tenths pounds of but¬ 
ter fat. In 100 pounds of butter there is 
about 85 pounds of butter fat. 
SUSAN BROWN ROBBINS. 
NOTES ON ANIMALS. 
Ax Albino Colt.—A large number of peo¬ 
ple of Wolcott and vicinity are visiting a pas¬ 
ture lot on the farm of Byron Southwich, one- 
half mile south of Wolcott, to view a curios¬ 
ity in the shape of a milk-white colt, which 
is now but seven days old. This is a rare 
freak, for white hefrses when young are al¬ 
most invariably iron gray or almost black, 
but this one is without a particle of color ex¬ 
cept small spots at the tips of his ears. The 
sire of the colt is an Arabian stallion which 
is spotted, and the dam is an old gray mare. 
The colt seems to be almost a pure albino.— 
Wayne Co., N. Y., Review. 
A Fishing Cat.—T he Saranac Glove Com¬ 
pany has a cat which is arousing all kinds ot 
curiosity, from her remarkable feats at fish¬ 
ing. For some time she has been bringing in 
fish, small and big, and so often did it happen 
that the men at the shop began to suspect 
that she caught them, this being borne out by 
an examination of her feet which were found 
to be wet. One day she brought in a horn 
pout and the next day her catch was a trout 
which weighed 14 ounces. The cat is a seven¬ 
toed animal and is a great pet at the shop, 
where they are now waiting to see what will 
be her next catch.—Littleton (N. II.) Courier. 
Dog Depredations. —The law which pro 
vides for the compensation of persons for 
damage done by dogs reads that the county 
shall pay for domestic animals killed in such 
a way. A report was recently given of a 
claim from Williamstown for $20 for the kill¬ 
ing of two turkeys and a brood of chicks by 
dogs, and the county commissioners, at their 
next meeting, will be asked to settle the claim. 
Whether or not a turkey is a domestic animal 
might admit of some legal discussion. A 
case far more peculiar, however, recently came 
up in this county. Two Belgian bares were 
killed by dogs and their owner put in a claim 
for damages. After considerable discussion 
it was finally decided that the hares were 
domesticated, and the claim was paid.—North 
Adams (Mass.) Transcript. 
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