494 INFLUENCE of food in the production of milk. 
dairy stock ; but we believe that many of them forget that 
cows which are yielding milk require a very large amount of 
nourishment—and more than they usually receive—during 
winter. It is generally believed that the nature of the food 
supplied to milch cows greatly influences the composition of 
the milk. Some contend that certain pastures produce milk 
rich in butter, whilst others maintain that the cheesy 
element in milk is increased by the use of particular 
kinds of feeding stuffs. There has, however, hitherto 
been a want of exact knowledge relative to these points, 
experiments made for the purpose of elucidating them 
having given apparently discordant results. Drs. G. 
Kuhn, A. Haase, and H. Baesecke, distinguished German 
experimentalists, have recently made some very accurately 
conducted experiments, w r ith the view of clearing up this 
question. A number of cows were experimented with. The 
amount and composition of the food given daily to each 
animal was ascertained, and the quantity and quality of the 
milk yielded by each determined. The results arrived at were 
chiefly as follows: An increase in the albuminous and fatty 
elements of the food produces an increase in the yield of milk, 
the proportion augmenting until a certain maximum is ob¬ 
tained. At the same time the condition of the cow improves, 
until a maximum weight is also reached, corresponding with 
the maximum yield of the milk. Sooner or later, however, 
there comes a decline in the natural secretion of the milk, 
which no amount or quality of nutriment can arrest. Dimi¬ 
nution in the nitrogenous and fatty ingredients of the food 
cause, on the other hand, a decrease in the quantity and a de¬ 
terioration in the quality of the milk. It is rather remarkable 
that according to the results of these experiments, an increase 
in the fatty elements of the food exercises no influence on the 
amount of butter in the milk. It is useless, then, to try to 
produce a rich butter giving milk by feeding cows on oily food 
such as linseed, &c. With respect to the casein or cheesy 
(nitrogenous) portion of milk, it is also uninfluenced by the 
relative proportion of nitrogenous matter contained in the 
cow's food. In one case there was actually a decrease in the 
cheese following an increase in the nitrogenous portion of the 
food. The general results of these experiments seem to show 
that it is in vain to produce “a cheese-giving" or a “ milk¬ 
giving cow" by supplying the animal with food containing an 
excess of albuminous or of fatty matters. It is to the breed 
of the animal that we must look when selecting milch stock. 
It is, however, well to know that just in proportion as cows 
are supplied with ordinary food, so will their yield of milk be 
