94 STORRS AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 
defined. Some would maintain that the milk yield simply 
increases or decreases in total amount while the composition 
remains the same. Others urge that by changing the feed the 
cow may be made to give not only more milk, but richer milk, 
z. é., milk which will yield more cream and butter per quart. 
How the milk is richer, z. e., whether the percentage of total 
solids is increased while the composition of the latter, the ratio 
of fat to casein and other ingredients, remain the same, or 
whether there is a one-sided increase of fat, is a further ques- 
tion about which there is much difference of opinion. But 
there are certainly many close observers who believe from what 
they see in their experience that it is possible to increase the 
fat in the milk by feeding without increasing the other milk 
solids in like degree. 
On the other hand, the tendency among the most painstak- 
ing experimenters in this country, as in Europe, has been rather 
toward the belief that, with occasional exceptions, the compo- 
sition of the milk is but little influenced by the kind of food, 
provided a sufficient total quantity of nutrients is fed to meet 
the requirements of the animal and the nutritive ratio is kept 
within reasonable limits—that, in other words, the breed and 
individuality of the cow rather than her food decide the com- 
position of the milk. ‘This latter view has been strongly main- 
tained by German experimenters as the result of a long series 
of experiments with cows which were fed on different rations. 
It has been adopted by many students of the subject, although 
with a degree of reserve. Of late considerable attention has 
been given to the matter in some of its especial phases. ‘T‘he 
questions are still unsettled, but fortunately definite informa- 
tion is being gathered which will in time bring the certainty 
that is so much to be desired. 
The following is from a review of the subject made over 
twenty years ago:* 
‘' The general plan [of the experiments] is to feed cows for a period of two or 
three weeks or so, with a certain ration, and then to alter the latter so as to make 
it larger or smaller, or to put in more fatty matters and less protein, more protein 
and less fat. The fodder and milk are both measured and analyzed. A large 
number of such feeding-trials have been carried on by Kiihn, Wolff, Fleischer, 
Stohmann, and others. As the result of several series of experiments, continuing 
’ 

* In an address on Results of Late European Experiments on the Feeding of Cat- 
tle, before the Connecticut Board of Agriculture, by W. O. Atwater. Report of the 
Board for 1874, p. 184. 

