COW. 
74 to 824 pints per day; and some dairymen and 
herdsmen frequently astonish and amaze their 
neighbours with accounts quite as boastful of 
the produce of some individuals in their herds. 
But even when a very extraordinary yield of 
milk is real and unquestionable, it is character- 
istic less of particular cows than of particular 
circumstances, and rarely continues through a 
series of weeks or even through a tolerable series 
of days; and the aggregate yield, on good farms 
and dairies, throughout the year, may be stated 
as ranging from about 3,000 to about 9,000 pints. 
M. Perault estimates the quantity at 2,992 pints; 
M. Boussingault, at 4,368 pints; Mr. Low, at 
5,994 pints; and Mr. Curwen, at 6,580 pints. 
Grognier, in the Lyonnais, states the quantity 
| from cows ill-fed in winter at 1,284 pints; D’An- 
geville, at Lompries in France, from stall-fed 
cows, at 1,610 pints; De Dombasle, at Roville 
in France, from stall-fed cows, at 2,492 pints; 
Thaer, at Maeglin in Prussia, from stall-fed cows, 
at 2,648 pints; Burger, in Carinthia in Austria, 
from well-fed cows, at 2,752 pints; D’Angeville, 
in Switzerland, from stall-fed cows, at 2,992 
pints; Thaer, in the neighbourhood of Berlin, at 
3,004 pints; Schmalz, at Altenburg in Saxony, at 
3,412 pints ; Schwertz, in the low countries of Hol- 
land, from cows kept in the house during winter, 
| at 3,400 pints; Schwertz, in Belgium, from cows 
at grass and in the house, 3,967 pints; Schwertz, 
at Antwerp, from cows ill-fed in winter, at 4,495 
| pints; D’Angeville, at Hofwyl, in Switzerland, 
from well-fed cows, at 4,685 pints; Aiton, in the 
low countries of Holland, at 7,066 pints; and 
Schwertz, at Campine in Holland, at 9,313 pints. 
These wide diversities of statements, as well as 
some of the excessive and almost incredible oc- 
casional accounts of the produce of particular 
cows, partly, and perhaps in no inconsiderable 
degree, arise from loose and erroneous methods 
of measuring the milk. The only true way of 
securing accuracy of calculation, is to take the 
quantity of milk yielded by each cow between 
her period of calving in one year and the same 
period in next year; and to measure the produce 
of each milking in a graduated pint measure, 
carefully noting the number of whole pints and 
of parts of a pint. The season of the greatest 
flow of milk, as affected by the physiological con- 
dition of the cow, is the first three months after 
calving; and the season of greatest flow, as 
affected by climate, weather, and facile supply of 
the best food, is the months of June, July, and 
August. 
The sapidness and flavour both of milk itself 
and of the butter manufactured from it are pow- 
erfully affected by the quality and proportion of 
aromatic proximate principles present in the 
food of cows. The milk and the butter from the 
green, succulent, fragrant herbage of spring and 
summer are always more grateful to the smell 
and delicious to the palate than the milk and 
the butter from the comparatively dry and in- 
885 
odorous food of winter. Certain rare grasses and 
rare herbs on particular pastures also exert a 
great controlling power over the good or bad 
flavour of milk and butter; and several vege- 
tables and vegetable roots are known to the 
dairymen and farmers of all grazing districts as 
imparting to milk and butter so special an aroma, 
that the mere flavour of the produce distinctly 
indicates the nature of the food. But all or very 
nearly all the aroma-yielding principles of such 
vegetables are strictly volatile, and can neither 
be extracted by chemical manipulation, nor pre- 
served by any known process of drying and stor- 
ing; so that only such are available for winter- 
feeding as reside in stems or roots which can be 
preserved in a succulent condition. So far as 
regards the flavour of milk and butter, there- 
fore, exceedingly much depends both on the kind 
of food given to cows, and on the precise condi- 
tion of growth or freshness in which it is used. 
As respects the quantity and the chemical com- 
position of milk, however, surprisingly little in- 
fluence is exerted by either the kind or the phy- 
siological condition of the food, or by any cir- | 
cumstances connected with it except the propor- 
tion of its nutritiveness and the degree of its 
digestibility. The controlling power of particu- | 
lar sorts of food over the milking properties of 
the cow, has been almost everywhere a topic of | 
boastful declamation and pseudo-scientific dis- 
cussion among the illiterate philosophers of the 
dairy; but this alleged power has either been | 
mistaken for some overlooked and widely differ- 
ent controlling cause, or has existed only in the 
heated fancy and distorted observations of its 
advocates. ‘I believe,” says Boussingault, “that 
the influence of particular kinds of forage on the 
production of milk is often greatly exaggerated. 
Each breeder or feeder seems to have his own 
favourite article, however, so that there is nothing 
like uniformity among them. With one, it is the 
carrot that is in the ascendant ; with another, it 
is the beet that is supreme; there is no root, in | 
fact, which has not alternately had its apologists 
and detractors. The truth lies between the ex- 
tremes here as it doesin so many other instances ; 
and Jam satisfied that each and all of the roots and 
other articles of forage that are generally intro- 
duced into the ration of milch-kine, are calculat- 
ed to produce abundance of good milk; it is only 
necessary that the substances be allowed in ample 
quantity, and that no mistake be committed in re- 
gard to the nutritive equivalents of the several 
articles. I donot hesitate to add that the opinions 
of the generality of farmers and dairymen on the 
subject are based on observations which are al- 
ways more or less imperfect.” Great variations, 
ranging from almost nothing to the greatest 
copiousness, certainly do occur parallely with 
changes and successions of articles of food ; but, 
if careful comparison be made of the bulk of the 
several articles, and especially of their relative 
proportion of nutritive matter, these variations 
