Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1876-06-07
Clear Water and Clean Feed for Cows.

In order 10 have pure and healthtul
milk Us an article of human food. the
cows must be supplied with clear water
and food that is destitute of matter in a
state OF decomposition, and that is free
also from all pungent odors. Milk Of
prime quality cannot be made by feeding
half-decayed apples, defective potatoes
and moldy food of any sort. A writer in
the Farmers Adpocdts states that milk
is a scavenger of the cows body" which
is fact well understood by medical au-
thorities. We once owned COW on one
side of the face of which appeared bony
tumOr, which emitted an offensive OdOr.
Her milk was unfit for human food, for
the reason that the fresh and smoking
liquid smeled as offensive as the tumor.
The COW was allowed to rear a calf, but
the eXcrementitious matter of that young
animal emitted a strong odor, precisely
like the stencil of the foul tumor on the
jaw of the dam. If cows are required to
drink stagnant and offensive water, their
milk cannot be pure. The large amount
Of liquid passing the udder of COW
makes that liquid an efficient tuX for re-
moving everything from the blood that is
not needed there There are great many
things that get into the blood in some way
which circulate and pass out with the
nutritive elements. The essential oils of
plants which give them distinctive flavor
or odor, as of turnips, onions, ETC., the
putrid matter in rotten potatoes, decaying
grass, or any and every other food in
state of decomposition, will find their way
out of the system through milk. 1t is a
fact which must have been noticed by all
observing farmers and their families that
medicinal agencies, taken into the stom-
achs of all milk giving animals, reappear
IN the milk OF such animals. No
fact is more notorious than that
any medicine given to a nurs-
ing mother will affect the child in
exactly the same way it does the mother,
the medication being carried through the
milk of the mother to the stomach of the
child in such large proportions as tG make
the effect upon the child as active as upon
the mother. This inclination of the milk
glands to carry off medicinal matter from
the body of the milk giving mother is not
an isolated inclination to carry foreign
matter from the system. Disease is car
ried as readily as medicine. Any and
every disease which taints the blood, as
smallpox, measles, typhoid fever, scrotu-
la or consumption, are transmitted through
milk as readily as the effects of medicine.
The excretory power of the milk glands
does not stop with carrying OIL medicine
and disease. 1t extends to all foreign
matter floating in the blood of the milk
producing animals. Nor is the power
confined to the milk glands. 1t belongs
to the other glands as well. All the large
glands of the body act as scavengers. But
each has function of its own, to which
il is more specially adapted. The liver
and kidneys are more active in carrying
off foreign and waste mineral matters,
while the central glands are more active
in ejecting organic substances. These
functions, however, run into each other.
The ell of turpentine will appear in the
secretions of the kidneys in fifteen min
utes after being swallowed, and nitrate of
potash will about as soon appear, TO some
extent in milk as we'll as in urine. While
the milk glands are not very different
from other large glands in their general
action, their functions have an interest
above all others in a sanitary and econom-
ical point Of view.
The foregoing facts will furnish an i'm
pressive hint concerning their poor butter
to those proprietors of cows who require
their animals to drink at stagnant ponds.
N. Y. Herald.