Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1881-08-26
Effect Of Food Upon Milk.

Every dairymau has learned by ex-
perience that when the feed falls off in
quantity or quality the quantity and
quality of the milk keeps pace with it.
But they do not sufficiently consider,
perhaps. the fact that the character of
the grass has much to do with the quail
ity of the milk and the cheese or butter
made from it. The following remarks,
taken from the Country Gentleman,
bear interesting relation to this subject:
1.-THE observations of Dumas, Payen
and Boussingault have shown the fact
that q COW gives healthy milk in exact
proportion to the surplus of food beyond
whar is necessary for her own mainte-
nance. If the animal is kept on food
barely sufficient for proper nourishment
the milk produced must be at a loss of
animal tissue, with general deterioration
of the milk and also of the cow. Milk
formed at an expense of the nutriments
and tissues of the body has less caseine.
butter, sugar and salts, while the albu-
men will be increased. 1t follows that
the value of milk must depend upon the
excess of food beyond what is required
by nature to keep up the normal vigor
of the body. Decaisne demonstrated by
experiments during the siege of Paris
in 1871, in forty-three cases of nursing
women, that insufficient or non-nutri-
tious food produces diminution in the
normal quality of the milk; also a vari-
alton of its chemical constituents, such
as an increase of albumen and diminu-
tion of caseine, butter and sugar. The
proportion of albumen in such cases is
generally in inverse ratio to that OF
caseine. Such milk rapidly decomposes;
and this will explain why in hot wealth
er, if mingled with good milk, it would
induce ferments and cause serious
trouble to the cheese maker
"That the quality of grasses is great.
ly influenced by soil and situation. has
been generally observed by farmers
who have been in the practice of fatten-
ing stock for the shambles. Upon Ger.
tain pastures cattle fatten rapidly and
without trouble, while upon other lands
they do not readily take on flesh, though
the growth of grasses seems abundant
and of varieties accounted nutritious.
1t is not surprising that cheese-makers
often have trouble in handling milk
when going from one locality to another.
for in addition to the more common
causes of bad milk, such as uncleanli-
ness in milking, bad water, abuse OF
cows by beating and overdriving, there
is still another, affecting milk-that OF
soil or the food which it produces.
Generally ON high and dry pastures OF
gravelly loan the milk will be more
readily converted into cheese than when
the milk is produced on low wet grounds.
| The treatment of milk and curds, there.
| fore, must be varied to meet the differ.
ent characters of soils. for that manipu-
lation which would make good cheese
in one locality might make bad cheese
in another.
cit has been said that good dairy
| products can be made over a vast ex.
tent of country, and almost in any sec,
tion where there is a suitable climate
and the extension of dairying over the
West and Northwest is cited in proc
that soil has little or no influence in the
production of the finer qualities OF dairy
goods. This is undoubtedly true i
pasturage is supplemented with grounG
grain, corn-meal, ship-stuffs, and tht
like; but if cows are to be kept wholly
on grass during summer, as is common
in the best dairy districts OF the East
the truth of the statement may well b,
doubted. The fine butter and chees,
that come from Iowa and other parts o
the West are not due wholly to the ex
cellence of Western grasses, but to tn,
full supply of ground grain which tn,
COWS get as supplement to their past
urage in summer. The success of win
ter dairying depends upon the feedln!
of meal, bran, shipstuifs, or the like u
asupplement to good hay, for hay alone
as ordinarily fed, does not make gilt
edged product"