The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1884-02-16
Promoting Milk.

The following from the London Lire
Stock Journal is a good statement of
some practical points suggesting the
extent to which milking qualities are
dependent on treatment and training
a copious flow of milk, sustained
through many months, is a quality
| which has been produced by art in do
lnestication. Wild cattle rarely provide
more than enough milk to rear their
| own offspring, and the flow of it is of
| comparatively short duration. Small
ii volume, the milk is rich in quality,
| but the lacteal organs soon dry off
| again. This, of course, is in harmony
! with the requirements of the young ami
mails n a wild state, and is correla-
ton of the rowing life and hap hazard
feeding of the dams. More milk than
| the calf requires under such conditions
| world be a waste of material energy
! which nature does not encourage. 1t
! T.ould, moreover, be an encumbrance to
| the mother. Wild cattle are neither
| good mixers nor good fatteners, and in
| parts of England where calves are al
| lowed to run with their domesticated
| dams generations after generations, the
| breed of such animals is not famous for
milk giving. Like that of the mare and
| eve, the milk IS smaller N quantity,
/ rich in quality and of short duration.
'Nhe desultory and irregular sucking of
! calf or foal or lamb is not conducive
to the development of large flow Of
milk, and it distinctly tends to shorten
the flow. Handwriting of a similar
| character has the same effect. Young
people are allowed to learn how to milk
on cows who are going dry for calving,
not on those who are still in full flow.
New beginners soon dry up cows
milk, and bad mixers do the same.
| Heavy milking properties, then, are
artificial, In the sense that they have
been developed under domestication,
and by careful breeding, for a gwen
end; yet, like many other qualities,
which are little more than mere germs
| of nature, they become hereditary by
| long usage. Few sorts of animals, If
any, are more susceptible than cattle Of
being moulded into what we want; no
| physical quality is so easily trained and
developed as that of giving milk. 1t is
a function which constantly varying of
itself. can be dwarfed or extended at
| WILL DN ueaDS Oh Careful training,
kind treatment and intelligent breeding,
it can be developed and made heredi-
tary; an opposite system keeps it in a
state of nature. The habits of a COW
and the food she receives, have great
deal to do with her milking powers ;
quick and silent hand-milking does the
rest. The practice of hand-milking
cows has all along tended greatly to
the development of the lacteal glands,
and this development has become her
editary in some of our milking breeds.
The ewes of the Larzac breed of sheep,
from whose milk the famous Roquefort
cheese is made in France, have been
hand-milked for generation, so that
their milking properties are now con-
siderable and inherited. By repeated
" exciting the teats it is even possible
to cause an animal that has never borne
offspring to yield small quantity of
milk, and a COW sometimes remains
barren several years after having had a
calf, giving a profitable quantity of
| milk all the while"