The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1890-07-04
FEEDING FOR BUTTER.

AbbOlNu AOh pO IL bh'
Ons by one the scientific authorities
are helping to put quietus on the mis-
leading and injurious state that the
proportion of butter in milk can not be
increased by feeding. 1t is strange
that such heresy should have obtain
ed currency among thoIe TO whom |
dairymen look for instruction. The
writer, led by long experience to differ |
from the prevalent belief, has singly |
fought the error and has sustained the |
opposition to it alone for some years
past. And now the professors are |
coming to the rescue, one by one, and
already powerful influence for the |
good of dairymen is exerted to en-
courage them to feed skillfully for in
oressing the fat solids in the milk.
First, the Wisconsin Experiment Sta.
ton, in q bulletin, declared that by
suitable feeding the proportion of but
ter fats in milk may be increased; then
Professor Phelps Of the Connecticut
Station, and now Professor Caldwell,
of the New York Station, follow in
making the same statement. Eight or
ten years ago l gave detailed ac-
count of the effects of various foods in
this direction, observed through
whole years exper, mental feeding,
which has been reprinted in the Anae-
ricdn Dairyn,dns Manual, aud which
shows how various foods, rich in oil,
tend to increase the proportionate
quantity of the butter in milk, and
how they also affect the quality. This
last effect has been recently noted by
the chemist of the agricultural depart
ment at Washington, and reported in
a bulletin, aud this is exceedingly
noteworthy as showing the Importance
of choosing those foods whose fat will
not deteriorate the quality of the but
ter.
This point may be worthy Of some
explanation. For some years past the
physicians have known that fats in
food or in medicinal preparations,
when taken into the stomach, are not
digested, but are mixed with the di-
gested fluids in the form of an emul-
sion, precisely in s -imiliar manner TO
the mixture of the fat globules in
cream, and that this emulsion is alb
sorbed without change by the Will of
the intestines, which are very fine
tubes, set so closely together as to
leave the appearance of the pile of vel
vet, and whose Office is to absorb the
nutriment and pass it into the thoracic
duct, the large vessel which is found
passing along the spinal column and
close to it, aud which conveys the nu-
triment directly into the blood, so that
the minute globules of fat in the food
thus pass directly into the blood, by
which they are distributed to the var
ious parts of the body, and of course
to the minute glands of which the
milk is formed. And when this CLAN
dular substance is broken down to
form the milk, these same PARTICLES Of
fat are let loose and escape into the
milk and form the butter.
Thus, tracing the fat in the food in
which it exists in the form of minute
drops or globules in the cells which
make up the tissue of plants or grains
we can follow it directly into the milk
without change; and thus are able to
account for the effects on the milk Of
the various kinds of foods given.
The knowledge is of fundamental
Importance to the buttermaker, and th'
whole subject is worthy of the mos
careful study. 1t relates, too, to tn,
varying ability of the COWS to extract
the fats from the food, for COWS vary
very much in this respect, and somt
can heslthfully dispose of twice OF
three times as much fat as others, an(
some, as in the case of the Jersey COW
Princess the Second, may be able t.
actually convert seven pounds of fat
in the foods into butter in one day
This is physiological function AM
ability, and is thus to be inherited an,
conveyed by breeding, while it is ex
cited and ncouraged-educated, as
may be said, or led out, as the wor
signi6es-by feeding and training
Thus, it may not be right to think o
speak of such COWS as phenomenal an
more than we should call the extraol
dinary young horses Axtell or Sumo
phenomenal. They are not so at al
They are instances of the result G
human power skillfully exerted owe
the domestic animals, and everyone {
the numerous examples of this success
full exercise of mans dominion owe
creation should be an incentive to e,
ertions in the same way by every il
telligent dairyman in the improv,
ment of his herd, and in his pursuit {
success and profit in his business
american A9riculturist.