| | | | |
First period, 21 days,| | | | | |
sugar meal | 487.50|4.15| 13.27 |20.25 | 64.69 |455.6:1,000
Second period, 21 days| | | | | |
corn-and-cob meal | 379.00|3.51| 12.69 |13.30 | 48.09 |382.3:1,000
Third period, 21 days,| | | | | |
sugar meal | 374.50|3.72| 13.01 |13.95 | 48.74 |401.0:1,000
------------------------+-------+----+-------+------+-------+------------

Here we see in every instance a marked relative increase of the butter, and
to a less extent of the other milk solids whenever the sugar meal--rich in
fat and albuminoids--was furnished. The opposite theory having been largely
taught, it becomes needful thus to sustain the old and well-founded belief
of the dairymen.

Not only does the richness of the milk vary with the nature of the food,
but it varies also according to the time of the day when it is drawn, the
morning milk giving 7-1/2 per cent of cream and the evening milk 9-1/2 per
cent (Hassall). Boedecker found that the morning milk had 10 per cent of
solids, while the evening milk had 13 per cent. Again, the milk first drawn
at any milking is always poorer than the last drawn. The first may have
only one-half, or in extreme cases one-fourth, the cream of the last. Once
more, when the cow is in heat the milk becomes richer in solids (casein and
butter), and contains granular and white blood cells like the colostrum,
and often disagrees with the young animal living on it. Now, while these
various modifications in the amount of solid matters may prove harmless to
a strong and vigorous calf, they can easily be the occasion of intestinal
disorder in a weaker one, or in one with health already somewhat impaired
by sickness, exposure, or unwholesome buildings. The casein of the cow's
milk coagulates in one solid mass, and is much less easily penetrated by
the digesting fluids than the fine, flaky coagula of woman's or mare's
milk. An excess of casein, therefore, thrown on an already overtaxed
stomach can all the more readily induce disorder. So it is with butter fat.
While a most important element in nutrition, it may be present in the
stomach in such quantity as to interfere with the action of the gastric
juice on the casein, and with the interruption of the natural stomach
digestion the fats themselves undergo decomposition with the production of
o