In both lots hay apparently produced a harder butter than did ensilage. While as regards churnability lot G favors hay and lot X ensilage. Lot X, periods 3 and 4, is a change from corn meal to gluten and reaffirms the verdict of table A. Lot Y shows a test of gluten as compared with cotton seed the black-faced type representing the cotton seed periods. The rations as fed were as follows:

The effect of the substitution of cotton seed for gluten is very marked in the hardness of the resulting butter, and corroborates the reports from stations in the South as to the effect in this direction of feeding cotton seed in quite large quantities.

Lot Z represents a single test of feeding skimmilk to cows, and, so far as the butter product is concerned, shows very favorable results. It is, undoubtedly, a good use for skimmilk when not needed for feeding younger animals. The rations were as follows:

METHODS USED.

Wollny's modification of Reichert's method was used in the determination of volatile fatty acids; Wiley's method for the determination of the melting point; and Hubl's for the iodine absorption number. The hardness of the butters was measured at the same temperature by the depth of penetration of a weighted glass rod falling through a glass tube for a given distance, the penetration being measured in millimeThe following details are recommended:

The rod should be three millimeters in diameter, twenty centimeters long, and should weigh ten grams. It should be pointed, but the distance along inclined plane, from point to surface of rod, should be no greater than the diameter of the rod. It is easily made by pulling out a piece of glass tubing of the required size and pushing a small piece of cotton down the inside to the point thus made, filling with mercury until the whole weighs ten grams, and finally closing the open end. The tube through which the rod is to fall should be one meter in length, perfectly straight and of such diameter that the rod will fall perpendicularly through it without vibration and with scarcely any friction. At exactly the length of the rod from the lower end of this tube a millimeter scale should be attached with the scale reading downward. The butter pre

pared in the usual way should stand in a cool room several days, and then the depth of penetration should be taken at 151° C., which is about the temperature at which dairy rooms are kept. The hardness of different butters is thus very simply compared, by bringing the tube in a perpendicular position over a plane surface of the butter at some distance from the edge of the mass; fixing the tube in this position, with the lower end lightly resting on the surface; then lower the ten gram rod into the tube as far as possible with the finger and thumb and let it fall. The penetration then can be read off on the scale. The greater the penetration, the softer the butter. Except on very soft butters the differences in triplicate determinations is seldom over one millimeter. The results in the tables are averages of several determinations.

INDICATIONS.

The work in this direction is not as yet extensive enough to justify the drawing of conclusions, but our experiments thus far indicate

1. That gluten meal tends to produce a much softer quality of butter than corn meal or cotton-seed meal, and, other things being equal, tends to lessen the churnability of the butter fat.

2. That with the same cows the hardness of butter depends much more upon the character of the food than upon the nutritive ratio.

3. That ensilage produces a somewhat softer butter than does good hay, but it is also favorable to the flavor and texture of the butter product.

4. That skimmilk has a very favorable effect upon the churnability and quality of the butter fat, and in a single trial apparently reversed the general rule that the volatile fatty acids decrease as the period of lactation advances.

5. That cotton-seed meal tends to produce an unusually hard quality of butter, and that cotton-seed meal and gluten meal might be used together with excellent results.

6. That contrary to general belief the melting point of butter fat is not a good index of the commercial hardness of butter. That while in general a soft butter melts at a lower temperature than a hard butter, there is no definite relation between melting point and actual hardness.

7. That no relation can be traced between foods and volatile fatty acids, except in the case of skimmilk. That usually, hardness and volatile acids vary inversely, hardness generally increasing and volatile acids decreasing, as the period of lactation advances.

8. That the iodine absorption of butter from gluten rations is greater than that of butters from cotton-seed or corn meal rations, and that so far as tried (see table B) the iodine absorption number follows very closely the hardness of butters.

QUANTITY OF MILK.

G. H. WHITCHER.

. The work above reported on by Messrs. Wood and Parsons was carried on by them in connection with a series of experiments designed primarily to test the relative efficiency of a ration containing a large amount of albuminoids as against one containing a large amount of starch.

The materials for bringing about this variation in the rations were corn meal and gluten meal, the latter being a waste product from the manufacture of glucose from corn; it is, in fact, corn meal from which a large part of the starch has been removed, and is, consequently, rich in albuminoids and oil.

The following table gives a comparative statement of the average digestible matter in the two food stuffs:

Now, as both are made from corn, it follows that whatever difference may be noticed, either in quantity or quality of the product resulting from feeding these grains, must be due the relative proportion of albuminoids and non-albuminoids, and not to any specific differences in the characteristics of the foods, as might and probably would be the case if linseed or cotton seed were contrasted with corn meal.

In almost every case, with each of the eleven cows, a change from gluten to corn meal—that is, a change from a narrow to a wide nutritive ratio resulted in a decided falling off in the product, while the reverse change resulted in an equally decided increase. In some cases this variation is obscured by the natural shrinkage which was all the time taking place. The following table shows the detailed results, each period being for fourteen (14) days: