Rensselaer Union, Volume 6, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 July 1874 — Sour Milk Unfit for Cows. [ARTICLE]

Sour Milk Unfit for Cows.

Tiie Rural New Yorker , in answer to a question, advises against the feeding of sour milk to cows. It says: We have in the germ theory an explanation of the manner in which milk is changed from its normal condition and rendered unfit for human food. It has been proved that stagnant water —the water from filthy pools—is alive wixh organisms, either animal or vegetable, that make it unfit for use or to allow cows to drink. It has been shown by the investi •gations of Prof Law that living organisms can be carried in water through the body of the cow into her milk and retain their vitality. It has been proved by experiment that by feeding cows distillers’ slops tbe yeast-plant peculiar to brewers’ yeast has thus been conveyed to the milk and has been found growing therein. The acidifying germs in sour whey, when fed to milk cows, retain their ;vitality in the milk of such cows, causing it to sour prematurely. Numerous well authenticated cases are recorded where milk has been injured by the cows breathing the foul odors of decomposing animal matter—the emanations from putrifying carcasses of calves and horses left exposed in the pasture. Hence it must be evident that sour milk when fed to milch cows must have more or less influence on the milk yielded by the cows, affecting its flavor and rendering it more susceptible to decomposition than it would be if this character of food was not given to the cows. But if milk is liable to be injured and tainted from the causes we have named, as well as from a great many other causes, such as ordinarily cause the various diseases incident to the animals, Deglect in the case of dairy utensils, uncleaniiness in milking, etc., etc., we increase the difficulty by putting such milk back into the bodies of the cows to be again used over in the process of secretion, and sowing again the seeds of decomposition for a crop of bad milk. Again, as a matter of profit, we are of the opinion that sour milk can be used with more advantage as a -food for hogs than for cowl. Sour milk makes a good diet for swine, and in connection with grain is said to give a most .excellent flavor to ihe meat. Indec-d, it is asserted that no food, in connection with grain or meal, is better suited for fattening hogs than milk, both for the increase of weight and quality of meat which it makes. It is undoubtedly a good, healthy food for swine, and is better adapted to the making of meat in this class of animals than the production of milk in cows. The best food lor milch cows is good, sweet grass from upland pastures. It can be produced more cheaply than .sour milk, and with the light of our experience and observation we should say that more profit can be realized by feeding such milk to swine than to Cows.