Has the use of these concentrated meals any effect on the quality of the butter? They have a most decided effect. It has been found that the cottonseed meal makes a very hard butter. In the South the cows are fed entirely on cottonseed products, the food given to the cows is a mixture of cottonseed meal and hulls, and their butter is almost as hard as a brick-bat; it will not melt within 10 degrees of the melting temperature of our ordinary butter. Then too it has a peculiar effect on what is known as the volatile acids, which are in butter, but not in oleomargarine; chemists make use of this fact to discriminate between oleomargarine and butter. The use of cottonseed meal has an effect on the volatile acids, in some way we do not now understand, to expel them, and butter from a cow that has been fed cottonseed has been mistaken for oleomargarine.

Linseed meal on the contrary has a precisely opposite effect, and if fed in excess will make a soft and saivy butter; there is in all butters a hard, solid fat, and a soft, liquid fat; the first will not melt except at a temperature of 120°, while the latter melts at a low temperature. When cottonseed meal is fed it tends to the production of the harder fats, and the milk has an increased percentage of the stearine and margarine, which makes the butter harder. Linseed meal tends to the production of olean, which makes the butter oleaginous.

The effect of gluten meals has not been thoroughly studied; corn meal, as is well known, gives a good body to butter. Gluten meal is a product of corn meal and might be expected to do the same. The only work I know of in this line was done at the New Hampshire station a year or two ago, where it was found that butter from gluten meal was rather softer than that from other food.

I think we can draw a lesson from the effect of the meals upon the quality of the butter. It seems to me where a man has a large herd it is not best to rely on cottonseed meal alone, but to give a food composed of a mixture; but if I used any one of these foods alone I would use cottonseed meal as far as it could be safely used, because of its very high food and fertilizing value. Safety is something dairymen should consider; a food may be beneficial in moderate amounts and harmful if eaten in excess. There are few people in this audience who could sit down and eat five pounds of beefsteak at a meal; if they did, a fit of indigestion would ensue. Some men, however, can digest more food than others, and some cows will take and digest more of this concentrated food than others will. We have a Holstein cow at the farm, which made, in 1892, over 500 pounds of butter, but she is a ravenous eater of concentrated meals.

In giving these concentrated foods to your cows, you should go into the barn and watch the cows appetite; you can soon learn in that way how much you ought to give. Cottonseed meal is claimed by many to be a dangerous food. The Pennsylvania station fed six pounds a day to several of their cows and they appeared to be none

the worse for it. Linseed meal is a safer meal than cottonseed; the only effect of an overdose of linseed meal is that of a laxative, and it will probably do little harm unless given in very large quantities. The gluten meals are about as dangerous from the standpoint of health as any of the meals, because they are so exceedingly concentrated. This is particularly true of the Cream gluten meal. Let us take the man who eats the five pounds of beefsteak. If he ate three pounds of lean and two pounds of fat, he would have a worse dyspepsia than if he ate five pounds of lean steak. The large amount

of fat in the Cream gluten meal seems to clog the system of the animal. A few years ago we had two or three cows we thought were not paying their way. We crowded them with Cream gluten meal as much as they would stand and it killed them, and we had post mortems made to see what the effect was of an overdose of Cream gluten meal. In general it was to upset the digestion, and tended to engorgement of the liver; a large amount of fat was present, more than the system could take care of. Gluten meal, like gunpowder, needs to be handled carefully. So that I cannot tell how much to feed this or that cow; I can only say, watch your cows; few will stand more than two pounds of gluten meal a day.

I shall be glad to answer any questions.

Mr. Peck of Hinesburgh-You spoke about one station where the use of linseed meal and bran showed not much difference. Did you mean 100 pounds of linseed and 100 pounds of bran?

Prof. Hills-I don't recollect whether the comparison was made in pounds or in dollars; I presume it was on the basis of dollar and dollar.

Mr. Gabrilson-I think at the Wisconsin station it was pound for pound.

Mr. Smith-How much of the value of the fertilizing element does the cow take out?

Prof. Hills-A good milch cow will take from her food about onefifth of the fertility. The amount obtained depends upon the care or lack of care with which the manure is kept. Many farmers would not get more than half of the material on to the fields; but if skim milk is fed on the farm, four-fifths of the fertility may be saved.

Mr. Bliss-Is it best to feed skim milk to the calves or the pigs? Prof. Hills-I think as a rule, at the present prices of pork, it is more profitable to feed it to the pigs.

Mr. Gabrilson-Do you consider the cottonseed meal dangerous unless it is fed in excess of what would be a proper ration?

Prof. Hills-I compared it with gunpowder; there is no trouble if it is used with intelligence and care.

Mr. Gabrilson-We feed the skim milk to the hogs and with well balanced rations we get better results.

Mr. Sanford-Will you please tell us the value of the various kinds of bran on the market and also the analysis of peas; and whether they could be profitably raised by the farmers of Vermont?

Prof. Hills-The bran with the least flour is the richest. Pea meal is fed in Canada, and out West to a considerable extent; and it might be called one of the concentrated meals; it has not quite so much protein as the others, but has this advantage, that it may be raised on the farm. We pay 17 cents a pound for nitrogen in commercial fertilizers, but the peas will take it free from the air, so that I am a thorough believer in the use of pea meal. It has been tried and found to be beneficial as a food, causing an increase in the flow of milk. Like linseed meal, it has a tendency to soften the butter.

Mr. Bronson-How many pounds would it do to feed of the Buffalo meal, and which gluten meal do you consider the most profitable to buy?

Prof. Hills-Buffalo gluten feed is less concentrated than the other glutens and may be fed safely in larger quantities. I am inclined to think, however, that the Chicago and Cream gluten meals are the more profitable to buy.

Mr. Sanford-How shall we arrange to keep these fertilizing qualities?

Prof. Hills-Keep plenty of absorbents under the cows; use plaster and keep the material in a barn under shelter, and get it out on to the field where it is to do its work, just as soon as possible, unless the soil is very leachy.

Mr. Terrill-Will you please tell us whether peas and oats are more profitably fed on the stalk and with the stalk than if they are shelled and ground?

Prof. Hills-I should say as a general principle, the former, because in that way you can persuade the cows to eat all the plant. In the same way it is better to ensilage whole corn with the ears on than to take the ears off; and I think from a financial standpoint it is better, because you save the expense of threshing out the peas and

oats.

Mr. Northrop-I should like to ask if the whole corn and oats go through the animal, if they get any nutritive value out of the food.

Prof. Hills-If you can see in the manure whole corn and oats that have not been digested, of course the food has not the same nutritive value.

Mr. Douglas-It makes a difference what time of day you feed the oats whether they pass through whole or not; if you feed them at night they are more apt to be digested, I find.

Mr. Hunt-In feeding grain to hogs, which is the best way, to feed it whole or ground?

Mr. Ashburn-I think, for growing animals, it is better to feed it unground; they thoroughly chew and digest their food; but for crowding the animal, to give him flesh, better results might be obtained perhaps by grinding the food.

Mr. Smith-What kind of food would you use to balance the ration of skim milk?

Mr. Ashburn-I do not profess to be a scientific feeder. I live in Nebraska, where we have a large excess of bran and corn, and somewhat of oats; we have been in the habit of feeding what we had. We have made great mistakes in our feeding too much corn and too little of other foods; a beneficial change was made by adding bran and oats to the food of the young hogs, leaving the corn out until the finishing food for fattening. We have weakened the animal by improper food. In connection with buttermilk I get from the creamery I have found beneficial results in adding bran, looking well to the bone food, of which bran is prominent.

Mr. Gabrilson-I think corn meal would be the best to balance the ration for the pig; the corn will just add to the milk about what the creamery has taken out-just about add the butter fat.

Prof. Hills-Skim milk is nitrogenous, and corn is carbonaceous and the two will balance. At the Experiment Station we try experiments in pig feeding; we start the young pigs off with a little skim milk, then adding corn and bran as they grow.

Mr. Ashburn-What do you say to the relative feeding value of sweet skim milk against sour skim milk for the pig or other animal?

Prof. Hills-I will take the pig first. It has been thought in years past that there was a great loss in the souring of skim milk at creameries; some patrons have demanded that the creamery proprietors should put in a sterilizer to keep the milk sweet until they got home. We were surprised the first year we made experiments to find better results from the sour milk feed than from the sweet milk feed; the second year the results were not so striking and it was about an even thing between the two. The first souring of milk is the breaking up of the milk sugar into lactic acid; there is no loss of weight, nothing passes off into the air except the evaporation of water; after that has gone on, a second fermentation sets in and butyric acid is formed, then there is a loss because carbonic acid passes off into the air. Pigs that were fed with sour milk seemed to eat their grain with a better relish.

Mr. Ashburn-How old was your sweet skimmed milk?
Prof. Hills-It was fresh from the baby separator.

Mr. Waterhouse-I might add my little experience in feeding pigs. Last year I fed several hundred thousand pounds of skim milk to several hundred pigs; my plan is to feed skim milk sour, and bran, until the pig will weigh a hundred; then give them all the meal and skim milk they will stand. I started in on the first of August feeding pigs weighing 37 pounds apiece alive; about Christmas I sold them dressed at 227 pounds average; they shrunk 13 per cent from the live weight to the butcher.

Mr. Tinkham-I have found excellent results in feeding young pigs with the skim milk and middlings; we feed that until about getting ready to finish off the fattening. I had some pigs last year and I sold them at eight months old for a hundred pounds each live weight, and until to within two months of their being sold they were fed on skim milk and these middlings; we think we strike a happy medium in the use of middlings.

Mr. Davis-What effect has cottonseed meal in the milk of the cow, and what is the effect in feeding that milk to little pigs?

Prof. Hills-I do not know that it will unfavorably affect the skim milk.

Mr. Bronson--What is the right proportion of skim milk and meal, pound for pound?

Prof. Hills-It should vary as the pig gets older. First, feed skim milk alone and then after the pig is a few weeks old use the meal, increasing the amount as the pig grows. The young pig is building up its frame and vital organs and needs protein or muscleforming material; as he gets larger he is increasing in fat; then is the time for the corn meal.

Mr. Bronson-Would the gluten meals be good for hogs as part ration ?

Prof. Hills-I don't know; the station made a test of this, but the results have escaped my mind. I don't see why it might not work well, but in Vermont, where we have a large amount of skim milk and buttermilk, we ought to depend for the nitrogen on the skim milk and buttermilk.

Mr. Tabor-What do you say about feeding sweet or sour milk skimmed to the calf?

Prof. Hills-I don't think the calf can handle the sour skim milk so well as it can the sweet.

Judge Harvey-Is there any difference in the value between feeding buttermilk and skim milk? Is there any difference in the quality?

Prof. Hills-Buttermilk is not quite so valuable, hundred pounds for hundred pounds, as skim milk; it is rated less by creameries. It is not quite so nutritive as skim milk; I understand it is likely to