Farm and Garden.

King Country Chronicle, Volume III, Issue 166, 21 June 1909, Page 3

Farm and Garden.

Importance Of Pedigree

Is there any object to the dairy farmers in pedigree details which do not relate to the productive power* of milking stock? asks "S.G." in the Live

Stock Journal. Whether other facta are important or not, be continues it appears certain that milk or butter pedigrees are the most important. Without knowledge on this point it is next to impossible to breed with suecess. Without it a breeder does not know from what to breed. That like produces like is generally admitted. Many years ago, discussing this ques-

tion with a gentleman, to whom I remarked than an extra pound or two was well spent in the purchase of an animal which yielded an exceptional quantity of milk, he replied that he could tell me where such a beast could

be found and obtained. The animal was plain in the extreme, but was purchased on account of the character given her. She yielded some 1300 gallons of milk with a single calf. In the same stable was a similar but much handsomer beast, which had produced about 1000 gallons in a similar period. The two strains were subsequently crossed, with the rcsaft that to this day something out of the common is being achieved by those who possess the progeny, heifers with their first calf yielding four gallons or more per head. In this instance there was no question of blood or pedigree other than milk, and, although the dairy Shorthorn breeder is unquestionably right in looking to form, size,and quality, as well as milk, for other reasons, yet it doe* not follow that the family pedigree of any beast is essential to his prosperity. Tbcrc arc, no doubt, many failures, but failures preach as good sermons as successes to those who are trying to succeed. We are, for example, almost certain to fall, if animals arc allowed to reach the calving period in poor condition.or if.after calving, they are carelessly or illiberally fed. Again, careless milking is a prolific cause of a faulty yield, or of good milkers going oflf early, and so with bad management and bad housing But undoubtedly the first qualification for a good milker is the way she has been bred.

Milk Fermentations i It is not unusual to find persons coni netted with dairy work whose sole , knowledge of fermentative processes is i limited to the lactic acid fermentation | —that which produces the souring or ' ripening of cream. Yi t this change \ affects directly only one of the constit- ! ucnts of milk- -the milk sugar. This | is chemically simply split up by the microbes into lactic acid, and the pro- : cess continues so long as circumstances and the dairyman allow it to continue. : Milk, however, contains two other : constituents—fat and the albuminoids, of which casein forms the largest part. I The changes due to fermentative processes which fat undergoes in milk are \ much less frequently met with than would generally be expected. This is \ usually accounted for by assuming that \ the so called envelope which surrounds . the fat gtobuhs is of such a character ' as to delay, if not entirely prevent, the ' bacilli of fermentation or the products I they form in the milk from reaching ; the fat at all. The similar importance | of fat changes in milk is thus explaini ed, and the same explanation also • serves to account for the much greater ' importance which the decomposition of I fat plays in butter, in which at the I very onset the envelope of the fat glo- [ boles is broken in churning. The very I odour itself of the butter is considered 1 to be due to the liberation of some gas or gases whose presence is due to the decomposition of one or other of the fat constituents which go to make up : the fat itself. In milk this same but- | tcry flavour is only found when milk has been kept for a considerable time, and is due to that decomposition of the | fat which results in the separation of ! butyric acid. This is often accompan- \ ied by the liberation of carbonic acid gas, and also occasionally hydrogen is set free. There is little doubt that the rarity of this change is due not only to the presence of the envelopes to the globules, but also to the occurrence of the commoner lactic acid formation, of i which one result is to consume the oxygen ordinarily dissolved in the milk. The absence of this oxygen serves as a very unfavourable com'ition for the rapid devclobpment of the butyric acid fermentation. Hence its rare appearance when, as almost invariably hapepns, the usual souring of lactic acid fermentation has been first set up. The albuminoids present in milk are also subject to decomposition changes of a not dissimilar kind. The albuminolds are the nitrogenous portions of the milk, which, when considered from the food standpoint, are called proteids. In milk casein forms six-sevenths of this class,the remaining seventh being the substance called lactalbumin. THE FERMENTATIVE CHANGES. The fermentative changes are of two sorts. In on* a digestive action is produced on the albuminoids. The casein first coagulates and is afterward* finally liquified or changed to a peptone. In the other class of changes the processes are putrefactive, and involve

destructive changes of the chemical substances forming the casein, which ■ are accompanied by the liberation of ; disagreeable odours and foul smelling i gasc-4. The latter form of change is : due not to one but to a considerable unmber of different microbes of the fermment producing class. Tehse produce quite often the form of germ called spore which has a considerable augmented power of resisting destruction by heat. Yet on the other hand this and the ordinary form are able to resist cold still more effectively, 'and | the application of ordinary low temperature to effect their destruction is { practically useless. i Both processes are,however, weaken- ; ed by strong lactic acid fermentations, I and herein doubtless lies the cause of

l the less frequent occurrence of this j class of fermentation. There appears r to be some unexplained connection, I however, between, the two fermenta- ! tions, "since it has been found that the • casein is never left entirely unchanged ' when lactic acid fermentation sets up |in the normal way. And it has been ' argued that the two are usually coin- : cident at first, but that then the more vigorous action of the one outpaces , and puts a stop to the continued proi. gress of the other.

! ABNORMAL FERMENTATIVE ! PROCESSES. In addition to these changes, which may be considered normal, since they I occur under ordinary conditions of at- :■ mosphere and surroundings, there isan--1 other group of fermentiative processes which have been named abnormal, because tbey only rise under special con- . ditions or in isolated localities, and i they arc often associated with and I their presence is often indicated by • some distinct taste or smell which ser- ! ves to indicate at once the character of each particular type. \ The so called "sweet curdling" of j milk is due to the existence of a fcr- !■ ment of the rennet type, which is pro--1 duccd by a group of bacteria called i "Tyrotbrix"' bacteria. These belong to the potato-bacillus group, and grow :by splitting or fission. Under the ac- | tion of the chemical ferment the pro- | duce, the casein is coagulated without j the formation of any lactic fluid; in fact, the reaction of the milk is frequently slightly alkaline. The affection to which milk is not infrequently subject and which has given it the name of ropy or slimy or | stringy milk, is undoubtedly due to ' fermentative action. Either it is i caused by a slimy substance given off \ by the decomposition of the milk sugar '> by one class of bacteria or it is owing 1 to the presence of slimy masses of baci teria themselves which exist in the milk without producing any decomposition of the organic constituents of the milk.