REPORT

OF THE

Department of Animal Industry.

W. H. JORDAN, Director.

G. A. SMITH, Dairy Expert.

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

I. Goat's milk for infant feeding.

II. Milking machines.

ANIMAL INDUSTRY.

GOAT'S MILK FOR INFANT FEEDING.

W. H. JORDAN AND G. A. SMITH.

SUMMARY.

*

1. During the years 1910-1912, inclusive, a herd of milch goats was kept at the Station. The number of animals of which complete records were kept varied from 10 to 26.

2. In the year 1912, 31 adult and 9 partially grown animals were fed. The quantity of food consumed was as follows:

3. The total cost of this food, at the prices then ruling, was $441.95. The average cost per month per goat varied from $0.481 to $0.992. The average cost of food per goat per year was $11.05, making the daily cost $0.03.

4. The yearly production of milk, including some animals in the first period of lactation, varied from 301.7 pounds to 1,845.2 pounds. The average yearly yield for 10 animals of which records were kept during 3 years, including 28 lactation periods, was 800.4 pounds.

5. The food cost of the milk per goat for all the goats during the year 1912 was 4 cents per quart and for the three years during which the record was kept 3.4 cents. The lowest cost was with the Saanen goat, No. 11, for the year 1911, which was estimated to be 1.27 cents per quart. The other items of cost, such as care and overhead charges, it is not possible to give with any accuracy. The average food cost for a quart of milk from the Station herd of 25 Jerseys during the three years has been found to be .92 cent per quart.

* Reprint of Bulletin No. 429, February, 1917.

6. The range of composition of the mixed milk of the whole flock as determined during May and June of the year 1912 was as follows: Solids, 11.4 per ct. to 11.9 per ct.; solids not fat, 7.72 per ct. to 8.61 per ct.; fat, 3.5 per ct. to 3.8 per ct.

The composition of milk from individual goats was found to vary in total solids from 9.22 per ct. to 18.55 per ct.; in protein, from 2.2.4 per ct. to 4.96 per ct.; in casein, from 1.56 per ct. to 4.6 per ct.; in fat, from 1.08 per ct. to 8.4 per ct.; and in ash, from 0.43 per ct. to 0.8 per ct.

7. A chemical study of the goat's milk indicated no essential difference between the constitution of its casein and that of cow's milk. Marked and probably important differences were observed in the salts of the ash as compared with the ash of both cow's milk and human milk.

8. Extensive study of the use of goat's milk in infant feeding by Doctors Sherman and Lohnes, of Buffalo, showed that the curds of goat's milk when returned from the stomach were smaller and more flocculent than those of cow's milk. From the determination of the combined hydrochloric acid in the returned food, the authors conclude that the cow's milk had a greater stimulating effect on the stomach than goat's milk. The absorption of the food and gain in weight in comparing the two milks were indefinite for several reasons. The babies tolerated equally well similar amounts of goat's milk and cow's milk when used with the same diluents. The younger the child, the more the evidence pointed toward a greater gain on goat's milk.

9. Goat's milk was supplied to 18 cases of children that were not thriving on any other food that had been tried. In 17 cases a satisfactory state of nutrition was established through the use of goat's milk, the beneficial results in some instances being very marked. With certain of these children their situation was regarded as serious, and their restoration to a satisfactory nutritional condition was good evidence that goat's milk is often a very desirable resort for infant feeding.

[The Station herd of goats has been sold, so no milk is now available for any purpose.]

EXPERIMENTAL ANIMALS.

The value and use of the milch goat have received considerable attention during the past few years. Very few data seem to have been available concerning this animal. In view of this fact, the Board of Control of this institution, some eight or ten years ago, authorized the purchase and importation of not over six highgrade Swiss goats, of either the Saanen or Toggenberg breed. A quarantine, established because of outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease on the Continent and in England, prevented carrying out this plan. Some two or three years later Mr. H. S. Greims, of New York City, offered to present to the Experiment Station a flock of goats then in his possession. The offer was accepted, and Mr. Greims very generously shipped the animals to the Station, with considerable apparatus, without charge to the institution. We understand that the flock was purchased from a Mr. Riddle, of New Jersey. As the venture had not proved entirely satisfactory to Mr. Greims, due to the loss of some of his best does and because of his difficulty in having them cared for and their records kept as he desired, he concluded to abandon the enterprise.

The flock included some very good animals, one full blood Saanen and several full blood Toggenbergs, but many of the other animals were of inferior value and of no especial breeding. Some of these were promptly discarded. The better animals were kept, and an attempt was made during several years to ascertain the amount of food consumed and the quantity and composition of the milk produced.

When the goats reached us on February 25, 1910, they were in poor condition. Several were very thin in flesh and did not respond to feed and care. No food combination that we could offer appealed to their appetites. A veterinarian who was called in for advice. suggested no treatment that was of benefit. The affected animals gradually grew weaker and died. Finally two of the dead goats were sent to Dr. V. A. Moore, Dean of the State Veterinary College, Ithaca, N. Y. After a careful study of the case, the disease was pronounced to be Takosis. This disease had been studied by the Department of Animal Industry, at Washington, and a bulletin. published by that Department (No. 45) gives a very complete history of several outbreaks of the trouble. Our experience agreed