Florida Agricultural Experiment Station


will follow. For example, a cow fed onions will produce milk
with a distinct onion flavor. Flavor will also be given to the milk
by feeding cabbage, bitter weeds, turnips, or oats and rye
pasture, especially when grown on rich soil or when it has made
a rank growth. These feeds will not decrease the flow of milk
but they will seriously affect the quality. The difficulty can be
overcome to a certain extent if such feeds are given in small
amounts and immediately before or just after milking. Such
feeds impart the disagreeable flavor to the milk during the pro-
cess of digestion, hence by the next milking time the animal's
system will have absorbed all of the odors and there will be no
odor to the milk.
 MILK ABSORBS ODORS
 Milk has a peculiar ability for absorbing a great variety of
 odors and retaining them. For this reason it is important that
 every precaution be taken to have all utensils that may come
 into contact with milk scrupulously clean. It is of as much im-
 portance to have the surroundings in the barn, the milk room,
 or any place the milk may be kept, clean and free from odors.
 If this is not done, milk and all milk products may have very
 undesirable odors or flavors. For instance, if milk or any dairy
 product comes in contact with fish, kerosene, or anything with
 a strong, permeating odor the odor will be readily absorbed.

 SOME FEEDS AFFECT THE COLOR OF MILK
 Some feeds, such as cottonseed meal, when given in liberal
 amounts produce milk and cream of a yellow color. Many per-
 sons believe the yellow to be an indication of increased "rich-
 ness," but this is not true. The percentage of fat in milk can
 not-be permanently increased by feeding.
 Judging by the color is a poor method of determining the
amount of fat milk contains. If color were a true indicator of
the percentage of fat, it would be an easy matter for the dairy-
man to produce rich or poor milk almost at will. This would not
be true of all cows, as some individuals and some breeds will
produce yellow milk regardless of the feeds given. Other cows
produce a white milk altho it may contain a normal, or even
higher, percentage of fat.
 The fat in milk is a mixture of a large number of separate and
distinct fats; oleic, palmitic, myristic, stearic, dioxystearic,
butyric, lauric, caproic, caprylic, and capric. At least six or
eight are present in milk under normal conditions, and under