We are often asked how much loss there is in setting milk in cans or pans as is customary with farmers in general who have but few cows or are at a considerable distance from a creamery. Many experiments of this sort have been made and we will only add our testimony to what has already been written. The table below is the average result of four separate trials, made with the best of farm conditions, viz.: Ice water in which to set the milk, a place where the milk would be undisturbed, and setting of the milk soon after being drawn from the cow.

Little work has been done in this country on the specific weights of our seeds. Such studies have been made of European wheats by Harz¹, Nobbe², Koemicke and Werner³, and others.

Our work was started primarily to determine the influence latitude and climate had on the germination of seeds, but as there appeared to be so much difference in the size of wheat, it occurred to us that a study of the specific gravity and number of seeds per pound and bushel might be of interest.

Continuing the work of this station in dairy lines, we grew cabbages, mangel wurzels, white flat turnips, and rutabagas, made com fodder and ensilage during the summer and fall of 1893, and fed them to twenty cows during the winter of 1893-4. The object in view was to get indications of the effect these feeds would have on milk giving and its quality, the grade of butter each would make in the creamery, and what the chemist might find from analyses in his laboratory, so that Iowa farmers might get suggestions regarding their relative value. The plan was to feed a uniform ration of hay and meals while cabbage, mangels and turnips were being tested, and get the effects of each, and when corn fodder and ensilage were being tested, to arrange meal rations to be fed with them, so as to get the effects of both in comparison with roots. Ten of the twenty cows were advanced in their periods of lactation; the average time they had been giving milk was 209 days. Their milking periods ended at the close of the experiment or soon after. Ten were fresh fall cows, and had been giving milk thirty-five days on an average. The ten fresh cows would have made the best showing, but would not have represented the average Iowa winter dairy herd. Eighteen were selected that could be milked from November 15 to February 19, and two that would be replaced during the experiment by two fresh cows. The trial lasted ninety-seven days; thirteen days were given to cabbage; twenty to mangels—first period; eighteen to turnips; eight to mangels—second period; seventeen to com fodder; and twenty-one to ensilage. The variation in time was controlled by the amount of the tested feeds on hand to some extent. The second period given to mangels was suggested by the sharp decline in per cents of fat from the turnips after feeding mangels, and the desire to ascertain whether the per cents of fat would advance if mangels were fed again, which will be discussed farther along.

This Station is in receipt of numerous inquiries asking concerning the relative merits of the different separators in use in the Dairy building. For the purpose of answering such inquiries the data which appears in this report is submitted. It is our practice to require each dairy student to each day make a report on his work, these reports being tabulated and filed for reference. The report on the separators covers all of the conditions affecting separation, the temperature of the milk, speed of the machine, amount of fat left in the skim milk, fat in the cream, etc. The table which follows is compiled from the reports made by students during the six months ending June 10, 1894. In compiling the table all reports in which the conditions affecting separation were unusual were thrown out; as, for example, when the temperature of the milk was too low or when the speed of the separator was below that recommended by the manufacturers. An exception to this was made in the case of the Danish-Weston machine. It will be observed that the average speed of this machine is less than is recommended, but we have had more or less difficulty in keeping it up to its full speed and consequently included some trials when the speed was lower. There was nothing prejudicial to the Danish-Weston in this, however, as our records show that there was no more fat lost in the skim milk when running at 5,000 revolutions per minute than when running at 5,500.

This article is not written for the purpose of stating anything new concerning this subject, but for the purpose of recording our observations and more extensively circulating among the cattle owners of the state the knowledge that a majority of cases of “lumpy jaw” can be successfully treated by giving internally for some time the drug known as Potassium Iodide.

The very frequent occurrence of this disease in the west, coupled with the fact that many animals so affected are unfit for human food and are conseqently condemned when sent to market makes this question a very important one.