NOLAN] ELEMENTARY AGRICULTURE 29 



What is the greatest present need in the improvement of the 

 dairy cow? What ever else may be said, it must be clear to a stu- 

 dent observer, that our cows should produce enough milk and but- 

 ter to pay for their keep. Dairymen say that a cow should pro- 

 duce at least six times her weight in milk, or three or four hundred 

 pounds of butter-fat a year to be profitable. How is this to be 

 ascertained? Evidently by keeping records. Here is a practical 

 task for the school boy in the study of elementary agriculture. It 

 is an easy step to study the application of the elementary laws of 

 breeding in the improvement and selection of the dairy cow in order 

 to bring about profitable production. 



How can we improve the farm hen ? What is the improvement 

 most needed? The latter is the easier question to answer. We 

 want hens that will lay over one hundred eggs a year, and that too 

 in the winter season when eggs are scarcest. This is partly to 

 be achieved by proper feeding, but mostly by proper selection and 

 breeding. If a hen has the habit by accident, or from selected 

 strain to lay the maximum amount of eggs at the best season of 

 the year, this fact should be known of each individual, and this 

 can only be done by trap-nesting or by some other means of noting 

 the record of each fowl. Here again is a practical piece of work 

 for the student of elementary agriculture in improving farm 

 poultry. 



We might multiply instance after instance in the case of these 

 and other farm animals wherein the boys and girls in the study of 

 elementary agriculture may work out practical and profitable ways 

 of improving farm animals along lines most needed upon the farms 

 of our country. But sufficient has been given to open the way for 

 a few months' work given in an elementary course. The work with 

 farm animals may be conveniently done during the winter months, 

 and with special interest at this season, because the farmer is 

 chiefly concerned at this time with the sheltering, feeding and 

 general care of his farm animals. 



