I04 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



if there was anything in it. Probably we shall have the calves 

 in half a dozen herds immuned within the next six months. If 

 there is anything valuable in the country in this line, Maine is 

 going to adopt it as soon as anybody. 



THE INDIVIDUALITY OF THE COW. 

 By R. W. Ellis, Embden. 



I am more or less known to every person present, and you 

 all know, who know anything about me, that all the talk that I 

 have ever made in the State on agricultural matters is from my 

 own experience. I have never theorized. And the same will 

 be the case with what I shall say to you today. 



If we had not lost our old herd because of tuberculosis and 

 had to replace it with a new one, I should not have been here 

 today talking of the individuality of the cow. We had been 

 breeding Jerseys for thirty-five years. A large part of the time 

 we bred for quality, almost regardless of quantity. We got 

 a very rich herd, I presume as rich as any in the State. We 

 had not had a cow for twenty years whose milk tested less than 

 five per cent, and the average was about six per cent. But they 

 were small yielders. They gave from 3,500 to 4,500 pounds. 

 Once in a while a cow would give about 5,000 pounds, but very 

 seldom. They averaged in butter right around 300 pounds. 

 One year the twenty cows made on an average 316 pounds 

 each. We always had a scale in the barn, and a milk tester, 

 after these came, into use, in the milk room. We weighed our 

 milk very frequently and tested it quite often, so that we knew 

 what every cow was doing. 



When we lost that herd and came to replace it, we found that 

 things had changed very materially. We had a better looking 

 herd, their udders were larger, they gave more milk. I bought 

 the herd mostly in August. We milked them along until Jan- 

 uary, then we commenced to weigh the milk at every milking 

 and record it. We have made but one thorough test, which 

 was the first of last August. That test was a revelation to me. 

 I had come to believe, in all these years that we had kept the 



