136 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



over market value and from that grading down to the last man 

 who sold his crop of hay, corn and oats to his cow at about half 

 price besides doing all the work. It is hard to understand why 

 this last man continued doing business in that way. The only 

 explanation is that he did not know. His own figures when they 

 were placed before him, he would not accept at first, but after 

 going over everything he concluded they were correct and 

 started at once to make a change. Today he is running the busi- 

 ness on entirely different lines and is making it pay. 



In order to bring out this point of individuality 1 am going to 

 show you another chart. This is the record of three cows which 

 we bought for our Station work. They were all of the same age 

 and consumed practically the same amount of food. With these 

 conditions they produced as follows : 



MUk. Per cent fat. Butter. 



No. 1 8,000 lbs. 5.6% 515 lbs. at 20c. $103 00 



No. 2 6,000 " 4.% 276 " " 55 20 



No. 3 4,600 " 3.8% 251 " " 40 20 



The cost of keep under our conditions with no pasture that 

 year was $47.50. This shows a good profit for No. i and a small 

 profit for No. 2. No. 3 lost what No. 2 made so that we kept 

 three cows with all the labor connected with them to get a profit 

 from one. This is a bad enough showing but it is not all. There 

 was ten thousand pounds of milk produced, equivalent to four 

 hundred and seventy-five pounds of butter, to go on the market. 

 This helps make a surplus and tends to reduce the price. This 

 reduction makes No. i less profitable. I think it is conceded that 

 a surplus of dairy products reduces price, at least we have found 

 it so in shipping milk to New York. 



I will give just one more illustration of this point of individ- 

 uality of cows. Last year we had two heifers come fresh at two 

 years of age, both registered full bloods of about the same 

 weight and consuming the same ration which cost $44.40 per 

 year. 



Milk. Per cent fat. Butter. 



No. 1 5,.')SHlb9. 6.4% 411 lbs. at 2.ic. $102 75 



No. 2 3,84S " 5.4% 238 " " o'.l 50 



I wish to emphasize the point, however, that having a regis- 

 tered animal does not necessarily mean a profitable one. Pedi- 

 gree is a good thing if accompanied with individual merit, oth- 



