12 Agrilultukal Experiment Station, Ithaca, N. Y. 



This course of breeding was established by Professor Roberts in- 1875, 

 and has been continued ever since. The year previous the yield of the 

 cows upon the fai-m had been a little more than 3,000 pounds per cow. 

 The descendants of these same cows, as will be seen in detail a little 

 later on, produced in 1892 more than 7,000 pounds per cow. Special 

 animals were not selected for this experiment; every cow in the herd 

 without exception was taken. It was thought tliat by doing this, 

 average results of more value would be obtained than though most of 

 the better individuals were selected for the special purpose and a few 

 of the poorer ones discarded. 



In the table following (Table I) is given the pounds of milk and fat 

 produced by each cow during the entire year and also the age of the 

 cow at the beginning of the exp^-iment. A large number of the cows 

 were young; J'our were three-year-olds and Jour heifers with their first 

 calves ; three of the latter were under two years old at the beginning of 

 the experiment. Four of the cows were not bred upon the farm and 

 their ages were not definitely known, except that they were more than 

 seven years old at the time of the beginning of the experiment. The 

 column for age is left blank in the case of these cows. Two of these 

 cows, Shadow and Sue, were of the common or mixed stock of the 

 neighborhood and evidently carried considerable Short Horn blood. 

 They were not bred and were sold for beef in the fall of 1892, so that 

 their year extends from October 15, 1891, to October 14, 1892, in the 

 case of Shadow, and from November 20, 1891, to November 19, 1892, 

 in the case of Sue, instead of from January 15, 1892, to January 

 14, 1893, as in the case of all the others. No accidents or sickness 

 interrupted the experiment with one exception; the cow May 

 was farrow at the beginning of the experiment, having then 

 been in milk more than a year. She dropped a heifer calf on 

 November 20th and did very nicely, giving a large flow of milk 

 till December 26th, when she was attacked with a violent chill 

 followed by a fever and almost complete loss of appetite. She 

 dried up rapidly and was removed from the experiment on Jan- 

 uary fifth. Inasmuch as the experiment was so nearly closed it was 

 not thought worth while to take account of this and her record simply 

 lacks the nine days of a complete year. 



