Studies in Milk Secretion. 525 



A survey of the above table will call to mind some of the prin- 

 ciples upon which are based the selection of animals for the herd. 

 Several instances of short periods of lactation will be noted and 

 these are almost invariably the last lactations of those cows which 

 were no longer considered profitable and were therefore sent to 

 the shambles. This is notably the case with some whose rec- 

 ords appear for only a year or two, e. g. Daisy 2nd, Glista, and 

 Glista 2nd. These were kept in the hope that they would show 

 enough improvement over their first year's record to warrant 

 their continuance in the herd. But as such improvement did 

 not occur, they were sold to the butcher. 



Attention is also called to the records of several heifers as com- 

 pared to the performance of their dams. The cow Daisy was 

 kept in the herd much longer than profitable in the anticipation 

 that she might develop into something good. She did not do 

 nearly so well as her dam, Cora, and was improved upon by her 

 daughter, Daisy 2nd. The latter, however, made a poor record 

 as a two-year-old, which, together with her poor promise the 

 following year, made her keeping unprofitable. Three other 

 heifers. Bertha 2d, Garnet St. Lambert, and Valerie St. Lambert, 

 all sired by the same bull as Daisy 2nd (Cornell's Exile, 30778 

 A. J. C. C.) have records which bear a different relation to those 

 of their dams than does that of Daisy 2nd. Bertha 2nd as a two- 

 year-old, exceeded her dam Bertha, in both milk and butter pro- 

 duction when three years old. And her three-year-old record is 

 better than any record of her dam until the latter reached the 

 age of seven years. Garnet St. Lambert as a two-year-old pro- 

 duced more milk and fat than her dam Garnet Valentine in any 

 year of her life. The latter died of milk fever in September 1897. 

 The dam of Valerie St. Lambert was Gem Valentine, and she 

 gives promise, judging from her two-year-old performance, of 

 being a more profitable cow than her dam. 



Of the four heifers mentioned, all did better than their dams, 

 but even this fact, in the case of Daisy 2nd, did not make her a 

 profitable cow, because both dam and daughter were light pro- 

 ducers. The dams of the other three were fairly good cows and 

 as the daughters were improvements upon them, the latter were 

 of still greater value. This illustration goes to show the advisa- 



