INSTITUTE PAPERS. I4I 



course if we could divide cows into classes and put all capable 

 of making a profit over all investment in the hands of wise, 

 generous owners, and then classify all the others as a neighbor 

 of mine does it, in "Bad, quite bad and d — d bad," we could, 

 by sending the two latter classes to the butcher, put a lot of the 

 other class into the profit class, but we cannot do this till we 

 can persuade the owners of all cows to begin the work of 

 classification and elimination. Indeed, it is a humiliating fact 

 confronting us who defend the farmers, that very few of them 

 know anything about the individual work or ability of their 

 cows ; and as this is fundamental in this operation of classifi- 

 cation, it will appear as a perfectly logical and unavoidable con- 

 clusion that the man is in a large measure responsible not only 

 for his discouraging ownership of the poor cow but for her 

 production as well. 



There would be some grain of encouragement in the cow 

 outlook if we could see any prospect of a falling off in the pro- 

 duction of the poor cows. Naturally, in time we would get rid 

 of all classes under the profitable, but how shall we get away 

 from the burden of their continued production? How shall we 

 convince ourselves that we have poor cows, if we do not go 

 about testing them, weighing them in the balance? Are we so 

 wise in our day and generation that we can tell the measure of 

 profit or loss lying potential in our cows by looking at them? I 

 am sure when we are thoroughly honest with our judgments 

 we know we cannot so pass upon the merits of our cows. 



Then as soon as we shall come to judge cows by what we 

 actually know they are doing for us, we can have reasonable 

 expectations of improving our herds by more careful breeding 

 and the lot of other essential things that are part of the busi- 

 ness of breeding. The mere act of testing our cows to prove 

 their worth, or their lack of it, means very much more than 

 the one simple act; it means the first step in knowing, and othi:'r 

 good steps are inevitable. The knowing will soon eliminate 

 the poor cows and will inspire us in caring better for the good 

 ones ; and this better care is always one of those good deeds 

 that brings its own reward. It will teach us the lesson of the 

 importance of what we call environment in the business of 

 dairying and breeding, and it will suggest to us that we are 

 likely to produce best cows from our best ones. Thus we leave 



