New York Agricultural Experiment Station. 25 

 INVESTIGATION. 



ANIMAL HUSBANDRY. 



Developing the Station herd of dairy cows. — The Station is now in 

 possession of a herd of Jersey cows, practically all full-blood and 

 registered, that is highly productive and for nine years has not 

 developed a single case of tuberculosis. There have been some 

 cases of contagious abortion, especially with the heifers, but this 

 trouble has grown less and less and is now not much in evidence. 



The development of a sound herd of this type should be a matter 

 of genera? interest, especially as the foundation stock consisted in 

 part of tuberculous mothers. 



Two phases of this matter should be considered: 



(1) The maintenance of the animals in health. 



(2) The development of highly productive animals. 



Between December, 1900, and March, 1901, fifteen out of the 

 twenty-eight animals owned by the Station were found to be tuber- 

 culous. At the latter date the herd was separated into sound 

 and unsound animals, these two groups being located in separate 

 stables, each group under the care of its own attendants. This 

 separation continued, with constant supervision of both herds, until 

 May, 1905, when the six remaining unsound animals were killed. 



In November, 1905, thirty animals in the herd were tested with 

 tuberculin and no reaction found, and since that time no case of 

 tuberculosis has appeared. It should be borne in mind in this con- 

 nection that the nine animals in the Millie Darling family now 

 constituting a part of the Station herd are nearly all descendants 

 of daughters of Millie D., dropped after she reacted and during the 

 time she was with the diseased section of the herd after separation 

 in March, 1901. In brief, part of the Station herd had a diseased 

 mother as foundation stock. 



The evolution of a sound herd out of one partially diseased and 

 the maintenance of the herd in a condition of health during nine 

 years have been accomplished in a comparatively simple way. 



The following have been the essential factors in the process: 



(1) In the beginning, separation at once from their mothers of 

 the calves of diseased cows and feeding them on the milk from 

 sound cows or milk that has been pasteurized. 



(2) The maintenance of the herd by raising its heifer calves. 



