nivrzioN of animal husbandry 571 



SESSIONAL PAPER No. 16 



milk and 1,066-43 pounds of butter fat. ibid this is what happens in nearly all the 

 herds of the country, the robber cows dragging down the average, too often below the 

 paying line. This would show that tbe farmer who weighs the milk and tests it can 

 get rid of the bad cows, whilst the other continues to keep them instead of being kept 

 by them. 



For experimental purposes, those cows should be kept through another or per- 

 haps two other lactation periods, to-be able to make an average of their production 

 of two or more years and also to get at least one heifer by a registered bull, out of 

 each. As soon as a heifer is obtained from a 'robber' cow which has gone through 

 two lactation periods, the latter can be discarded. It will be interesting to compare the 

 milk yield, butter fat test, and weight of these heifers with that of their dams. 



After Gipsy, the best milker was purchased and it was seen that she promised 

 to be much above the average, both her dam and daughter were purchased. At the 

 beginning of the lactation period. Gipsy was 7. her dam, Hilda, was 10, and her 

 daughter, Irene, 3 years of age. The purchase of the dam and daughter did not prove 

 a very profitable one as far as their producing capacity is concerned, for they are 

 both below the average. This would tend to confirm Dr. Raymond Pearl's conten- 

 tion that the producing capacity is transmitted rather through a male out of a high 

 producing dam, than through the high producing dam herself. However, it will be 

 interesting to watch the production of these three cows. 



