702 BOARD OF AGRICULTUSE. 



POSSIBILITIES OF PPiOFITABLE COWS ON THE FARM. 



A. ,T. GLOVER, OF HOARD S DAIRYMAN. 



For over three years tbe department of dairy husbandry of the Uni- 

 versity of Illinois has been conducting field work among the dairymen of 

 the State. A number of them were persuaded to weigh and sample each 

 mess of milk a sufficient number of times during the year so that the 

 performance of each cow could be estimated with a considerable degree 

 of accuracy. It has been demonstrated bj' a number of our experiment 

 stations that many cows are kept in the dairy at a very small profit 

 and some at an actual loss. In order to determine the facts and to lead 

 the dairyman to realize their full force and meaning, a man was sent into 

 the field to persuade a number of them to keep a record of every cow in 

 their herds. While this paper gives no facts new to science, yet it pre- 

 sents a line of work on which we have but little data and it brings the 

 farmers face to face with facts that exist upon their own farms. It shows 

 them that some herds are kept at a good profit, some at a small profit, 

 and others at an actual loss. 



HOW THE FARM TEST WAS MADE. 



The farmers who took up this work were required to weigh and 

 sample the milk from each cow in the herd every seventh week for 14 

 consecutive milkings. After each cow was milked the milk was poured 

 into a weighing pail, weighed, and the weight recoi'ded on a milk sheet 

 directly under the cow's name. A small sample of milk was then taken 

 with a sample dipper or a milk thief and put into the sample bottles. 

 Corrosive sublimate tablets were used to preserve the samples of milk. 

 Instructions were given to each man to shake the composite samples each 

 day, so as to mix the fresh samples with the rest of the milk and keep 

 the cream from becoming dry or hard on the sides of the bottle. The 

 jars that were used for keeping the composite samples were one-half 

 pint, tin top, covered bottles. When the period of weighing and sampling 

 was completed, the samples were tested either on the farm or at the 

 creamery. 



CALCULATING THE AJIOUNT OF MILK AND BUTTER FAT. 



The milk was weighed and sampled during the fourth week of the 

 seven-weeks period. From the total amount of milk that each cow gave 

 during this time, and the per cent, of fat, was calculated the amount of 

 butter fat produced in the week. From these results were estimated the 



