74 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



see what the two-year-old heifers, that come in, are doing, and to 

 follow back and see what their dams are doing and what their 

 sires' dams did. 



Q. Do you weigh the milk night and morning every day in 

 the year? 



A. No, just three days a month, and take the average of the 

 three days, and figure the cow as giving that average for the 

 month. 



Q. Is it not advisable to take this test about the middle of the 

 month ? 



A. I had not thought about taking this test by the calendar 

 month, but if you are going to take it by the calendar month that 

 test is all right. 



Q. If a cow would calf the first of the month, no doubt the 

 middle of the month would be all right. Suppose she would calf 

 about the middle of the month, a test at the middle of the month 

 would not be all right, would it? 



A. If she calved about the middle of the month, I would let 

 her go to the middle of the next month. If I were making my test 

 at the middle of the month I would test the cow that had come in 

 at the first of the month, but I would not test a cow that had just 

 dropped her calf. You find, when you come to average it up, where 

 these minor points do not amount to much, for the practical dairy- 

 man. We do not want to get the thing so cumbersome that people 

 cannot handle it at all. At the National Dairy Show last fall I 

 made some remarks that provoked considerable discussion. I know 

 at one of the institutes in Illinois last fall they had some of Gurler's 

 figures up, and thought he had shot pretty high. I made a state- 

 ment that a cow that would produce four hundred pounds of butter 

 per year was as well worth four hundred dollars as a cow that 

 would make two hundred pounds of butter was worth forty dollars. 

 I have a few figures here I am going to give you. I will put them on 

 the blackboard. 



Example — We will put two hundred pounds of butter at 

 twenty-two cents. I do not believe that is any too high, as a matter 

 of comparison. We have forty-four dollars, and I suppose that 

 cow will make four thousand pounds of skimmed milk. I shall put 

 that at twenty cents, which makes $8.00. Here we have $52.00. 

 We will suppose the cost of feed to be $35.00, which I think is about 

 right. The labor we will figure at $16.00. A few years ago, when 

 I left the farm and figured this thing all out, I figured it cost me 

 per year per cow when milk went to the creamery, about $12.50. 



