The Bulletin. 107 



she was fresh. She may peter out at the end of two or three mouths, and 

 be dry for the rest of the year ; but he remembers only the big flow she gave 

 wheu she was fresh, aud does not remember the long time she was dry. An- 

 other cow may give a moderate flow of milk, but stick to it all the year, aud 

 at the end of the year show a good profit. Still the same farmer does not get 

 a good opinion of this cow, because he does not remember the long time she 

 was giving milk, while he does remember that her daily How was but moderate. 



Again, some cows are so nice to milk, so gentle and kind, aud they are kept 

 for that reason and thought to be good cows. That is not a good way of 

 selecting cows, for many of these cows that are nice to milk are simply star 

 boarders. The best method to use in selecting cows for breeding purposes is 

 to combine the records of the Babcock test and the milk scales with good judg- 

 ment regarding the conformation and constitution of the animal. 



liight here I want to say that Mr. Eaton, of the State Department of Agri- 

 culture, is doing considerable herd record work, and I think you ought to get 

 in touch with him, for he will be glad to help any dairyman institute this 

 system of record keeping in his herd. 



You will find after you go to testing your herd, or if you get enough men 

 interested to form a cow-testing association, that there are three general 

 classes of covrs. One class take a certain amount of feed, digest and assimi- 

 late it, and convert it into choice cuts of meat upcm their backs. If this is the 

 tendency of a cow, she is a good beef animal, and we ought to make beef of 

 her just as soon as possible. 



Another class will take the same amount of feed, digest and assimilate it, 

 and put it into the milk pail in the form of milk. And if that is a cow's 

 tendency or predisposition, then she is a dairy cow, no matter what her color. 



The third class of cows will take the same amount of feed, digest and 

 assimilate it, and the Lord only knows what they do with it. They make it 

 into neither beef nor milk. Now, we have entirely too many of this last class 

 of cows in our herds to-day. They have no proper place there, and I have no 

 sympathy for a mau who will keep that kind of a cow. He is not the right 

 kind of man to be a dairyman. He is a cow-keeper. He keeps cows, instead 

 of letting the cows keep him. 



In Fremont, Michigan, in the first cow-testing association organized in this 

 country, the average production of butter-fat per cow during the first year was 

 21.5 pounds. In the course of four years this association increased the butter- 

 fat production per cow to 2G4 pounds in a year. At the same time they 

 doubled the profit per cow, in spite of the fact that feed went up considerably 

 during these four years. They accomplished this great result simply by culling 

 out the poor animals and raising the heifer calves from the good cows. 



How much is a cow worth that produces 21.'5 pounds of butter-fat per year? 

 She is worth about $G0. If she produces 204 pounds a year, she is worth a 

 good deal more, because the 50 extra pounds are nearly all clear profit, for it 

 costs but very little more to keep her, and what is produced beyond the cost 

 of feed we may consider clear profit. If these .50 pounds of butter-fat were 

 sold at .30 cents a pound, she would bring us in $15 a year more than the other 

 cow, which is 6 per cent interest on .$2.50. 



In the same way, the calves from cows which produce 264 pounds of 

 butter-fat in a year are worth a good deal more than the calves from cows 

 which produce only 215. You get more pleasure from owning and caring for 

 a good cow than a poor one. It is harder work to get up and milk a lot of 

 poor cows every morning ; but if the cows are good, you are interestetl in them, 

 and the milking is not nearly so hard work. 



There should be more pleasure in our worlc and less drudgery. What is 

 the use of doing drudgery, when we can put a good deal of pleasure into the 

 work by keeping better cows? 



In order to form a cow-testing association, you need 26 farmers, owning 

 about 400 cows, in order to get the charges down to a reasonable amount 

 and so that you can get a good man to do the testing. This cow tester, besides 

 furnishing a record of your herd, helps you in a great many ways. He will 

 practically take charge of feeding the herd, if you wish it. Some men will 

 study the record and the individuality of each cow and feed her as an indi- 

 vidual, in that way feeding economically and getting her up to the highest 



