130 Thirty-Sixth Annuat^ Report of the 



IN THE MATTER OF THE VERMONT COW CENSUS. 



JOSKPII h. IIII.I.S, DIRECTOR EXPERIMENT STATION, 

 BUREINGTON, VT. 



Last spring a pleasant and mild mannered gentleman came 

 into my office and counseled with me. He stated that he was 

 instructed by a prominent dairy paper to take a cow census in 

 Vermont. He had already spent some little time in Rutland and 

 Addison Counties and wished my judgment as to other locations. 

 I directed him to two good dairy counties, Franklin and Orleans, 

 The results of his study of loo Vermont herds were published 

 from May to August. The data which he gathered and the state- 

 ments he made have provoked much criticism. Data, statements 

 and criticisms alike are sufficiently important to warrant their 

 consideration at this meeting. I do not maintain that my views 

 are of necessity orthodox, or that they need to be accepted ; but I 

 trust my review may give rise to a discussion on the floor of this 

 meeting which will tend towards better things. It is to be de- 

 plored that those who most should profit thereby will neither 

 hear it now nor read it later nor heed it any time. 



WHAT IS A cow CENSUS? 



Let us at the outset get clearly in mind just what is a cow 

 census. The system employed is essentially as follows : The 

 party taking the census visits and consults with each farmer as to 

 his methods of feeding and caring for his stock. He then deter- 

 mines as nearly as may be the amounts of the sundry roughages 

 and concentrates that are fed and figures their cost, since owners 

 seldom possess definite knowledge as to these matters. He takes 

 creamery statements as evidences of income. A cow census is 

 therefore simply a statement from several farms of receipts for 

 milk or cream sold on the one hand, and of expenditures for food 

 on the other, coupled with a few generalities as to conditions, 

 environment, etc., the data being derived from the creamery state- 

 ments of actual receipts and the owners' statements as to the use 

 of fodders and feeds, the latter being subjected to the careful and 

 experienced scrutiny and modifications of the census taker. This 



