Vermont Dairymen's Association. 148 



into actual farm practice ? The individual doing it may be help- 

 ed, but there are no more good cows than before the change was 

 made. What has been gained by the sharper man * * is lost 

 by the other fellow * * There are not superior cows enough 

 in existence to meet the wants of all who realize the advantage 

 coming from their possession." 



The writer who penned this editorial is apt to be querulous, 

 and in this particular case has, in part at any rate, missed the 

 point. Granted that there may not be "superior cows enough in 

 existence to meet the wants of all who realize the advantage 

 coming from their possession" ; does that justify one for harboring 

 cows whose milk yields do not sell for as much as their food 

 costs? If some Anna Eva Fay could pass through a herd and 

 unerringly point out the unprofitable animals, and if the owner 

 was convinced of the infallibility of her verdict, would he not 

 at once remove them? So should he when weight and test point 

 out the cow boarder. The "easy solution" of the scientific worker 

 is easy so far as culling is concerned ; but the rest is another 

 story. 



STOCK JUDGING. 



To weigh ; to test and calculate ; to compare cost of keeping 

 within income ; to cull. These are relatively simple and fairly 

 certain procedures ; but the rest is not so easy to accomplish. 

 One can kill cows in a moment, but to get better ones in their 

 places means time, money, special skill, rare judgment, many 

 failures and disappointments and slow progress. Destructive 

 processes are always simpler than are constructive ones. 



The usual advice as to the use of a registered bull is more 

 commonly heeded today than hitherto; yet its adoption does not 

 provide a panacea since the results are often apt to be disappoint- 

 ing. Registration is far from being certification. It has been 

 aptly said that "there is no scrub so poor as the pure bred scrub." 

 Few sires beget ofl:spring materially better than the cows with 

 which they are mated, unless the latter are right poor animals. 

 In other words, the proportion of blanks in breeding is large ; 

 and, unfortunately, one cannot always tell blanks from prizes 

 with certainty until three or four years of bovine life have 

 elapsed. For example, we have had at the head of the Station 

 herd during the past ten years three difi^erent registered bulls. 

 Each has been accounted among the best get of three famous 

 herds. Their pedigrees in each case showed many fine lines of 

 breeding. And yet, as used on the registered and grade Jerseys 

 at the Station farm, animals which made on the average for a 

 dozen years 325 pounds of butter, the proportion of heifer calves, 



