150 Thibty-Sixth Annual Report of the 



Prof. Hills : — The Michigan association comprises some 

 twenty-five to thirty members, its employee simply travels from 

 one place to another, — Monday here, Tuesday there, etc. He 

 visits each herd once a month and weighs the milk of its cows 

 for one day and takes samples. Weights are thus taken twelve 

 times a year and tests are thus taken twelve times a year in each 

 herd. From that data the essentially accurate milk and butter 

 yields as of each cow are calculated. In Denmark, with an aver- 

 age membership of twelve, they probably have some other system 

 as regards the frequency of record taking. The scheme simply 

 means that several men pool the interests. 



Mr. Jenne : — In regard to getting rid of the poor cows ; what 

 will we do with our hay? I wouldn't know what to do with it. 

 If all the poor cows were disposed of, we would have to sell 

 our hay, and the best hay at that. Then we would have the 

 poorest left to feed the best cows ; and if you feed your poorest 

 hay to your best cows you will not get good results. 



Prof. Hills : — We are told that Rome was not built in a day ; 

 and this proposition will certainly not be one that will be worked 

 out readily or the results arrived at in one or in ten years. But 

 the goal is one towards which we should strive. Mr. Jenne's 

 poor hay has cost him something to get. The land that grew that 

 poor hay I believe could be put to better uses than to grow feed 

 for unprofitable dairy cows ; perhaps into forest or into potatoes. 

 Mr. Jenne : — Suppose the land lay in such a way that the 

 farm was springy and hard to drain? It costs money and you 

 are struggling to pay for your farm. There is bound to be 

 more or less poor hay. What can one do with it ? 



Prof. Hills : — The unprofitable cow doesn't help you in your 

 struggle to pay for that farm. Use the hay to bed good cows 

 with. There is less food value in such hays than we are apt 

 to think. It often takes about all the energy or food value which 

 such hay contains to enable the cow to digest it. So I believe that 

 such hay is often better used for bedding or even put directly 

 into the manure pile tJian fed to cows. 



Mr. Jenne : — Can you feed butter fat into milk ? 

 Prof. Hills : — Yes. You can do it by feeding such things 

 as cottonseed, linseed or corn oil. I have done it thus and so 

 have others. But it is not butter fat, it is an extraneous fat ; and 

 the kind of butter it makes would get no pro rata at this con- 

 vention. There is just one feed that is fed in this country that 

 permanently, and even that but very slightly, increases the fat 

 content of milk, and that is distillers' dried grains. It is the one 

 exception that proves the rule ; and its effect is so slight that it 

 amounts to nothing. A cow giving, say 5 percent, fat in her 

 milk may give 5.1 or in extreme cases 5.2 percent. If given 



