VERMONT DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 53 



quently nearly twice the amount of curds which calls for the 

 extra protein, the costly factor in animal food. 



I am satisfied that I cannot afford to keep a cow in my dairy 

 which does not give over four per cent. fat. 



Incidentally there has appeared an item of interest to those 

 making - a study of the transmission of the qualities of ances- 

 tors to their offspring. Prof. Cooke called attention sometime 

 since to the strong tendency of a heifer to give the same per 

 cent, of butter fat in her milk as was shown in that of her 

 dam and I now note the same tendency in my own herd and 

 while we have not data enough to proclaim a rule that the 

 butter fat of a heifer's milk will be the same as that of her 

 dam yet I have found no other characteristic transmitted with 

 greater uniformity. 



As a rule I practice private dairying and make up my own 

 butter because I can get a little out of my dairy in this way. 

 Yet I have sometimes found it profitable to patronize a cream- 

 ery and I was glad that creameries were within reach to take 

 my milk or cream, and I have this to say to all patrons of 

 creameries; if you feel that your test is too low, do not grum- 

 ble at your creamery man about it, he is probably honest, but 

 get a Babcock tester, have one in every neighborhood with the 

 apparatus approved by our experiment station and have some- 

 one skilled in taking samples and using the test and know 

 what your herd should test. It is about as easy to know the 

 amount of butter fat in your milk as it is to know if you get 

 correct weights from your butcher or grocery man and when 

 this practice becomes general with the patrons of the cream- 

 eries there will be no monkeying with the test and the little 

 errors likely to arise will be harmoniously adjusted. 



I feel more and more the importance of every dairyman's 

 knowing the per cent, of butter fat of each of his individual 

 cows. This has assumed a more practical form since we have 

 learned that the per cent, of butter fat is a fixed individual 

 trait and is not affected by feed. 



The common ground for economical and. successful dairy 

 work for both the private dairy and the creamery patron is 

 the good cow with good feed and good care. There is a whole 

 sermon along this line of thought in the famous experiment 

 of the Kansas experiment station with the scurb herd. This 

 herd was purchased without an attempt at selection, hoping 

 to get as poor cows as the poorest farmer had to deal with. 

 They were placed under high feed and the best of care. 



The best cow made 451 pounds of butter worth $73.17, less 

 cost of feed, $40.37; the poorest cow made 157 pounds of but- 

 ter worth $26.22, less cost of feed, loss, $0.43. The tabulated 

 record of the herd at our own experiment station for the year 



