VERMONT DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 57 



of our patrons think they are ill-treated by the test, but in my 

 judgement the average creamery man is as honest as the av- 

 erage business man in any other vocation. We test four times 

 a month. One of our patrons sent up his milk to the Exper- 

 iment station and he thought he would catch us napping, be- 

 cause the test would be different. This might result in 

 agreement or in disagreement of tests. It depends altogether 

 how carefully the sample is taken whether the result will be 

 correct or otherwise, if the sample is taken from the first milk 

 ing or the strippings of the cow results will be erroneous. 

 To check the accuracy of creamery testing by the station 

 analysis you must use the identical sample. Our creamery 

 man will let any patron take his sample and seal it up and 

 send it to the Experiment Station. But if the Station is go- 

 ing to make our butter maker or our directors responsible for 

 stealing we want it to test the same sample we use and we 

 will not submit to anything else. We want the same thing 

 tested. Let the creamery man take the same sample out of 

 the composite can and then we will stand our end with the 

 Experiment Station. We take it for granted the man at the 

 Experiment Station can test the milk. 



President Pierce. I would ask Prof. Hills whether the high 

 testing or the medium testing cow has proven the most eco- 

 nomical butter maker at the station? 



Prof. Hills. The station owned a dairy herd for over elev- 

 en years. It has been under experiment all the time and has 

 been handled in many ways. Our work has been sufficiently 

 extensive and conducted with such care that we are better able 

 to judge this matter than most people. As a broad and gen- 

 eral rule the cows making relatively rich milk upward of five 

 per cent, have made a pound of butter at a lower cost than 

 those which have tested below four and one-half percent. Our 

 Ayrshires make the cheapest milk but they seldom make the 

 cheapest butter. Our registered and high grade Jerseys make 

 as a rule a more costly milk but cheaper butter than the Ayr- 

 shires. There is, in my judgment, a third item which every 

 man must needs have if he wishes to get a fair idea of his 

 herd. You need to know, in a rough way the amount of food 

 eaten. Mr. Vail correctly stated that the cow giving 6000 

 pounds of three per cent, milk will usually make a pound of 

 butter at a greater cost than the cow giving 3000 pounds of 

 six per cent, milk, since the caseine contents of the former is 

 much larger than of the latter, and that is made from the 

 most costly constitnts of the food. Experience and practice 

 agree in saying that as a broad and general rule the cows that 

 give the richest milk — provided the flow is a reasonable one — 

 are the cows which make the cheapest butter. In reference 



