Vermont Dairymen's Association. 99 



he can improve the average production of his dairy. We have 

 had good advice along this line this morning. It does seem to 

 me there is no phase of dairying today that affords such a field 

 for improvement. We know what the average cow is. I believe 

 the average cow produces just about the same with us as it does 

 in this country, there is not a great deal of difference. You 

 may, as a state do a little better than we do as a country because 

 you are more generally interested in dairying than we are. The 

 average of milk per cow is about 3.000 pounds, but the average 

 cow is rather an expensive animal to keep if we are to be- 

 lieve all we hear upon that point. I do not believe this is a 

 question that can be figured out in dollars and cents correctly. 

 It must be evident there is great room for improvement in the 

 ])roduction of milk as we are undertaking to do some work along 

 that line, just north of you, here, in the eastern townships. Last 

 spring we started to take a cow census ; that work is still going 

 on, so I cannot give you any complete record, just give you one 

 or two figures along the lines in which we hope to create suf- 

 ficient interest in this matter upon the part of dairymen with a 

 view to improve the general efiiciency of the herds. 



Now they began in the month of May and got fully started 

 in the month of June testing the milk of each herd. This was 

 done by furnishing each patron with the proper method for keep- 

 ing the records, then supplying the small sample bottle, holding 

 about six ounces of milk, in order to keep the sample for the 

 month. They were asked to weigh the milk night and morning 

 on the 3d, 13th and 23d of each month. That would be six sam- 

 ples put into the composite sample bottle. That is not a very 

 exact record but you can make a pretty fair estimate of the 

 amount of fat which each cow made by such a test. 



We tested 61 herds in the month of June. There were 945 

 cows in those herds ; the average pounds of milk per cow during 

 that month was 625 pounds. I do not know whether that is a 

 fair average or not. There v/as not anything especial about any 

 of those herds, they were just ordinary herds. 



During the month, of October there were 23 herds tested, a 

 total of 335 cows and the average production of milk was 327 

 pounds for the month of October. During the month of June WjC 

 found the individual test varied from 2.4 to 6.5 per cent, of fat. 



In the month of September there was one herd of 24 cows 

 that gave a total of 1,260 pounds of milk which tested 4 per cent. 

 Another herd of 24 cows gave 9,130 pounds which tested 4 per 

 cent.: then 23 cows gave 8,120 pounds of milk with a total of 

 371 pounds of feed. Another herd of 23 cows gave 11,200 pounds 

 of milk with a total of 647 pounds of feed. Convert that into 



