346 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



for your own information just about as complete a record of each cow's 

 year's work as though you weighed each day's milk, and you will have 

 only one-tenth of the work. However, it isn't much trouble to weigh each 

 milking, if you have scales in the barn for that purpose and a sheet of 

 paper fastened to a card board, properly ruled, behind each cow's stall. 

 But if you just won't do either of these things, then at the very least 

 weigh the total milk from your whole herd once every ten days (or on 

 the loth, 20th and 30th of each month) and test it if you can, but weigh 

 it anyhow. " You will then know what your herd has done for the year, 

 but it will be next to impossible for you to pick out the profitable and un- 

 profitable cows. That is the great advantage of weighing the milk of each 

 ^:ow separately. The extra time you take for this work will be more 

 than paid for by the increased production of your cows, for you will 

 take special interest in just what each individual is doing, and without 

 knowing it you will give your herd better care and attention, and get 

 better yield of milk on account of it. Then, also, you can weed out un- 

 profitable cows, and show a saving in this way the following year. 



SELL THE "boarders." 



This blends into the second step: Dispose of your unprofitable 

 cows. With a very little figuring you can tell about what your cows 

 are costing you, and you can also figure without trouble what you are 

 getting per gallon for your milk. When you find that a cow is actually 

 losing you money, sell her — not to your neighbor, however, unless he 

 happens to be a butcher. A neighbor of mine sold me this sort of a 

 cow% but he left the country right away. Two years later this cow was 

 done up in nice tin can packages and sold for choice meat, with apolo- 

 gies and regret for its not being done a few years sooner. There is no 

 use in trying to breed up absolutely unprofitable cows, but keep your 

 cows that are showing you a reasonable profit and you can soon build 

 up a much more profitable herd. 



These are really the first two big steps toward dairy cattle improve- 

 ment, but the most of you will take, or have taken, the third step before 

 the first two — that is 



SELECT a proper SIRE. 



If you have already taken this step, then take the other two just 

 mentioned just as soon as you can. The bull is said to be "half of the 

 herd," but in a herd of poor grades or native cows he is very much more 

 than half. All of you can aflford a good bull, even if you have to buy him 

 when a calf and await his development. By all means buy a registered 

 bull, but don't buy him just because he is registered. There are a lot 



