FOURTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART V. 243 



of the country as this is a great ijeef State. Our farmers have lots of 

 rough feed, they have lots of corn fodder, they have lots of forage in 

 the shape of hay, they have lots of corn, and in their work they follow 

 diversified farming, that is. in many sections a certain amount of dairy- 

 ing is carried on. In all sections there is a great deal of beef pro- 

 duction, so the cow which will combine both beef and milk is the cow 

 which perhaps appeals more to the farmers than any other class of cow. 

 Some men have gone so far as to say that it is impossible to get this 

 kind of a cow. 



For the past ten years we have had at the college at Ames an 

 experiment station. We have kept there different breeds of cows. Have 

 kept accurate records of all the feed they have consumed. Morning and 

 evening we make notes and record the amount of milk given by each 

 cow; morning and evening we have collected samples of the milk given 

 by each cow and have had them tested so as to know exactly how much 

 butter fat eacli cow gave us; at the end of the year we have the total 

 amount of milk given by each cow, her average test in butter fat, the 

 total amount of butter produced, the cost of feeding the cow for the 

 year and the cost of producing one pound of butter. In addition to 

 that we have kept the calves from these cows, have fed them on skim 

 milk and after a while sent them to the market, where they were slaugh- 

 tered for beef purposes. 



In the first place, I wish to be understood on this point; that is, 

 there is only one way to know a dairy cow, and that is by the use of the 

 Babcock test and the weigh scales. That is the method we are fol- 

 lowing; but still a great many people would like to know a few other 

 pointers which will help them in the selection of cows. There was a 

 time when we had many men who claimed they could lok)k at a cow and 

 tell you how much milk she would give; that they could go into a ring 

 where there were a dozen cows and could tell by certain points which 

 v/ere the best of the dozen. I have been called upon to judge cattle 

 at the state fairs, county fairs and international fairs, and in judging 

 dairy cattle I have never made the claim, and do not intend to now, 

 that I can go into a ring where there are a dozen good cows and pick 

 out the one which will give the most milk, because I can not do it by 

 looking at it and neither can any man living. There is 'only one way 

 and that is by weighing the milk and testing it. 



Still there are several points which serve as a basis, that is, we can 

 tell between the poor cow and the good cow, we can judge perhaps be- 

 tween the good and the medium cow. I wish to call your attention to 

 some of these things which indicate dairy capacity. Now the dairy cow 

 is simply a machine. Governor Cummins has spoken this afternoon 

 about the advisability of increasing our manufacturng industries in this 

 State. I believe dairying is the greatest industry we have in the State 

 at the present time. The farmer grows the feed; he has the cow; she 

 is the machine lor converting the raw material into milk; it is taken 

 to the creamery, where it is separated, the cream taken from the milk 

 and converted into butter. The dairy cow is simply the machine. That 

 would lead us to believe at once that one thing a cow must have is 



