Milh Records. 11 



weighings are quite near enough for all practical purposes 

 to arrive at a fair average figure. Before discussing this, it will 

 be as well to review the practice and methods adopted in various 

 countries, as from them a solution of the question may be 

 arrived at. 



England. — In England milk records, giving the quantity of 

 milk by measure, have been kept by a few breeders for over 

 half a century, but apparently the first published records were 

 those of the breeders of Channel Island cattle, who wished to 

 demonstrate the dairy qualities of their cows, such animals in 

 those days being regarded only as ornamental. 



In the late Mr. George Simpson's herd, at Wray Park, 

 Reigate, records were kept as far back as 1876, the milk yield 

 of one cow, Luna, for the years 1876 and 1877 being specially 

 mentioned as remarkable in the introduction to the first 

 volume of the English Jersey Herd Book. 



In 1880 milk records of the Jerseys in the herd of the then 

 Lord Braybrooke, at Audley End, were started, and elaborate 

 tables giving the result of the milk yield for three years were 

 published in the third volume of the Society's Herd Book. 



Other breeders of Jerseys followed suit, and one in particular 

 — the late Mr. John Frederick Hall, of Sharcombe, Wells — was 

 so impressed with the good resulting from the keeping of milk 

 records that he instituted the butter-test trials, which are still 

 found in the schedules of the leading Shows both in this 

 country and in America. 



By degrees the practice of weighing and recording milk 

 came into favour, and now breeders of pedigree cattle, notably 

 Shorthorns, Lincoln Red Shoi-thorns, Ayrshires, and Red Polls, 

 publish annually, either in their respective herd books or 

 elsewhere, the milk records of the animals in their herds. 

 These figures are always accepted as genuine, and when 

 printed in a sale catalogue have of late years materially 

 affected the results. As an illustration, reference may be 

 made to the prices obtained at the sale of the late Mr. George 

 Taylor's herd, where the milk records were printed under the 

 pedigree of each animal. 



Friesland. — Professor Fleischmann, in Friesland, appears to 

 have been the first on the continent of Europe to carry out 

 complete tests with a view to ascertain the difEerences both 

 in the quantity and quality of the milks yielded by a herd of 

 cows. He began this work in 1889, and as a result of his 

 researches the " Friesland Agricultural Association commenced 

 in 1891 a systematic investigation of the milk and butter yield 

 of the cows of two herds on different sorts of soils, in order to 

 draw the attention of the dairy farmer to the great differences 

 in yielding power of cows of the same age and under equal 



