Milk Records. 17 



quantity than above it, but it is so trifling that it is scarcely 

 worth taking into account.'" 



My experience agrees with that of the late Mr. Speir, and 

 for all practical purposes I am satisfied that weighing and 

 recording the milk once a week on a fixed day is sufficiently 

 accurate to be reliable, while sampling for testing purposes if 

 done three or four times in the period of lactation, will give all 

 requisite information where the sale of milk only is carried 

 on. The practice and the elasticity of the rules of the various 

 control societies would appear to confirm this view. 



There is another advantage in weighing milk once a week 

 which should not be lost sight of, and that is in the small number 

 of books which will be required, and the comparatively easy 

 way in which the record of a cow can be ascertained. A book 

 can be so spaced that it will record the weights of milk from 

 thirty cows for one month on a single page ; while columns, 

 for the actual weight of butter, where churned, or for the fat 

 percentage and the calculated weights of butter, can also be 

 arranged on the same page, room for other remarks being also 

 reserved. In such a book the cows are entered by name in 

 the first column, and when they calve they are placed at the 

 bottom of the list, gradually arriving at the top as their period 

 of lactation progresses. To get at the weight of milk given by 

 each animal is an easy matter. The weekly weights are added 

 together at the end of the lactation period and multiplied by 

 seven, the total being placed in the space provided for 

 "remarks" on the line alloted to the particular cow. The 

 weight of milk given by the herd in a day is readily obtained 

 by adding up the weekly column, but this is only mentioned 

 to demonstrate how useful such a return may be to the farmer. 



Twelve pages of a book so ruled will take the record of a 

 herd of thirty cows for a year, twentj'-four pages a herd of 

 sixtj', thus making it possible to keep in one book the records 

 of ten to twelve years or more, while the performance of any 

 individual cow can be seen at a glance, as no index is necessary, 

 the names of the cows being given on every page. 



A specimen page of such a book is given on pp. 18 and 19. 



Fat percentage. — It will be noticed that in nearly every 

 control society mentioned above, where a "standard yield " is 

 fixed, the calculated pounds of butter fat rather than the actual 

 weight of milk are taken as the basis, apparently because the 

 manufacture of butter is the staple trade of the particular 

 country. In England the case is different, as, save in excep- 

 tional circumstances, no one would think of making butter from 

 the milk of our heavy milking breeds, so long as a market 



i Mr. John Speir, op. cit. 



