62 PROFITABLE DAIRYING 



creased, and from the stock thus produced the cows 

 for dairy work should be selected. 



As assistants in making selections the scales and 

 the Babcock test are indispensable. They are to 

 the dairyman what the scales are to the grocer and 

 the yardstick to the merchant. They are impartial. 

 They fix the value of the cow as a part of the herd 

 with inflexible accuracy. The cream test is better 

 than none, but it is so variable and uncertain that 

 it is of little value. It is not uncommon to find cows 

 whose cream is twice as rich in butter fat as that 

 of some others. I have known the difference to be 

 so great that it took two and one-half quarts of one 

 cow's cream to furnish the same amount of butter 

 fat as contained in one quart of cream from 

 another. 



The milk of each cow should be weighed on the 

 same day of each week. At the end of the year these 

 weights will have a basis which will give a practical- 

 ly accurate result. The butter-fat test should be 

 used once in two months. The data derived from 

 these two tests will tell what the cow has done and 

 is worth. The fat test should be of a mixture of 

 samples taken from four consecutive milkings. A 

 case made to hold eight or ten numbered eight- 

 ounce bottles, each one used for a cow, is a handy 

 means of lightening the labor of testing. An ounce 

 capacity tin cup may be used to take samples from 

 the milking to put in the bottles. Every time a 

 sample is added it should be mixed thoroughly 

 with what is already in the bottle. In a book ar- 

 ranged for the purpose a record of these tests 

 must be kept. 



