80 THE BUSINESS OF DAIRYING 



given examples of the importance of keeping careful 

 records of the individual cows, and thus determining 

 which are profitable and which are kept at a loss. 



EXAMPLE i. At the Georgia station the best cow 

 in the herd gave 7,968 pounds of milk, which pro- 

 duced butter worth $115.44, while the poorest cow 

 in the same herd gave only 2,788 pounds of milk, 

 with a butter value of $41.63. 



EXAMPLE 2. At the Michigan station the profit 

 on the milk from different cows varied from $6.08 

 to $94-05. 



EXAMPLE 3. At the New Jersey station the profits 

 from different cows varied from 13 cents to $49.72 

 when milk was valued at $i per 100 pounds. 



EXAMPLE 4. At the Connecticut (Storrs) station, 

 during the year 1903, the best cow gave a profit of 

 $54.72, and the poorest $2.76. In this case the best 

 cow gave a profit of nearly twice that of the average 

 cow in the herd. 



EXAMPLE 5. At the World's Columbian Exposi- 

 tion, Chicago, the cow with the best individual 

 record made two and one-third times as much butter 

 as the poorest of the seventy-five. 



While the difference between the best and poorest 

 animals in the examples given are great, the poorest 

 cows reported are not so poor as many of those kept 

 by individual dairymen, who make no accurate tests 

 and who rarely know anything of what each animal 

 is actually doing. Strong evidence is given on this 

 point by the Illinois Experiment Station, which 

 found, after testing a number of herds in the State, 

 that nearly every one proved that some of the cows 



