No. 4.] IMPROVEMENT IN DAIRY STOCK. 163 



"Mr. W. H. Jenkins, a recognized authority, furni.shed 

 in the "Dairyman" for November 14, a table showing the 

 production of 80 herds in Onondaga County, containing 

 852 liead, with an average yearly yield of almost exactly 

 4,000 pounds ; but one-half of these herds were fed largely 

 on alfalfa as roughage, and therein had an advantage over 

 us. in New England, where as yet we have not made a suc- 

 cess in o-rowino; this most valuable of clovers. The 40 

 herds not fed alfalfa averaged only o,689 pounds per coav. 



In the "Dairyman" for November 21, Mr. H. H. Lyon, 

 who is conducting an investigation at the Bainbridge 

 creamery, prints statistics from 10 herds, containing 186 

 cows, with an average of 3,648 pounds per cow ; and this 

 furnishes a fairer basis for comparison, as he states the 

 amount of grain fed, which averages only about 2 pounds 

 per day less than that given to our own cows. Few, how- 

 ever, of these herds are fed ensilage, and therein we have 

 an advantage. 



For the purpose of this comparison, we will take the 

 figures of our own herd for the year ending January, 11)00, 

 partly because we can make an easier division, and partly 

 because the figures for the two succeeding years show a 

 slight falling off from those of that j^ear. The average of 

 all the 1<50 cows in milk, or which should have been in 

 milk for that full year, including all heifers and all abor- 

 ters, was 6,003 pounds of milk, averaging, in all of the 

 several tests made, a little better than 5 per cent butter 

 fat. There is a difference, then, of 2,355 pounds between 

 the average of the 10 herds reported by Mr. Lyon and the 

 average of our own herd, which, at 1^ cents per pound, 

 would make $29.43 per cow. 



But the difference is not less pronounced if we use only 

 figures from our own herd ; for, of the 160 cows averaging 

 6,003 pounds, 79, or practically one-half, averaged 7,223 

 pounds, while the remaining 81 averaged only 4,813 

 pounds, — a difference of 2,410 pounds at I14 cents per 

 pound, making $30.12 as the actual cash value of the dif- 

 ference in product, — not of individual cows, but of the 

 best half and the poorest half of our own herd, figured at a 



