76 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc, 



the range of profitable return. Above that there is an in- 

 crease in the percentage of waste, and I cannot secure one 

 cow in fifty that has a digestive limit above eight pounds.. 

 I think I can breed such a cow, if you will give me time. 



Mr. Prati. How would you divide that eight pounds — 

 in what proportion ? 



Ex-Governor Hoard. Well, I would have two pounds 

 of protein to every cow of a thousand pounds weight. For 

 instance, I would take two pounds of cotton-seed meal, or a 

 pound and a half. I would take four pounds of bran, and 

 a pound, say, of oil meal, and the balance more bran. 



Mr. W. B. Barton (of Dalton). In the Berkshire Agri- 

 cultural Society we had before us six butter cows. We were- 

 under instruction to test them with the Babcock test, and 

 take into consideration the time of being in milk and preg- 

 nancy, etc. Those cows had been in milk from three weeks 

 to six months, except one, which had been in milk three or 

 four years without having had a calf. The test resulted 

 from about 4 per cent to a trifle over 8 per cent butter fat, 

 and the quantities of milk varied as much. The cow which 

 gave the 8 per cent of butter fat was this cow which had 

 been in milk so long. There were five premiums awarded, 

 and we excluded the cow which had been in milk three years 

 from the premiums on the ground that that was not a l)utter 

 cow, because the cream we considered would not be as 

 churnable. I would like to ask Governor Hoard about that* 



Ex-Governor Hoard. Was that a farrow cow ? 



Mr. Barton. Yes. 



Ex-Governor Hoard. Farrow cows' milk, as a rule, as 

 well as strippers' milk, is a little more difiicult of churning, 

 but not necessarily unchurnable. If you ripen the cream 

 of such a cow or a stripper cow and carry the acidification a 

 little further, you produce a corresponding ease of churning. 

 I should not have excluded the cow you speak of on the 

 grounds you mention, because churnability is more a test of 

 the skill of the churner than it is of the cow. 



Mr. . In regard to warming water for dairy cows,. 



some three years ago this was called to our attention and we 

 decided to make a trial of warming the water, although we 

 were unable to get it to as high a temperature as we desired. 



