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Another loss along the same line lies in producing five per cent 

 milk for a four per cent market and standard. The standard estab- 

 lished by law or agreement is to be met, but there is no reason why 

 the producer should exceed that in value, and give something for 

 which he obtains no equivalent. This calls for the selection of 

 stock by the Babcock test. Milk and butter fat are the products 

 of nerve force and it is this which exhausts vitality most rapidly. 

 For this reason the producer must protect himself from waste by 

 wise selection with reference to the work the animal is to perform. 

 Economy here points to a conservation of nerve force, an item 

 which receives far too little attention. We save at the spigot and 

 waste at the bung when the principle here involved is not applied 

 by the individual farmer to his individual animals. 



The standard is to be met, but skill and care are called for not 

 to exceed unless price is proportionately increased. Deliver what 

 your contract calls for and then protect yourself from loss. In 

 butter making the question rests solely on production of butter 

 fat, with the same exactions regarding individuals. In both cases 

 breeds become of secondary importance. A close study of the 

 cost of the product desired from individual animals is the only way 

 by which one can open the way to larger yield and less expense. 

 Profitable cows are to be bred, not purchased. Herds are to be 

 established, not picked up. The dominating will of an objective 

 mind, filled with a high ideal of quantity or quality, alone can 

 breed up to that standard of profit consistent with good business. 

 Males are to be selected with sole reference to their virile energy 

 and prepotent powers to transmit, in exceptional degree, the ten- 

 dencies which under wise guidance, may be developed into fixed 

 habits. Profitable dairy herds or animals are not accidents. 



Viewing the problem from the business stand-point, the greatest 

 saving in our milk or butter departments will come b}^ a strict 

 application of the law of selection of individuals, the sharp weed- 

 ing out of non-profitable cows, the breeding of future herds from 

 sires and dams of pronounced merit and the casting one side of 

 all calves which do not give evidence of vitality and promise of 

 great production. Color of markings plays no part in the con- 

 sideration of the question from a milk or butter stand-point, but 

 quality of hair and skin, evidence of udder, size and location of 

 teats, looseness of tissue about the udder, thickness of abdominal 

 wall and size of navel are points not to be passed over carelessly. 

 Future cows will carry the evidences of worth at birth in udder 

 structure and conformation, while the story of endurance may be 

 read in the strength of the abdominal wall about the umbilicus. 

 It does not pay to raise heifer calves upon a chance basis. 



