No. 4.] BREEDS AND VARIETIES. 175 



Professor Roberts. I can hardly tell. We weigh them 

 pretty often, l)ut I am not the professor of dairy husliandry. 



Professor Cheesman. Can you not tell us within fifty 

 pounds ? 



Professor Roberts. I guess I can if I think a little. 

 You know sometimes we have a little two-year-old thing 

 which reduces the average. You want the weight of the 

 mature cow ; I think our grade Jerseys will average pretty 

 near nine hundred pounds. 



Mr. Waters. I would like to ask the professor how 

 much grain he fed that cow that made four hundred and 

 forty pounds of butter a year ? 



Professor Roberts. Eight pounds a day is our general 

 rule to a cow givino- a lariic amount of milk. A little more 

 is given to a cow that is going into beef, but our rule is 

 eight pounds of concentrated food per day per cow when 

 they are in milk. That food is generally composed of about 

 one-quarter cotton-seed meal, one-quarter bran, and the 

 other half oats or corn or anything we can get. 



Mr. Waters. Is that the ration that you feed to your 

 grade Jerseys? 



Professor Roberts. Yes, sir; eight pounds of concen- 

 trated food a day when they are in milk. Now, mind what 

 I said. If we see a little Jersey cow, for instance, whose 

 capacity is not up to that feed, and she begins to go to beef, 

 we withhold a little. She has got a surplus, she eats more 

 than her udder will take care of, and she is going to put it 

 on her ribs. We do not want her to do that. 



Mr. . This is a milk-producing country. Now, 



would you advise a man starting in the milk business to 

 start off with a herd of grade Jerseys or grade Hoi steins ? 

 From which can he get the most profit, compared with the 

 food they will consume and the milk they will give ? 



Professor Roberts. I would advise such a man, the first 

 thing he did, to go and learn how to judge a dairy cow. He 

 can no to the colleo;e and learn ' it this winter. He can get 

 more information there than at any other place. If he will 

 come up to our place, our professor of dairy husbandry will 

 give him a few simple lessons on how to select a dairy cow. 

 That is the first thing. Then he can go out and buy his 



