56 DAIRYING. 



' feed were kept in the herd for three years, and five other cows pro- 

 duced less than $30.00 worth of butter in a year. The annual pro- 

 duction of the mature cows during the three years shows that the 

 poor cows did not improve from year to year, but continued to 

 give less milk than required to pay for the feed consumed. The 

 one good cow was equally persistent in doing well. The creamery 

 value of her milk for three years was $200. This is $110 more than 

 the cost of her feed when we take $30 per year as the value of 'a 

 cow's feed. The butter produced by the other five cows tested for 

 three years amounted to only $114 more than the cost of their feed 

 during the same time. The milk of one cow, therefore, paid the 

 owner within $4 as much profit in three years as the milk of five 

 cows in the same herd for the same length of time. In another herd 

 the excess of butter over cost of feed of two cows was worth $60, 

 while that of five other cows was worth only $56.00. Thus the 

 owner received at the creamery $2.00 less for the milk of five cows 

 than he did for that of two cows in the same herd. Many more 

 startling illustrations might lie given from the records of the 

 different herds. 



136. If, as has been stated, each farmer fed all his cows in the 

 same way, and the time and labor of milking and feeding the cowrf 

 were approximately the same for both good and poor cows, it fol- 

 lows that it did not cost any more to feed the best than the poorest 

 cows in the herd. The information furnished by these tests may 

 be very valuable to the owner of the cows, and should be of im- 

 portance to the cow as her life ought to depend upon the record 

 she makes. Previous to making the tests, the owners of these cows 

 had no accurate idea of the relative value of their cows ; but the 

 records show that the information gained is worth many times the 

 cost of a milk weighing scale, a Babcock test, and the time neces- 

 sary to use them. 



