Xo. 4.] REPORT OF DAIRY BUREAU. 



451 



]\Iuch of an improvement as is this method of getting at 

 the merits of animals, it is open to the objection that animals 

 which have been taken from their stalls, driven to the fair 

 grounds and subjected to unnatural conditions and surround- 

 ings, may not do their best. If the production of milk is, 

 as is believed by the best experts to-day, closely allied with 

 the nervous temperament and system, then anything which 

 disturbs that will have a deleterious efiect upon the quality 

 of milk. Consequently, the ideal way of testing milch cows 

 is at the barn of the owner, where the cows are under 

 perfectly normal and usual conditions. This test, while sat- 

 isfactory to the student of dairy problems, has nothing spec- 

 tacular which would draw a crowd to a cattle show, and 

 hence, if generally undertaken by agricultural societies, must 

 be for purely educational purposes, rather than from any 

 motive of securing a popular " attraction." One such test has 

 been made during the past year by the officer of the Bureau, 

 for the Bay State Agricultural Society. The herd tested was 

 that of Mr. Athertou Brown of Brookllne. The test occu- 

 pied two days and each of the four rows of figures represents 

 one milking. The animals are registered Jerseys. 



