18 THE CREAMERY PATRON'S HANDBOOK. 



month the figures can be footed up, and at the end of the year one can tell 

 the exact amount of milk each cow has produced. 



The testing should be done once or twice a month by testing one day's 

 milk both morning's and evening's milk because the test of the milk is 

 liable to vary from time to time, but a test at stated intervals say the 

 middle of each month and, taking that for the average of the month, will 

 approximate, at the end of the year, very closely indeed to the actual amount 

 of butterfat a cow produces during the year. 



Now when the farmer knows as he ought to know very closely as any 

 good business man would know the value of the feed his cows consume and 

 the value of the butterfat he fiirnishes to the creamery he can readily knew 

 which cows are returning him a profit and which ones he is keeping at a loss. 



It would seem that it ought not to require any argument to convince 

 any man of the folly of keeping cows that did not pay in milk for the food 

 they consumed, yet some men are constantly doing it and refuse to enlighten 

 themselves as to which cows are boarding on them without paying for it. 



I have in mind now a man whom I had been urging to take this means 

 of finding out which cows in his herd were not paying for their keep, and he 

 answered me by saying: "I won't do it. I'm afraid I should find too many 

 poor cows, and if I should dispose of all that did not pay, then what should 

 I do for cows?" Of course, argument is wasted on such a man and I said 

 no more. 



Some men think they know without weighing and testing the milk of 

 the individual cows of the herd which are the best ones, but they can only 

 guess at it, and are frequently grievously mistaken. I know this was the 

 case with me. Before the Babcock test was invented, the best I could do 

 was to weigh the milk, which I did once in a while, and thought I knew 

 something of the value of the different cows. 



As soon as Mr. Babcock brought out his milk test I bought one, and it 

 revealed to me some startling facts. Some cows, which I had supposed were 

 my best ones, I was glad to dispose of, while some that I had barely toler- 

 ated on my farm were really the most profitable ones. 



One instance I will relate: I had a large cow that was a hearty feeder, 

 we called Whitie, which my hired man milked; and another medium size, 

 called "Beauty," which I milked. The hired man used to say, when milking 

 "Whitie," when fresh and getting a large pail brimming full at a milking: 

 "If you only had a whole herd of cows like 'Whitie,' you would make lots 

 of money." Then, as he looked at the scant half pailful that I got from my 

 cow, he would say: "I don't see why you keep such a cow as 'Beauty' is. 

 It must be to look at; she don't give enough milk to pay." 



But the Babcock test came, and I got some milk scales and went to work 

 to weigh and test the milk for a year. "Whitie" started with 50 pounds 

 a day, but it soon began to drop off, and, after a while, she began to fatten 

 up and finally went dry some three months; and, notwithstanding her great 

 pretensions to begin with, she gave but 6,000 pounds during the year. Still, 



