PROFIT FROM THE DAIRY 125 



fat samples of each cow's milk. There are numer- 

 ous handy devices for weighing milk and keeping 

 a record for each cow which can be secured at 

 trifling cost from any dealer in dairy supplies, while 

 the use of the Babcock tester is so simple and so 

 well known that it needs no comment. By using 

 these devices and keeping a fairly accurate record 

 of the feed consumed, one can readily determine 

 which cow should be culled out from the herd. 

 Not only will this elimination of profitless stock 

 prove a direct benefit in the saving of feed and 

 labor, but the herd will be greatly improved, and 

 the offspring from the selected cows, if sired by a 

 male of known breeding quality, will be worth 

 several hundred per cent more than those from an 

 untested herd. 



CO-OPERATIVE IMPROVEMENT 



In some of the most progressive dairy sections 

 of the United States, recent years have developed 

 so keen a realization of the necessity for intelligent 

 breeding and for careful testing that co-operative 

 breeding associations and cow-testing associations 

 have been formed. These have almost invariably 

 proved successful and have been the means of 

 tremendously increasing the efficiency of the dairy 

 stock in every section where they have been given 

 careful trials. The general plan of a co-operative 

 breeding association requires that a number of 

 farmers living reasonably near together, purchase 

 pure-bred bulls with which to head their herds. 

 Sometimes several farmers may combine in getting 

 the same animal if their circumstances and location 

 seem to justify this. A farmer or group of farmers 

 somewhere in the neighborhood may purchase an- 

 other pure-bred bull. By combining their resources 



