402 MILK PRODUCTION IN S.W. SCOTLAND 



its type as the mangel. Yet the sugar beet has been 

 selected only by analysis from the richest roots, where- 

 by its sugar content has been raised by 50 per cent, 

 within a generation, whereas the mangel, selected by 

 appearance alone, has grown no richer during the 

 whole of its history. 



It is among the Ayrshires that the system of regular 

 milk testing has been organized, thanks to the advocacy 

 of the late Mr. John Speir. Of course individuals in 

 many places had kept records of the daily yield of 

 their cows ; it was Mr. Speir's idea to appoint official 

 testers so that the records of the cows in the herds 

 submitted to the test would rank with their pedigrees 

 and give to those pedigrees a new significance. The 

 society appoints a tester for each 12 or 18 farmers 

 subscribing; he spends a day with each in turn, seeing 

 the milk of each cow weighed both morning and even- 

 ing, and taking a sample for determination of the butter 

 fat. Thus each herd gets tested once in two or three 

 weeks, and it is found that these intervals permit of a 

 reasonably accurate average being struck that will give 

 the total milk yield of each cow during its lactation 

 period and the quality of the milk. Although the 

 scheme had not been widely in operation for many 

 years its effect was already manifest ; herds that only 

 averaged 500 gallons of milk per cow were then yield- 

 ing 600 to 700 through the elimination of the wasters 

 and breeding only from the best. Cows yielding 1000 

 gallons a year were not uncommon, an enormous pro- 

 duction when one considers their small live-weight 

 The milk records are of the utmost value in the inter- 

 national market. Canada, for example, is a great 

 buyer of Ayrshires, and it is now the milk pedigree 

 that draws the purchaser. With all its excellences the 

 Ayrshire has never obtained much foothold in England. 



