470 DISEASES OF CATTLE. 



milk a little later Sunday morning and a littie earlier at night, prob- 

 ably hurrying the operation, and the cows resent the treatment by 

 a somewhat smaller yield of milk. Dr. Babcock has found that a new 

 milker will get less milk from a cow at first than the milker to which 

 she is accustomed. Milking the teats in a different order also affects 

 the percentage of fat in the milk and the amount of milk given. Irreg- 

 ularity in the order of feeding must also have an unfavorable effect. 

 Probably a very considerable portion of the milk is elaborated by the 

 cow during the time of milking, and if this is true it is not difficult to 

 understand that the cow should be in perfect comfort of mind and body 

 during this time. The dairyman should follow a regular system in his 

 feeding operations, supplying the same kinds of food at the same time 

 in the day and in the same order. Milking should be performed with 

 regularity, the cows being milked in the same order and so far as pos- 

 sible by the same milkers. 



RECORDING AND ANALYZING MILK. 



We have found nothing more helpful for its cost than the use of scales 

 in the dairy barn for recording the milk yield of each cow at each milk- 

 ing. A sheet of nianila paper can be quickly ruled with a lead pencil 

 and the names of the cows placed at the head, with the days of the 

 week along the side of the sheet. These sheets can be made to hold 

 either a week's or a month's record, the former being preferable, we 

 think. A pair of spring balances, tested occasionally, prove very sat- 

 isfactory for weighing the niilk. The fraction of a minute is all the 

 time required for the milker to get the weight and enter it upon the 

 record sheet. The effect is most salutary and conduces to better milk- 

 ing and more kindly care for the cows, since each milker is desirous of 

 making a good record. 



The fat contained in the milk practically measures its market value, 

 and the milk of different cows varies so in the fat content that the 

 dairyman really knows very little of what his cows are doing when he 

 goes no farther than weighing the milk. Churn tests to learn how 

 much butter a cow can make have been recommended, but. to set the 

 milk of each cow separately and churn it carefully involves so much 

 labor that this system is hardly practical. In the Babcock test the 

 dairymen now have a simple, rapid, and inexpensive means of deter- 

 mining just how much fat there is in the milk of each cow in the herd. 

 The dairyman who will use this test will be surprised at what it reveals. 

 Some cows that were supposed to be among the best are found to yield 

 milk poor in butter fat; while others, giving less quantity, may be 

 leaders in the total amount of fat produced. With the scales to show 

 how much milk the cow gives during the year, and the Babcock test 

 for analyzing the milk and determining the percentage of fat from time 

 to time, the dairyman is in position to know just what his herd is doing, 

 and can dispose of unprofitable animals and keep the good ones and 



