2. She makes an income for the farmer, at least three hundred 

 days each year in the production of butter-fat. 



3. Skim milk has a feeding value almost equal to whole milk. 



4. Her offsprings has a value ranging from ten to one hundred 

 per cent of the cow. 



Success in the dairying like other branches of farming depends 

 entirely upon the foundation of the herd, and the thoroughness and 

 skill devoted to the work by the farmer. 



If the business is conducted in a careless manner, if the cow is not 

 manifestly a milk producer and properly cared for and rightly fed, 

 or if the breed is not adapted to climatic and other conditions, dairy- 

 ing will, like tilling the soil in a haphazard way, be unprofitable, but 

 if all of the essential features are strictly observed the farmer will be 

 rewarded by having a very attractive net balance at the end of the 

 year. 



Testing a Cow 



The first essential is to select cows of a breed that are manifestly 

 milk producers and then select from them only those that prove, 

 after a year's trial, to be profitable performers. While a large per 

 cent of pure-bred dairy cows are profitable, grades, if carefully selected, 

 are excellent producers of milk and butter-fat. A pure-bred sire pos- 

 sessing an ancestry of good milkers will soon bring the herd to a high 

 standard and, for the average farmer, this is the quickest and most 

 economical way to secure a profitable herd. 



Every dairyman should have a Babcock tester in order that he may 

 know how much butter-fat his cows are producing and note the results 

 obtained from various feeds. Too often a few poor producers will 

 consume the profits made by the balance of a fairly good herd. 



In trying out a cow, a record of the amount, the kind of food and 

 its value should be kept, as well as a daily record of milk and butter- 

 fat. It costs from ten to twelve cents a day to feed a cow, or from 

 $35.00 to $42.00 per year. A cow that will not give 3,000 pounds 

 of milk in one year is not regarded as very profitable and should be 

 replaced by a more promising one. A cow giving 4,000 pounds of 

 milk in one year pays for her keeping and compensates the farmer 

 for his labor, interest on the investment, etc., but a good cow, properly 

 fed, will produce 6,000 pounds of milk and is worth to the farmer 

 approximately $140.00 gross if milk is worth 20 cents per gallon. 



Prof. Fraser, chief of Dairy Husbandry of the University of Illinois 

 in Circular No. 134 gives some very interesting data on the keep and 

 profit of several herds which compare favorably with the ordinary 

 dairy. His experiments should prompt all dairyimen to test their 

 cows. In summing up he makes the following statement: 



