ILLUSTRATIONS SHOWING THE VALUE OF THE EXPERI- 

 MENTAL WORK OF THE COLLEGE. 



It is impossible in this circular to discuss in any detail the experi- 

 mental work of the College. The few illustrations given under this 

 heading, however, will indicate the general nature of the work and its 

 value to the agriculture of the State. 



Experiments showing how dairying in New York may be improved. 

 In 1873 the College of Agriculture owned a herd of ordinary cows, 

 the average yield of which was about 3000 pounds of milk per cow per 

 year. In this year, Professor I. P. Roberts purchased a pure-bred bull 

 and began to breed and grade up the herd, retaining the best animals 

 and constantly " weeding out" the less productive ones. This process 

 has been steadfastly continued up to the present time, with the result 

 that in the year which ended August 31, 1909, thirty-seven cows in the 

 herd of the College of Agriculture averaged 7463 pounds of milk con- 

 taining 302 pounds of fat, and yielding a gross return of $120 per cow, 

 or a little more than double that yielded by the original herd. 



What this would mean to the farmers of the State is seen from the 

 statement that in 1899 the average production of the cows in the state 

 of New York, as given in the United States Census Reports, was 4378 

 pounds. The methods employed in this improvement are those that are 

 within the means of any farmer or dairyman. No expensive animals 

 have ever been purchased, and practically all of the present members 

 of the herd have been raised upon the place. If all of the farmers in 

 the State for the past thirty- five years had practiced these same methods, 

 the annual yield of the average cow in the state of New York would 

 easily be twice its present amount. 



The cow-testing work of the Dairy Department has enabled the 

 farmer to know the total amount of milk and butter-fat made by each 

 cow in his herd and the value of feed consumed by each cow. It has 

 been found in some herds that certain cows were not producing enough 

 to pay for their feed, while other cows in the same herd were producing 

 a return of over $50.00 in excess of the feed consumed. The informa- 

 tion obtained from this work enables the farmer to dispose of his poor 

 cows and raise the heifer calves from his best ones, in this way steadily 

 raising the productive capacity of his herd. The data on which the 

 above statement is based was obtained from the records of twenty herds 

 containing a total of 209 cows. The value of this work can be shown 

 toy the following illustration: 



The average milk production per cow in New York State is at 



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