46 Milk and Its Products 
selection of their animals, they are no less useful to 
him who keeps cows merely for the production of 
milk, without regard to the productive value of their 
posterity. It has been demonstrated many times that 
in milk-producing herds where no records are kept 
there will be found anywhere from one quarter to one- 
half, and sometimes more, cows whose total production 
is insufficient to pay for their feed and care, such 
cows being kept at an actual loss to their owner, 
and their deficiency covered up by the higher pro- 
ducing animals. There are many herds, the total 
production of which may be profitable to the owner, 
in which from 10 to 25 per cent .of- the individual 
cows are kept at a loss. The great reason for this 
condition of affairs is the fact that even a careful 
observer will fail to discriminate between a profitable 
and unprofitable animal, unless an actual record of 
the production of each animal is kept from day to 
day. This is comparatively seldom done, especially 
in herds maintained solely for milk production. But 
such records may be, kept at comparatively little 
cost, even when the butter fat is determined, and 
their cost will be returned many times over to the 
owner if he acts upon the results of the records, 
and discards from his herd those that are shown to 
be unprofitable. As has already been stated, there is 
no one thing which would result in more increase to 
the prosperity of the dairy industry as a whole, and 
more profit to the individual owner, than the general 
keeping of records of production, and the weeding out 
of the unprofitable animals, as shown by such records. 
