NEED OF IMPROVEMENT 43 
A number of significant facts appear in this table. The herd 
which furnished Nos. 83 and 84 was evidently a good herd, for 
they were both good cows, though one was bought for a poor 
cow. While the two differ widely in total production, they differ 
almost correspondingly in food consumption, and the ratios for 
fat production were close together. 
On the other hand, Nos. 85, 86, though coming from the 
same herd, betray wide differences. The good cow, No. 85, was 
more than twice as efficient as her mate, No. 86, whether we 
consider fat or milk. 
Nos. 93 and 94, coming from the same herd, were both me- 
dium cows, which goes far to show that the herdsman’s estimate 
of his cows is frequently far from correct. 
The very low producing power of No. 98 is remarkable, re- 
quiring 2.88 pounds of nutrient for a pound of milk, and over 
78 pounds of nutrient for a pound of fat, —not quite one quarter 
the efficiency of No. 83. 
The very high efficiency of two of these cows is noticeable, 
being more than five times that of the poorest cow mentioned 
before, and more than twice the efficiency of the poorer cows in 
the permanent herd. 
In addition to the above, some especially good individuals 
have been pitted for a long time against others of inferior 
ability. For example, Rose and Nora! consumed within a year 
almost exactly the same amount of the same kind of feed, the 
difference being less than 5 per cent. They were both rela- 
tively heavy feeders, each consuming something over 6000 
pounds of digestible nutrients. Rose produced 564.82 pounds 
of fat, and Nora 298.64, a ratio of 1.9 to 1. When we remem- 
ber that Nora, the poorer cow, was not a poor cow at all, but 
that she belongs with the best fourth of the 1200 tested in the 
1 The story of Rose and Queen, the latter another and a really poor cow, 
has been entertainingly told in Circular 107 of the dairy department of the 
University of Illinois, which has issued also Ci7cular 178, Cows vs. Cows, deal- 
ing with the difference in efficiency of cows, and its meaning to the profits of 
dairying and the cost of dairy products to the consumer. 
