STOCK SHOWS AND MILK RECORDS 197 



Equipment and Methods. — Official records are kept 

 in pounds and decimals of pounds. A variety of scales 

 are in use for this purpose, of different sizes and prices, 

 but all of about the same general arrangement. The 

 empty milk pail is hung on a hook at the bottom of the 

 sca:le. The pointer of the dial is controlled by a thumb- 

 screw, and, "with the empty pail on the hook, the pointer 

 is adjusted to zero. After milking the pail is again hung 

 on the hook, and the pointer on the dial records the 

 exact weight of the milk. Milk record sheets of a wide 

 variety are printed, and are for sale by any dairy supply 

 house. A dairy scale, a record sheet with pencil attached, 

 all convenient to the milking bench, make record keeping 

 a very simple matter. 



A daily record, for morning and evening, complete 

 for the whole period of lactation, is, of course, the most 

 satisfactory and reliable. If this is impossible, a weekly 

 record, made regularly on the same day of the week, 

 without varying the regular schedule of feeding and 

 hours, does the next best to the full daily record, and 

 will give a fair average of the doe's production. Even a 

 single record for each month, if taken regularly, for the 

 two daily milkings, and without varying the usual rou- 

 tine, is better than nothing at all. But a full weekly 

 record would seem to be the least that a breeder should 

 offer in making sales of stock. 



