The Guernsey Breed 145 



1889 Pounds 



June _ . 1,132J4 



July 1,016 



August 953^4 



September 822^2 



Total 12,856 



At the end of her trial she was still ,i;i\-inL;- 28 pounds milk 

 daily and was within two months of calving. The chemical 

 analysis of her milk, made at this time, showed 7.02 per cent 

 butter-fat, so she must have been, a cow that would have made 

 a large yearly fat record as well. 



Ezra j\Iichener, of Lumber\ille, Pa., reported the follow- 

 ing very good record of his cow, luiphemia 200.S, for the year 

 ending April 1.^, 1889: 8,685.75 pounds milk, and three butter 

 records made in the second, fourth, and sixth months after 

 calving of, respectively, 15, 11 and 9 pounds of butter per 

 week. He estimated that she made at least 511 pounds of 

 butter for the year. 



The Babcock test was iu\ented in 1890 by Dr. S. M. Bab- 

 cock, professor of chemistry in the LTni\'ersity of Wisconsin. 

 The whole dairy world has him tn thank for a method of 

 easily, cheaply and cjuickly determining the butter value nf 

 milk, which made it possible to test a cow for the year with 

 very much less work than with a churn, and also affording 

 greater accuracy as far as the cow's work was concerned. 



On February 28, 1891, I reported to Hoard's Dairyman 

 a weekly butter-fat record for the cow. Imp. Regina 2691, the 

 record being 283.75 pounds milk, testing 13.5'* pounds fat, and 

 this I believe to be the first butter-fat record reported. 



The yearly milk and fat records made in the herd of N. 

 K. Fairbank, of Chicago, whose farm was at Lake Geneva, 

 Wis., had much to do in bringing about a sentiment that led 

 to the general adoption of the 3'early record system. W. H. 

 Lawrence, who had charge of the herd the 22 years of its 

 existence, was always fully as much interested as the owner, 

 and great credit should be given Ijoth of these gentlemen for 

 the work done by that herd. 



This herd was founded by the purchase of three head in 

 February, 1881. Commencing with the year 1883, an account 

 was kept of every pound of milk produced by each individual 

 cow until the dispersion of the herd in 1903. I still have in 

 my possession the books in which the records were kept dur- 

 ing these 20 years, and they contain so much material for 

 thought and instruction as to make it worth while to publish 



the data in this book. 



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