127 



I believe that with five years of this kind of work, thor- 

 ough work applied to a man's dairy with thorough in- 

 telligence, I have no doubt he can double the net profit 

 of his dairy. If a man will apply this test to his cows 

 in the average dairy throughout our country, he will 

 weed out twenty-live per cent, and the other three- 

 quarters will make him more money than the four 

 quarters have been doing, with, of course, the de- 

 creased expense. I think I have underestimated rather 

 than overestimated the facts in that statement. 



It is not necessary to discuss the reliability of the 

 test. That is a settled thing I think. Prof. Farring- 

 ton of our own Experiment Station has done a large 

 amount of work in that testing line, and he can tell us 

 a good deal about the reliability of the Babcock test. 



Frof. Farrington : How many times have you 

 tested that cow that tested five per cent ? 



Mr. Gurler : We commenced in the fall and we 

 followed it up through the winter several months. Of 

 course I found a variation. I find that in most all of 

 my cows the per cent, of fat is increased as the time 

 advances from the time they are fresh. 



Mr. Sawyer: What percentage of increase ? 



Mr. Gurler: They increased .3 to .5 of one per cent., 

 as a rule. 



Mr. Sawyer: I remember seeing one case where 

 the increase was from 6.2 to 7.8 at an interval of six 

 months. That is clear beyond the normal condition 

 of cows. 



Mr. Gurler: I will say the last time we tested the 

 cows the range in percentage was from 3.1 to 6.4. 

 Well, the cow giving 3.1 was nearly a fresh milker, and 

 the other was a stripper pretty nearly dry. These facts 

 want to be known in making comparisons; it is not fair 



