^34 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 



DISCUSSION. 



Mr. Miller: The professor has certainly given us a very 

 able address. He has pointed out the good points of a cow, 

 but never mentioned the milk mirror, escutcheon. I would 

 like to ask his opinion on that, some people pay a good deal of 

 atention to that. 



Prof. Curtis: That is very true, the breeders of some breeds 

 pay attention to it, while others pay no attention to it what- 

 ever. The breeders, for instance, of the Jersey, ignore it; they 

 •do not include it in their score card, while the breeders of Hol- 

 steins do place a good deal of stress on that point. I do not 

 ignore the escutcheon, I use it in the score card that I have 

 adopted for my classes in live stock, and yet I do not 

 regard it as of nearly as much importance as the other char- 

 racteristics that I have called attention to. I take it into con- 

 sideration in this way, a large, extensive, well developed 

 ^escutcheon indicates a large flow of milk, and an escutcheo.i 

 ■vwith a highly colored skin with very fine silky hair, having a 

 ^a tendency to be soft and rich, indicates a rich flow of milk and 

 ito that extent I always endeavor to give the escutcheon due 

 ^weight in judging a dairy cow, but I wouldn't bank upon it to 

 ; anything like the extent that a great many breeders do. 



Mr, Boyd; Will Prof. Curtiss be kind enough to tell us 

 what these cows were fed during the time these tests were 

 imade.^ 



Prof. Curtiss: We always use corn as the basis of our dairy 



: rations, for the reason that it is the cheapest feed that we have 



i:in Iowa, and I judge it is the cheapest feed that you have in 



illlinxDis, and yet, corn alone is not a satisfactory dairy ration. 



'We must make use of other products and while we use corn to 



the extent of about one-third of our grain ration, we always 



combine it with bran or gluten meal, usually both, and good 



clover hay. If we can get it, and a liberal allowance of roots, 



about ten pounds per day, or silage. In this experiment the 



ixation was varied. It was to test different kinds of roots. We 



ifed through that period four kinds of roots, to determine the 



