IT^LINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 95 



experiment stations to determine the causes of these variations. 

 Among them may be mentioned individuahty, breed, health, 

 food, period of lactation, time and manner of milking, and 

 mental condition of the animal while being milked. So far as 

 butter making is concerned the fat is the important constituent 

 and this constituent is the most variable, the other solids re- 

 maining fairly constant. 



It is a well known fact that variation is due to breed. Some 

 breeds give a large amount of medium rich milk, while others 

 give less of a better quality. There are both good and poor 

 cows in all breeds and there are greater differences between 

 individuals within each breed than between the breeds 

 themselves. Because a cow gives a large amount of milk it does 

 not necessarily follow that it is of a poor quality, nor if she 

 gives a small amount that it is of a good quality. 



As the cow is the basis of the whole dairy business, the first 

 essential is to have a good individual. Much depends upon 

 food, care and milking, but the best of each will not make a 

 cow of lOO pounds capacity yield 300 pounds butter a year. A 

 dairyman may not be able to replace all his poor cows with 300- 

 pound cows at once, but he can surely afford to dispose of those 

 that do not come up to a profitable standard and breed from 

 the others, using a good sire, and thus greatly improve his herd 

 at little expense. What this profitable standard is each must 

 determine for himself, as it varies with the locality, depending 

 upon the cost of feed and labor and the value of the product. 

 If in a given locality it takes a 200-pound cow to pay expenses, 

 a man with a 150-pound cow and a 250-pound cow will just 

 come out even at the end of the year; while if he would sell the 

 poorer one he would have fifty pounds butter clear profit. This 

 is the condition many dairyman are in; they are keeping one- 

 fourth of the herd at an actual loss, eating up the profits of the 

 other three-fourths. 



Since the invention of the Babcock test there is no excuse 

 for a dairyman not knowing what his individual cows are 

 doing. Weigh the milk of each cow for a week, 



