ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION 63 



fully considering the question of how to meet the present needs 

 in this respect, we have decided that if a score card was carefully 

 prepared setting forth the conditions and giving each branch of 

 the dairy a definite rating that this would largely solve the prob- 

 lem. The score card idea is not new. The method has been 

 used for years in scoring butter and cheese, and more recently 

 in scoring corn, milk and cream, and the farmers are getting used 

 to this method of rating these various products. The rating: of 

 dairy farms by the score card method has been practiced more or 

 less in different places, and some half dozen cards are in exis- 

 tence at the present time, and have been used with greater or 

 less success. We have prepared a score card in the Dairy Divi- 

 sion, however, after the e^'perience of scoring some 500 dairies, 

 which we believe is thoroughly practical. By this system, the 

 dairyman's defects are pointed out and he is given a definite rat- 

 ing in all branches of his work, and further, the score is put on 

 file and can be referred to at any time and comparisons made at 

 a glance. In most of the systems now in vogue for inspecting 

 dairy farms, the inspector asks a long list of questions and his 

 report is very indefinite. That is, it cannot readily be determined 

 by reading it over just what the conditions are in the particular 

 dairy. Our plan provides for a rating of stables for ventilation, 

 light and sanitary condition; the cows for health and cleanli- 

 ness ; condition of utensils and facilities for cooling, bottling 

 and storing the milk; condition of water supply, etc. 



