64 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 



now being milked are eating up a portion of the profits that this 

 small percentage of individuals are making. 



Were we to allow ten minutes for milking and feeding each 

 of the unprofitable cows that are now being milked in the United 

 States 700 times a year, then divide this time up among the farm- 

 ers in the United States, we would find that on the average farm 

 some man wastes annually 27.2 ten hour days each year. This is 

 practically a month and represents the farmer's vacation, which 

 he does not get. He has chosen to milk during his vacation 

 period while the business man goes abroad. These are merely 

 facts and all the man who milks cows needs to do to prove them 

 is to join a testing association or begin regularly to weigh and 

 test the milk of his cows. The only reason we are milking un- 

 profitable cows today is because we have not realized the value of 

 the milk scales and Babcock test, or, in other words, we have not 

 made a study of the individual cow. 



In fact, there are many most excellent lessons that are to be 

 learned about cows, their selection, their feed, care, etc., that can 

 be learned only from the cows themselves, and, as much as I ap- 

 preciate those lessons which I have learned out of dairy papers, 

 books and in school, the greatest lessons I have ever learned have 

 been taught me by the cow herself. 



In addition to the use of the Babcock test and scales there 

 are many points to be considered in selecting and judging dairy 

 cattle and, using this cow as an illustration, I will try and make 

 plain the essential points to be observed in selecting dairy cows. 

 If during my talk there are any questions you would wish to ask 

 1 will be glad to answer them for you. 



There are five essential points that must be present in the 

 make up of any cow if she be highly productive, and the absence 

 of any one of these points is proof that the cow is either not pro- 

 ductive or that she will not remain productive over a long period 

 of time. 'These points may be enumerated as constitution, capa- 

 city, nervous temperament or disposition to work, blood circula- 

 tion and the ability to convert feed nutrients into milk and butter 



