THIRTY-FIFTH ANNUAL CONVENTION. 33 



to your records and notice. Here is a cow that has given so 

 much milk from day to day, and suddenly she drops off. What's 

 the matter? Tuesday of last week she did so and so. In this 

 way we have got the problem solved. If you do not keep a 

 record, you don't know anything about it. We tried at the Ex- 

 periment station the amount of time that it took to take care of 

 the records of 15 cows for one year. It was something like 9 

 hours and 10 minutes. We cleaned out a herd that wasn't mak- 

 ing us any profit, and at the end of the year we could account 

 for a profit of $140.00. That is what we actually made by keep- 

 ing a record, or by spending 9 hours and some odd minutes the 

 previous year. I ask you whether that doesn't pay? Is there 

 any other business on your farm that pays you more than $140.00 

 for 9 hours and 10 minutes work? 



The cow-test associations are becoming yerv prominent. 

 We have in the northwest state of Ohio, Holland Fresian Breed- 

 ers' Association, that takes care of the test. One of the grand- 

 est organizations ever organized. What do we mean by cow 

 testing associations ? Simply this : Some of us get tired of test- 

 ing, and finally we don't care what the cows do do. We have 

 gotten negligent. But organize into an association, and contri- 

 bute a certain amount to a treasurer, and he hires a man that goes 

 around from place to place and tests your cows, or, in other 

 words, as a bookkeeper. It will certainly pay you at the end of 

 the year to attend to this. Northern Ohio cow test association 

 pays $1.50 for every cow to this man who keeps a complete record 

 and shows you the profit or loss of each individual cow. The 

 U. S. Department of Agriculture is sending a man around for 

 the sole purpose of organizing these associations. They are a 

 great benefit. This is one way of making your herds profitable 

 if you have one. But often people do not have cows, and the 

 question comes, what kind of a cow shall I buy? Gov. Hoard 

 says the darkest place on earth is inside o fa cow. External ap- 

 pearances are not always good guides for judging cows. There 

 is a rough similarity to all good dairy cows, but to go out and 

 pick out a good cow out of a lot of dairy cows, is always an im- 



