FORTY-THIRD ANNUAL CONVENTION 17 



as her dam. You want to keep track of what each cow is pro- 

 ducing; breed your cows to a pure-bred sire. Select the breed 

 you hke the best and the one best adapted to your locahty and 

 then stick to this breed, never change from one breed to another. 

 V'ery seldom a man succeeds with a breed of cattle that do not 

 appeal to him. 



Cow No. 21 was sired by a pure-bred sire. She was a 

 grade Holstein cow. She produced an average, I think for four 

 years, (I have not the exact data — some of these are four and 

 some five years' averages). Each cow was dry about six weeks 

 during this time, but, I took five or just as many consecutive 

 records as I had from both of the dams and daughter. Cow 

 No. 21 has an average production of 11,289 pounds of milk and 

 380 pounds of fat. The dam of this cow was a grade cow, she 

 has an average for four consecutive years of 7,614 pounds of 

 milk and 246 pounds of fat. There was an increase in the pro- 

 duction of the daughter over the dam of 3,675 pounds of milk 

 and 134 pounds of fat. I very much regret that I have not 

 these figures on charts so that they could be before you and you 

 could see them. 



Cow No. 32 averaged 9,603 pounds of milk and 335 pounds 

 of fat; her dam 7,614 pounds of milk and 246 pounds of fat, an 

 increase of the daughter over the dam of 1,989 pounds of milk 

 and 89 pounds of fat. Now these two cows which I have first 

 referred to were both daug'hters of the same dam. You will 

 notice that the one cow is considerably better than the other, but 

 both were much better than their dam, and in fact the dam was 

 not a poor cow. A cow that produces 7,500 pounds of milk is 

 a pretty good cow. (To Mr. Mason) : What is the average? 



Mr. Mason : New York Cow Testing Associations claim 

 less than 5,000 pounds of milk as the average. 



When a man is energetic enough to join a Cow Testing 

 Assoc'ation, he does not have the poorest cows in the state, the 

 man who has the poorest cows is often the man who will not 

 join such an association. So you can see that was even more 

 than the average. If the average is placed at 4,000 pounds of 

 milk and 100 pounds of butter fat, and that is about what you 

 will find it, if you have a cow that produces 7,000 pounds of 

 milk and 244 pounds of fat, you don't have the poorest cow. 



