ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. rj 



Some patrons inquired how much we would pay them for the extra 

 work of weighing each cow's miik once a week ,and this suggestion 

 proved to be the only way in which we could get the work started, so 

 we finally agreed to pay $1.00 per cow to such patrons as would weigh 

 and sample the miik of each cow in their herds at least once a month 

 for one year. Even this inducement did noc make much impression on 

 the patrons, and we were able to test six herds only the first year, begin- 

 ing August 1st, 1897. These tests included the weighing, sampling and 

 testing of the milk of forty cows once every week through one complete- 

 period of lactation; eleven more cows were tested for a part of the year. 

 Since that time the testing of patrons' herds has continued. During the 

 year, beginning April 1, 1899, sixty-two cows of nine farms were tested 

 through one complete period of lactation and fifty-four cows for only part 

 of the year. The following year fifty cows on six farms were tested, and 

 up to the present time 217 cows on thirteen of our patrons' farms have 

 been tested. These tests represented 135 complete and 98 partial per- 

 iods of lactation. The cows in three herds were tested for three years 

 consecutively, and four other herds were tested for two years. 



During the first year of testing, the milk of each cow was weighed 

 and tested once each week, but it was impossible to ge this done so often 

 after the first year. Some patrons were willing to weigh and sample the 

 milk of each cow once in two weeks and others could only be induced 

 to do this "extra work" once a m mth. 



The results obtained by this three years of testing have shown that 

 farmers may gain a great deal of useful information by such work, and 

 that it is one of the most profitable fields for careful observation in the 

 whole domain of agriculture. 



A description of our methods of making the tests and some of the re 1 

 suits obtained may be of interest to other creamery patrons . 

 METHOD OF MAKING THE FARM TEST. 



The milk of each cow was weighed and sampled at the morning and 

 light milking one day in each week, every two weeks or once a month, as 



