ILLINOIS DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 285 



reader will observe the great contrast between this herd and herd 

 No. 6. It affords some satisfaction to know that a pure-bred 

 dairy sire is being used to bring about an improvement in this 

 herd. 



Herd No. 8. W. W. 



As shown by the accompanying record, this herd was also 

 of decidedly low grade. It was made up of "scrub" cows picked 

 up in a locality where dairying was in its inception, and included 

 some that were shipped in from other dairy communities. The 

 owner was not well trained in the art of cow-handling, yet he 

 studied hard and has made some progress by weeding out poor 

 cows and correcting his judgement in feeding. During summer 

 the herd was provided fair pasture with a small amount of bran. 

 In winter they received 6 pounds of bran, 4 pounds of corn and 

 cob meal, and one pound of oil meal for concentrates, and hay of 

 mixed grasses, clover, and corn stover for roughness. Although 

 the cows were inferior, the owner probably marketed his crops 

 at a slight profit by feeding them to these cows for the price of 

 milk was rather high. However, it is easy to see what a loss he 

 might have avoided had all his cows been as good as the best one. 

 The low production of the herd in general was caused, to a large 

 extent, by the ravages of contagious abortion. Nearly all the 

 cows calved prematurely which necessarily interfered more or 

 less with their lactation. The year's record given here includes 

 part of the lactation period previous to the infection. 



