ILLINOIS DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 341 



pounds butter fat. The best fifty produced 273 pounds fat for 

 every 100 pounds produced by the poorest fifty — a difference 

 of nearly three to one. 



Several other cows in these herds produced but little above 

 the poorest fifty, their clear profit if any, under any possible sys- 

 tem of feeding, being too small for a dairyman to afford to keep 

 them. So the profitless cow is seen to be a real and living issue 

 of large proportion in dairying for bread and butter. Fourteen 

 of the eighteen herds had cows as poor as No. 2, and there were 

 from one to twelve of these poor cows in each herd. 



More Nearly the Same Feed. 



The feed of these cattle cannot be stated so exactly as in the 

 other case. But it is known that on the average they were kept 

 much cheaper on the farm than were the two university cows 

 (which were not turned to pasture,) and also that as a rule no 

 chance was given for such a difference in the cost of feed as be- 

 tween No. 1 and No. 2. Observing and inquiring into methods 

 of feeding on many farms, indicate that few dairymen actually 

 give one cow much advantage over another in feed. So this dif- 

 ference in production may easily mean a difference in profit still 

 wider than that between No. 1 and No. 2. The record here is 

 only for one year, but the hundred cows involved tend to keep 

 the average representative. 



The Difference is $50 Per Cow. 



Computing the butterfat at 25c a pound, as in the other case, 

 the poorest fifty cows made an average return of $29.15 and the 

 best a return of $79.75. The feed of a cow is seldom estimated 

 lower than $30 per year and it may go much higher even on the 

 farm. It is seen at a glance that there is no money whatever in 

 the one class of cows and that there is very good money in the 

 other class. 



The Cow and the Tiger. 



The above data are representative of actual conditions in 

 Illinois. One of the greatest and easiest steps of improvement in 



