THIRTY-SIXTH ANNUAL CONVENTION. 227 



SOME MISTAKES OF THE DAIRYMAN FROM A CHEESE MAKER'S 



VIEW POINT. 



By 



J. R. Biddulph, Tiskilwa. 



During the past forty years I have been engaged in cheese 

 making and have had an abundant opportunity to observe, what 

 I term, mistakes made by the dairyman, as he conducts the 

 business of dairying on the farm. Take for illustration the 

 man who wants to put on a number of cows to produce milk 

 for the cheese factory. In the first place, he must purchase 

 cows. It is not an easy matter to discern between the good and 

 the poor cow, though there are points to be considered in mak- 

 ing the selection; however, we will discuss the subject in this 

 way. He has purchased, say ten or fifteen cows; he milks the 

 herd for one season, during which time he has made no attempt 

 whatever to learn the real value of any individual cow in the 

 herd. There may have been a fair average amount of milk from 

 the herd, but he does not know which is the profitable one and 

 which is the unprofitable. The only way to determine the 

 value of a cow for the factory or for the creamery is by testing 

 the milk. 



Every up-to-date cheese factory man has what is known 

 as the Babcock Milk Test. In my mind the only way to get at 

 the real value of each cow is to have the cheese maker make an 

 individual test of each one; though the dairyman may have to 

 pay a small fee to have this work done. There may be in the 

 herd one, two or three cows which are being kept at a loss. The 

 thing to do is to weed out these unprofitable ones and replace 

 them by good ones. It costs no more to feed a good cow than 

 it does a poor one. 



Another mistake made by some dairymen is this : Plans 

 are made for cows to be fresh in February. This I consider a 



