322 



Cost of Food in Production of Milk, [sept., 



farm during the afternoon and weighs, samples, and tests for 

 fat the milk of the evening. He sleeps at the farm and does 

 the same the following morning, after which he goes on to the 

 next farm. With one exception, the Highland and Agri- 

 cultural Society has given grants to all the associations 

 formed for this work in Scotland, the exception being in the 

 case of a second association set up in the same parish. The 

 Ayrshire Agricultural Association has also given liberal grants 

 towards this work. 



During the winter time, when the cows are in the house, the 

 expert weighs all the food which they receive for the day, and 

 calculates how much of each substance is fed to each animal 

 per day. When the cows are on the pastures, any extra food 

 which they may receive is weighed and recorded. In this way 

 a considerable amount of fairly reliable information regarding 

 the food consumed by the different herds has been collected, 

 and when that is compared with the milk produced, valuable 

 data are obtained regarding the cost of the food necessary to 

 produce the milk of that herd. Every precaution has been 

 adopted which experience suggested as necessary in order 

 to get reliable results, but while the quantities are accurate 

 enough for all practical purposes, nothing like absolute accuracy 

 is claimed for them. At many of the farms the amount of 

 food weighed at one visit corresponded almost exactly with 

 that at the following one. At a few other farms the quantities 

 seemed, however, to be continually varying, and where such 

 was the case extreme accuracy in the results was not to be 

 expected. The quantities used differed considerably even in 

 the same district, and when compared with other . districts 

 where the home-grown food also varies, the divergence is 

 greater still. 



For those farms where the cows were in milk the whole year, 

 the period embraced in this inquiry was from the beginning 

 of the year till the date at which the cows went to grass. 

 In the cheese-making districts the cows do not usually begin to 

 calve till the end of February or during March, and there a 

 beginning was not usually made till the first week in March, 

 from which time all food was weighed till the cows went to grass, 

 which, according to district, varied from ist to 15th Ma}'. 



In the four seasons over which the weighing of the winter 



