The Milk-yields of Two Cheshire Herds. 179 
sometimes these two circumstances are seen to go together. As 
regards age, cows of two or three years old (heifers) are separately 
distinguished. For practical purposes three heifers should be re- 
garded as equivalent to two cows ; all dairymen in Somerset and 
Dorset, where cows are hired out, reckon in this way. It will be 
seen, by way of example, that cow No. 8, in the Grange Farm herd, 
1891, a two-year-old heifer, gave only 144 gallons in a lactation of 
18 weeks, which is not much over a gallon per day. The next 
cow to her, No. 9, also a two-year-old heifer, was in milk twice as 
long, but gave treble the yield. Again, cow No. 21, in the 
Woodhouse herd, 1891, was in milk only 27 weeks, and gave but 
308 gallons ; this, however, was a better performance than that of 
cow No. 4, which yielded as little as 286 gallons for 30 weeks, 
whereas No. 38 afforded 364 gallons in 23 weeks : these are the 
three lowest cases at Woodhouse, 1891, as regards both yield and 
time in milk. 
Interesting cases are discoverable of variations in yield associated 
with uniformity in the number of weeks in milk. Thus, in 
Grange Farm herd, 1886, it will be found that 13 cows, all of them 
over three years old, were each 42 weeks in milk. The total num- 
ber of gallons given by each may be conveniently arranged as 
follows : — 
961 
834, 827 
738, 714 
684, 659, 648, 614, 612 
575, 572, 619 
Here it is seen that, whilst the highest yield was 961 gallons, and 
the lowest 519 gallons, a difference of 442 gallons, the commonest 
yield per cow was between 600 and 700 gallons. As a matter of 
fact, the total yield of these 13 cows adds up to 8,957 gallons, which 
is equivalent to exactly 689 gallons per cow. 
With regard to maximum yields, it will suffice to take those 
exceeding 1,000 gallons per annum. These are of sufficient interest 
to merit the separate tabulation given on p. 180. 
Two facts are noticeable in connection with these 34 cases — the 
first, that the cows were all over three years old ; the second, that, 
with the solitary exception of No. 47, Grange Farm, 1890, the 
number of weeks in milk never fell below 40. The maximum 
individual yield recorded is seen to have been that of No. 40, Grange 
Farm, 1891, in which case it reached 1,462 gallons, so that this cow 
gave about 7 tons of milk in a period of 48 weeks. It may be stated 
generally of these high-yielding cows that they are mostly animals 
of from six to nine years of age, and that, while some have been 
bought, others are home-bred. Nos. 37 and 40, Grange Farm, it 
will be observed, each gave upwards of 1,000 gallons of milk per 
annum for five successive years, 1888-92. 
Finally, it may be learnt from the summary table (p. 176) that, 
over a period of seven years, the average annual yield per cow ranged 
from 622 gallons to 758 gallons at Grange Farm, and from 573 to 
v 2 
