VoL. LX. No. 2698 
NEW YORK, OCTOBER 12, 1901. 
$1 PER YEAR. 
THE GREAT PAN-AMERICAN DAIRY TEST. 
THE GUERNSEYS STILL LEAD. 
What the Figures Show. 
The test of dairy cows and breeds at the Pan- 
American Exposition is still going on, and the inter¬ 
est is increasing. As will he seen from the table 
printed below, the Guernseys are still leading so far 
as actual profit in butter is concerned. It seems like¬ 
ly now that they will win the full test, but the mar¬ 
gin is still close, and the Jerseys or the Ayrshires 
may make a final spurt during October and come in 
ahead. The picture. Pig. 314, page 691, shows how 
the cows are stalled during the test. They are made 
comfortable in every way, and a heavy wire screen 
behind them prevents handling or annoyance. While 
the question of ' 
butter profit has 
been made the 
leading one in 
this test, there 
are many other 
lessons that are 
to be learned 
from it. When 
the records are 
all made up with 
actual perform¬ 
ance and cost of 
food for each 
animal, we shall 
have the basis 
for a good many 
valuable facts 
about dairy cows. 
One thing of 
great importance 
that the test has 
already demon¬ 
strated is the 
value of what we 
may call per- 
fonnniice in tlie 
history of a cow. 
As a rule, a cow 
with a good pedi¬ 
gree, and show¬ 
ing in her color 
and shape what 
we may call the 
regular type of 
the breed, is like¬ 
ly to be a good 
one. Sometimes, 
however, such a 
cow is beaten by 
another that Is 
“off” on type, yet 
whose mother AMERICAN 
and sisters are 
known to be good, rich milkers. An instance of this 
may be seen among the Guernsey cattle in this con¬ 
test. When the final selection was made there was 
a choice between two animals. One had a black nose 
—a fatal defect in the “scale of points” or pure type. 
Yet this black-nosed cow came from a family known 
to be rich and deep milkers. She was one of the best 
milkers in the barn, yet she was rejected because 
she was not typical of what breeders claim the breed 
should be. Had she been selected the Guernseys 
would now have a far greater lead in the race. 
Should the Guernseys lose it will be because this 
grand performer was turned down—largely on ac¬ 
count of her black nose! 
Again, the Dutch Belted cattle illustrate the mis¬ 
take of neglecting performance for external qualities. 
It would appear that these cattle haye been selected 
for years with a view to fixing the handsome belt of 
white which surrounds their bodies. Naturally, with 
this end in view, a cow with superior milking quali¬ 
ties, but with black spots on this white belt, would 
be rejected—as was the case with the black-nosed 
Guernsey. By making this white belt the standard 
the number of superior milking cows is limited. No 
man can hope to select his stock with a view to keep¬ 
ing up this outside belt and at the same time hope to 
win any belt on the inside performance of the cows. 
The Dutch Belted cattle are close to the tail of the 
race, while their cousins, the Holsteins, with black 
and white mixed all over them, but with the blood 
of their best cows well mixed inside, are near the top. 
The Ayrshires, too, are doing surprisingly well in 
this test. As butter producers they rank with the 
TREKKING OUTFIT. Fig. .111. See Woman and 
Jerseys and Guernseys, while as milkman’s cows 
they are considered by many as equal or superior 
to the Holsteins, for they give a quart of good milk 
for little money. Here comes the question of per- 
formamr again, for these Ayrshires trace back to 
herds where for many years breeders have been 
quietly but carefully selecting their breeding stock, 
not by color and shape alone, but by the report of 
the scales and the Babcock test. This thing crops 
out again and again as the pedigrees of these cows 
are investigated. The good ones are from working 
families, with mothers and sisters known to excel at 
the pail. Most of these superior cows follow closely 
in their shape, color and general exterior what the 
breeders call the true type of the breed, but not al¬ 
ways. The test seems to demonstrate that for most 
American farms the smaller cattle are to be pre¬ 
ferred. The Brown Swiss cattle make a compara¬ 
tively poor showing; in fact, it is hard to say just 
where and under what conditions these big cows 
would be liKely vo pay better than others. The Hol¬ 
steins take high rank in the test, but they are tre¬ 
mendous eaters, and it is necessary to handle a large 
amount of their milk in order to obtain a pound of 
butter. The big animals have been praised because 
they are able to turn over large quantities of coarse 
roughage, and make milk and butter out of a cheap 
ration. In this test, however, their grain bill has 
been very high, and the figures seem lo show that 
the medium-sized cow of good breeding will make a 
more profitable use of both fodder and grain. The 
Red Polled cows are, in the opinion of many good 
judges, the nearest approacn to the true general-pur¬ 
pose animal that 
we have in the 
country. They 
give a good mess 
of fairly rich 
milk, and turn 
off a fine carcass 
of beef when re¬ 
quired to do so. 
Their perform¬ 
ance in th's test 
has su r p r i s e d 
many farmers 
who did not 
know what this 
breed is capab’e 
of doing. They 
extract from 
their food a good 
p r o p 0 r tion of 
butter fat with¬ 
out laying on too 
much of what we 
may call butt fat. 
Mr. Van Al- 
styne, the super¬ 
intendent of this 
test, was asked 
what cow seemed 
best adapted to 
the needs of what 
we may call the 
ordinary dairy, 
and the fixtures 
and convenienc s 
found there. He 
said that the 
facts developed 
show that the 
Channel Island 
cattle, Guernsey or 
Jersey, are best. 
lIo.ME, P.AGE 699. “Whyisthatso?” 
“Because the but¬ 
ter from cows of these breeds is harder, firmer and of 
better natural color than that from others. This hard 
butter, of naturally good grain, is easier to make and 
keep under the conditions which prevail in the ordi¬ 
nary dairy, where frequently the most improved fix¬ 
tures and apparatus are not to be found. It is an ad¬ 
vantage, too, in such small dairies to have rich milk. 
This requires fewer pans or cans, and much less time 
is required in milking or handling the milk and 
cream.” 
The picture of the cows in their stalls. Pig. 314, 
page 691, shows how comfortable they are. Several 
years ago Prof. H. M. Cottrell, who was then superin¬ 
tendent of the Ellerslie stock farm, said that to get 
high profit out of a good milch cow fie would turn 
her into a large, roomy box stall, feed and water her 
there, keep her clean, and not let her out until her 
