Vol. LXXIV. No. 4.°,OS. 
NEW YORK, MAY 2!). 11)15. 
WEEKLY $1.00 PER YEAR. 
Selling Milk by the Fat Test 
Its Effect Upon Cattle Breeding. 
[The action of the Bordens in buying market milk on 
the basis of its fat test has aroused much discussion 
among farmers. We understand that many farmers 
are dissatisfied with the payments for the first month 
under this system. Their milk tested lower than they 
expected, and thus brought a lower price. The result 
of this change in the basis of payments may be far- 
reaching. not only in money returns but in the breeding 
and selection of cattle for the dairy. We want to have 
the subject discussed and 
analyzed. The following 
letter by Mr. Morse 
starts the discussion, and 
now we want facts and 
opinions from others.] 
T HE thing is work¬ 
ing out just about 
as I predicted that 
it would years ago, 
when I used to stir up 
a hornets’ nest among 
the dairymen readers of 
The R. N.-Y. by advo¬ 
cating that milk ought 
to be sold on a fat con¬ 
tent basis. Then I said 
that milk would be 
worth only just about 
its value for manufac¬ 
ture into butter a n d 
cheese—and that is just 
about what the Bordens 
and others are paying 
for it now. The Bordens 
are paying about $1.20 
per hundred for 3% 
milk, which is 90 cents 
or 30 cents per pound 
for fat. and 30 cents for 
100 pounds of skimmed 
milk. Then they pay 
three cents for each 
one-tenth of 1% of ex¬ 
cess fat, or still 30 
cents per pound for but- 
terfat. This means 26 
cents per pound for but¬ 
ter with no cost for 
manufacture. 
There is no doubt 
that there is a good 
ileal of dissatisfaction 
among many of the 
dairymen because their 
milk is testing so low, 
some of them getting as 
low a test as 2.8% fat 
for the month. Now I 
do not think that the 
milk dealers are steal¬ 
ing from the farmers, 
i am inclined to think 
that they are getting a 
fair deal so far as the 
test goes. There are 
two reasons for this low-testing milk. The first, or 
greatest one, is the fact that their cows are bred to 
gi\e low-testing milk. The big majority of these 
farmers keep grade Holstein cows, and keeping 
grades, they have never been very particular about 
the quality of the purebred bull that stands at the 
head of their herd. He is usually one that has been 
bought from a neighbor breeder of purebreds at a 
1'iice of $2.50 to $5 when about three days old, be¬ 
cause the breeder did not consider him worth rais¬ 
ing. This has been going on for the past 25 or 30 
years, so it will take no very great thinking to un¬ 
derstand the results. 
Another thing that makes milk test low is the 
poor condition of the cows. Peed has been very 
high, and as a result, a good many dairies have 
come out in exceedingly poor flesh this Spring. Un¬ 
til these cows manage to attain a normal condition 
they will surely give poor milk. 
I think most will agree that the purebred Hol¬ 
stein herds are making a better showing than the 
A Scuppernong Grapevine On Roanoke Island, N. C. Fig. 268. 
Measures 69 Inches Around and Spreads Over One Acre. 
grades—unless the grades have a mixture of Jer¬ 
sey or Guernsey. The first reason why the pure¬ 
breds are testing higher than the grades is the fact 
that the Holstein breeders have been doing a whole 
lot of testing and building up their herds by using 
only bulls from high-testing ancestors. Not neces¬ 
sarily from cows with abnormal fat tests, but from 
cows that test well and also give a large flow of 
milk. It has gotten so that few breeders of any dis¬ 
tinction would care to use a bull from a cow that 
lias not made at least 28 pounds of butter in a 
week. The result of this work surely shows up at 
the milk station. 
The other reason is that the breeders of pure¬ 
breds generally can afford to, and do, feed their 
cattle better than other farmers, so that their cows 
seldom are obliged to shut off the fat in their milk 
to build up their own bodies. 
<»n the whole. I think the dairymen are going to 
learn a lesson that will ultimately do them a whole 
lot of good. First, I believe that they will learn 
that the fact an animal 
is purebred does not 
necessarily mean that 
he is valuable. They 
will learn that a pure¬ 
bred may be a scrub, 
and secondly, they will 
learn that milk will 
only bring what it is 
worth as food. That is, 
the real nourishment 
that it contains. 
J. GRANT MORSE. 
Sweet Clover in 
N. Y. State. 
i 
[We have had a mini 
her of questions a bon 
the value of Sweet clov 
er on our Eastern farin'! 
Speakers from Weston 
States frequently coni 
here and advocate Swee 
clover with great euthu 
siasin. We have tried ti 
get fair, cool-headed ad 
vice about the crop, bu 
it is hard to get it. Tin 
following note from Mr 
Allen is a reasonable 
statement.] 
HAVE grown, o: 
tried to grow Swee 
clover for five years 
The seed catalog u< 
tells about its grow in; 
on poor soil so well, 
have spent a lot of tinu 
and money trying t< 
grow it on poor soil 
and met with completi 
failure. I have beei 
unable to grow it any 
where except where A1 
fa If a would grow. 1 
have a 10-acre field oi 
the flat back of mj 
house. This is madt 
land. This field hat’ 
corn on in 1912; May 
1913, I first harrowed 
and sowed Sweet clov 
er. In July I turned 
cattle on it; cows did 
well as for giving milk; 
1914 in Spring turned 
12 head of young cattle 
on it. also in April, 
1914, sowed seed on it again. In June it stood five 
feet high. I cut 15 big loads of hay. Cattle ran in 
all the time. T cut it too low and killed about one- 
half the stand. 
This hay laid out in a two-weeks’ rain. I then 
put it in the barn and the cattle would eat it as 
clean as, or cleaner, than they would the Alfalfa. I 
also cut eight big loads of seed in the Fall. This 
year there isn’t any Sweet closer in the field, but in 
the bottom the young plants are coming as thick 
as can be, so I am going to leave it over. I shall 
