

MILKING RECORDS. 183° 
MILKING RECORDS. + !* 
Bie Cala BAGH: 
——e ¢@_ ——- 
One of the obstacles to successful dairying is the inability to 
secure competent milkers. ‘The first question asked of an ap- 
plicant for a position upon a dairy farm is, ‘‘Can you milk?’’ 
A young man who answered the above question by saying that 
he had always milked at home was engaged at the college farm. 
At the end of a week the milk records showed a shrinkage of 12 
per cent. in the amount of milk secured from six cows which 
had been assigned this man to milk. An investigation fol- 
lowed, and at the close of the next milking these six cows were 
immediately milked a second time, and the following amounts 
of milk were obtained: 
Rob Butterfly, - - - - - - - - 33 lbs: 
Prehaps, - - - - - - - -, - 2.50 ps 
Rob Butterfly, 2nd, - - - - - i ~ bie telat 
Rose, 2nd; —- - - - - - - - - 5.65 lbs. 
Petite; —- - - ~ - - - - - PRG ade, 
Jane S, - - - . - - - - - - 4.8 \bs. 
Otaly- +. ‘= - - ears = - - - =o Poora cele 
This milk tested 10.6 per cent. and contained 2.36 pounds 
of fat. At another time six cows milked by one individual 
made a shrinkage of 70 pounds in seven days, while the rest 
of the herd held their own. ‘These and other similar experi- 
ences suggest the value of dairy records. Marked shrinkages 
like the above might be noticed in the pail, but smaller varia- 
tions might go unnoticed where a record is not kept. While 
it is important to keep an individual record of the milk flow of 
each cow, that the owner may know at the end of the year 
which are the profitable and which the unprofitable cows in 
his herd, the same record may serve as a check upon the milk- 
eran -/If John, James, and Julius milk six cows each, the record 
of the milkers might be kept as follows: 
