The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1893-07-21
AN AFTERNOON WITH THE COWS.
A Few Notes About the Greatest Dair!
Test That Ever Was.

A Few Notes About the Greatest Dairy
Test That Ever Was.
If anything can be determined posi-
lively as to which is the best dairy COW,
It ought to be this summer at the Worlds
fair grounds. Such thoroughgoing
and extended trial was never before
made in the records of cheese and butter
history. Three breeds of cows-Jersey,
Guernsey and Shorthorn-are each
claimed by their advocates to be thebe
dairy breed. The associations of breed
Irs of these respective varieties selected
g5 of the best specimens of their COWS
from all over the country and entered
them for this six months test. DR.. S.
M. Babcock of Babcock milk test fame
is one of the commissioners to watch the
cows night and day and see that all is
done fairly. The commissioners witness
the weighing out of rations for rs cows
three times day, beginning at 5 o'clock
in the morning They must also witness
the weighing of every pound of milk,
the making of every pound of cheese
and butter.
The COWS entered were those calving
at nearly the same time on the exposi-
ton grounds. The contention will be as
to which breed of cows yields the most
butter and cheese at the least expense of
feed.
My afternoon with the Worlds fair
cows was one of the most interesting Of
my visits at the exposition. They were
beauties, those COWS. First visited the
Guernseys. The enthusiastic superin-
tendent, Professor Caldwell of the
Pennsylvania Agricultural college, kind
ly escorted me through the Guernsey
stables. Here l saw some Of Vice Presi-
dent Morton's COWS from the famous
Ellerslie herd that visited last fall. The
Guernsey people make this distinctive
claim for the animal they believe to be
the coming cow-that she will make the
most butter at the least expense of food.
She is also larger than the Jersey, there
fore of value for beef, they say.
They talk SO eloquently you are al
most disposed to VOW that you will get
a Guernsey COW. But meanwhile you
pass to the Jersey stables, under the
superintendent of that shrewd Yam
kee- Canadian, Mr.. Valancey E. Fuller.
He is best known in connection with
the great st. Lambert cow family.
Mr.. Fuller whips out his paper and
pencil and proves to you in three sec
onds that the greatest amount tof net
butter profit to given amount Of feed
doesn't mean at all the greatest average
per cent of butter profit that you can
get out of a cow Then you are all
muddled in your mind and wonder
which of these honest, good looking
conference.-the Guernsey man or the
Jersey man-is fooling you. Among the
Jersey COWS undergoing the test is a
black and white one that you would
stake your head is Holstein-F riesian.
She is large and of the general form of
the Holsteins. But she is the pure bred,
registered Jersey Ida's Marigold and
one of the best cows in the test.
Mr.. Fuller does not believe in much
cornmeal for Jerseys, especially fresh
cows. He says fresh COW is generally
in a more or less feverish condition for
the first week or SO and that cornmeal
aggravates this condition. His favorite
food in the Jersey ration is what is
called hominy feed-that is to say, the
refuse left over after making hominy at
the factory. The best corn for both
hominy and the cows is the southern
hominy corn.
Among the big Shorthorns are one or
two that have given the enormous
amount of So pounds Of milk day.
learned incidentally when visiting the
Worlds fair COWS that in weighing and
measuring milk it is estimated that
about two pounds Of milk make quart.
Some of the Shorthorns weigh 1,400
pounds. They seem tremendous after
looking at the slim little Jerseys. The
animals are so carefully tended that they
arenot allowed to be disturbed even to the
extent of making them rise when they
are lying down. Some of the Short
horns, however, had precious little of
that kind of care before they were
brought to the fair. One or two looked
like real rackabones, with their ribs
standing out hungrily. They were not
shedding well, but looked ragged and
woolly and faded. The reason of it all
was that they had been wintered badly
not comfortably housed or fed enough
through the cold weather They had
been crowded with food since their ar
rival. but it took long time to bring
them into condition. The contrast be-
tween these forlorn beasts and the sleek.
pretty creatures around them was an
object lesson not to be forgotten. The
man who will winter a COW in that way
ought to be half starved and made to
year his spring overcoat for a couple Of
winters in blizzard weather. Then he
would find out how it goes himself.
The cheesemaking test was just finish
ing when | visited the cows. The mod
ern theory Of several gentlemen at the
agricultural experiment stations and
elsewhere is that milk which is richest
in butter fat is also richest in all the
other solids; hence the milk that makes
the most butter will also yield the most
cheese, if the theory be true. The result
of the cheesemaking test promised to
sustain this doctrine In an inclosed
case with a window in it to look through
were the cheeses that had been made
daily from the separate yields of milk
of the three breeds-the largest cheeses
from the Jersey yield, the next largest
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