The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-08-10

spanish settlers. In the leading dairy states Jerseys, Guernseys, Ayrshlres and Holstein-Frieslands are demonstrating the fact that the better the breed or the COWS the better the milk products, and the hlgher returns from the sales. The pro- gress in this line in the past half cen tury is remarkable. It was in the htties that the first successful attempt To im- prove whole herd was made, and that was by zadock Pratt, New Yorker, who weeded out his worst COWS and built up his heard by purchase and inbreeding until he raised his butter production from lO pounds for the year 1892, to 20 pounds eleven years later Records of individual cows began to be kept, and now there are as noted cows as there are horses or dogs.
 The first COW of record is the "Oakes Cow of Massachusetts, who in l8l6 made stir in agricultural circles by giving forty-four pounds of milk a day, and ACT pounds of butter in one season. A COW must give six or seven quarts of milk a day for 300 days to be regarded as profitable. This means 40O0 or 45O0 pounds year. Brown Bessie the champion butter COW at the Chicago Worlds Fair, made a record of 3364 pounds of milk and 2l6.64 pounds of butter for ninety days. She was a pure bred Jersey. An Oregon COW named Loretta D. led in the dairy COW demonstration at the St. Louis expo- sition, where a test was made for the economic production of milk and butter fat. She weighed 1000 pounds and in the 12O days of the test she produced five times her own weight in milk, and over one-third of her weight in butter.
 Experts agree that cows producing 5000 pounds of milk and 200 pounds of butter annually are in reach of every farmer or dairymen, who will take the pains to bring his cows up to such standard. The average yield now for each COW is less than 4000 pounds of milk and about 160 pounds of butter At last years Ma tional Dairy show the silver medal win ming herd was composed of twenty sa cows of mixed breeds, including Jersey, Holstein and Shorthorn grades, but the barn where they were housed was good and clean, their food was of the best, and the milk was handled in a sanitary and scientific manner.
 Thirty-ive states have laws in refer ence to milk for market, and nine other states and territories include milk in some way in their pure food legislation. AL most every city, town and village has legislated on the subject This has be- come necessary from the fact that in the past few years over fifty epidemlcs have been traced to milk. Milk is most hospltable to the admission of microbes, and while the cows may be perfectly healthy. through the handling of milk, typhoid, diptheria, scarlet fever, cholera and tuberculosis have been spread. Holy oke. Mass, has refused to accept milk that comes in cans with wooden stoppers, for one one bacteriologist found oyer 55000,000 bacteria.
 Whey from the cheese factories, was once fed to hogs or thrown away. Now 1t Is sold to other factories who make milk sugar" from 1t. The annual whey product Is about 300 100000 pounds. this is valued at s25o, GOO, and has given this country the distinction of leading in the production of milk sugar. though 1t Is true there are only three or four factories here. A Kansas man has recently discov- cred a method of converting buttermilk into solid, which can be fed back to his COWS.
 Tomorrow: aDlstinctive Features of Washington"