The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1911-01-20

must lose as long as. he insists on
operating with such cows. He can
invest his $1,000 in,tsay, twelve cows
/ that cost 500 apiece. and these
cows will give him more milk than
the thirty scrubs give him. He
would save the feed Of eighteen cows
with all the labor and other costs
of their keep, and he ! would be in
the way to make money. 81 s.,.
There is in sight no change in farm
and market conditions that promises
ever to put a profit into dairyig car
ried on with cows that average / 900
to 1900 quarts of milk per head
per year, and producers may as we'll
open their eyes to this truth, The
proposition to-, make milk with such
cows is an absurdity, because it is
proved beyond all possibility of
doubt that they put more money in
to their milk than they can hope
ever to get out. Of it when it is, sold
in the market. .g9@o@ d 1,I6 si
The student of milk production
is surprised every day to observe
what large number of herds he will
find that average less, than. 800
quarts per head per year. The ow-
ners of these herds say that they can
not "afford better cows" The truth
is that they can not afford" these
cows. One correspondent says that
last summer in a tour Of over 300
so called ''dairy farms he found
less than twenty herds whose average
yield was large enough to bring the
cost Of production inside Of the net
returns of their milk sold at the
average price of the year. The
twenty who owned those herds were
making money. The other 180 own
ers were losing money on their
small-yield' herds. The lesson is
plain. The conclusion is inevitable.
C. B. Lane, one of the experts of
the u. S. Department Of Agriculture,
is authority for the following state
ment Of facts that bear upon the con-
dition described: ,@.a,q-ss.,.s s,,.,
Many of the state experiment
stations have shown the Importance
of keeping careful records of the in
dividual cows, and thus determining
which are profitable and which are
kept at a loss. At the Georgia
station the best COW in the herd gave
1858 pounds Of milk which produced
butter worth $115.44, while the
poorest COW in the same herd gave
only 2,788 pounds of milk with a
butter value of only $41.63. At the
Michigan station the profit on the
milk from different COWS varied
from $6.O8 to $94.05. AT the New
Jersey station the profits from differ
ent cows varied from 13 cents to
$49.72 when milk was valued at 81
100 pounds. At the Connecticut
(Storrs) station during the year
1903 the best COW gave a profit of
$54.72 and the poorest $B.76. In
this case the best cow gave a profit
of nearly twice that Of the, average
cow in the herd. At the Worlds
Columbian exposition, Chicago, the
COW with the best individual record
made two and one-third times as
much butter as the poorest of the
seventy five. 'tui-f'ist'}ss'n. 3si'ifs9sEi'.
F. While the difference between the
best and the poorest animals ii the
cases given are great, the poorest
cows reported are not SO poor as
many of those kept by dairymen who
make no, accurate tests and who
rarely know anything of what each
animal is actually doing. ao1Isuf
,naIhe Illinois experiment station.
latter testing a agnumber of herds in
that state, comments as folloWs::t ~
Nearly every herd we have tested
has proved that some Of the cows
produce butter enough to pay a
handsome profit to the owner, while
Eothers that require the same feed.
care and time spent in milking do
mot make butter enough to pay for
|,thenfeed they eat.;,t0nef man ,owhc
kept twelve cows got more i money
for the milk Of three Of them than
|he did for that of allfthe other nine
put together. 8 sia''' :. : !. -
~. 9s.II4s.3.17 a TEfIgliF s{Runa .ifG
Harbor where they resided until her