Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1916-12-22
KEEP cows RECORD.
(From the Weekly News Letter of I

| (trom the weekly News Letter of the
U. S. Department of Agricultural
That the appearance of dairy
cow cannot be depended on to indi-
cate her production of milk is illus
trated by demonstration conduct
cd under the auspices of the Dairy
Division of the department with n
herd of nine cows at the National
Daily Show held recently mt Spring
field, Mass.
A year. record Of milk and butter
fat already had been made for all the
cows of the herd. During the show
complete records of production and
feed consumption were kept and in
every case the previous records were
duplicated. Some of tn COWS were of
poor dairy type, yet were good pro-
ducers; others were of good dairy
type yet poor producers; still 9TH
ers of similar appearance had great
ly different records. OF the last-nnm-
ed class were Nos. 8 and 8. Many
experienced stockmen selected No. 8
MS the better of the two. but the rec
ords showed that for the last year
NO. gave S,445 pounds of milk and
346 of fat compared with 4,279 of
milk and 1913 of fat for No. 9. This
served as an object lesson to the
hundreds of people who daily viewed
the demonstration that good dairy
type is not always associated with
large production and that poor dairy
type does not Indicate lack of large
yield.
-"What does it cost to keep rec
ortls?" was common question of
the dairymen. In contrasting asso-
Citations, where the abovc-quoted rec
ords were made, the charge is $1.5O
a month for each COW, and in addition
the board of the tester for one day
each month. Whit feed, labor, and
live stock so high, it certainly Is i'm
perative to eliminate every unncccs-
sary expense like the "boardcr" or
"robber" COW that fails to pay even
for her feed
In the big room Mt the dairy show
where the cows were sanctioned
were several hundred comfortable
seats. Here several times each day
well-known dairymen from various
parts of the country talked to the
large audience OH dairy problems, il
.ustrating their remarks with the
cows of the demonstration herd.
Especial attention was laid upon
the value of records in economical
management.
Cooperative bull associations vera
carefully described and their many
advantages explained. That it was
possible to have high-class bulls of
The finest breeding for the use of n
dairyman with only few cows SEEM
ed to many farmers as too good to
bc true, especially when the cost was
wen less than in the case of scrub
bulls In this connection the charts
he -l,...A Il Al ia
holland, Iowa, before and after the
,,icitcd much interest. At that place
.cr a yearly investment of $3.50 each
he members have the use OF five
f240 bulls for ten years
On the walls of the demonstration
room were, pictures of famous dairy
animals, charts showing results of
record-keeping, etc. Adjoining were
skeleton milk 90 dairy houses, with |
the sides only partially finished, to
show the construction; also Il model |
of a dairy barn and silo. In the |
houses was dairy equip |
ment, and man in charge answered |
questions on dairying and explained |
the construction of these and all 9th |
or kinds of dairy buildings.
At regular periods demonstrations |
i'll the sterilization of milk untensils |
were given with the Inexpensive farm
sterilizer described in Farmers Bull |
letin 748; these demonstrations were
well attended.
There was also keen interest in |
every part of the demonstrations, as |
may be pudged from the fact that |
about 5000 people listened to lee |
lures and fully $4,000 viewed the cx-
hibits.
Control Clover Sickness.
The results so far obtained in ex-
periments in clover-sick regions, be-
ing carried on by the department in
cooperation with the Indiana and the
experiment stations, indi-
cate that in the cases investigated |
the incorporation of certain green
together with proper fer
tiliZer treatment, accomplishes con-
troll of this trouble.
Imported Hides.
New and simplified regulations
governing the disinfection and i'm
portation of hides, based on invcsti-
cations in recent years, have been
by joint action of the
United States Treasury Department
and the Department of Agriculture
to become effective January l, 1917.
Under these regulations the most
stringent requirements are those for
the exclusion of anthrax. The other
diseases against which safeguards
are established are foot-and-mouth
disease and rinderpest.