Norwich bulletin., 1916-08-29
TEN BOYS ATTENDED
 CATTLE JUDGING LESSON.
Are Proving Apt Puplls and Show Much Interest In the Coming Con- test.

l len poyS were present aG the cattle | Judging lesson on the farm of J. D. | Avery on Saturday. The lesson was
 in SAyrshires and was the fourth in the
 series. The boys are proving apt pu- l pils.
 Last week County Agent F. c. War
 ner sent out total of 5os circulars,
 and made 1S farm visits. This week 1 MT. Warner and Secretary w. o. l Rogers are busy completing arrange
 ments for the county farm bureau ex-
 hfbtt at the fair next week. They are 1 preparing charts and arranging for
 the various other details that go to l make up a modern farm bureau ex- hibit. Miss M. B. Sprague of the U.
 s. Department of Agriculture has been | secured as the canning demonstrator. | Secretary Rogers is sending out a 1 number of cards in an effort to in- 1 crease the growing interest in the
 county bureau work. The cards read
 as follows:
 Do you know that there are over 1,- | 400 counties in the United States hav
 ing County Agents. Every county in Connecticut has 8 Farm Bureau. Ev- cry county but one has a County your county contribute to the support | of the Farm Bureau, three dollars are put in from public funds. The seven | County Agents of Connecticut in the first six months of the year held 75 l demonstration meetings with an at 1 tendance of 1,273. Five hundred and | fifty other meetings with al attend
 ance of 12.777. They visited 1,560 3,320 telephone calls, and sent out A. l 743 letters.
 The members of the Farm Bureaus
 are carrying on under the direction
 of the County Agents 32 clover and lmie demonstrations. 3S alfalfa demon- | stratIons. 27 soy bean tests, and 64 corn and silage variety tests.
 Extensive and successful campaigns
 have been carried on for improved
 live stock and high grade bulls.
 Valuable work has been done in or Ganized marketing of farm crops. Thousands of children have been suc- ceSsful members of Boys and Girls
 clubs. Valuable studies of Farm Man.
 agement have been made throughout
 the state Do you know that your
 Farm Bureau is at your service?
 Cow test associations are of partic>
 ular interest at the present time to
 the farmers of New London county,
 many of whom come to the fair in | this city every September to see what
 kind of stock their county neighbors are raising. so the object. history and methods CA' Operatin of the association will not be amiss
 The primary purpose of the Cow Test associat: :on is to obtain records of the yearly production of milk and
 butter from each individual animal, al- 1 so to keep records of the feeds and l their cost and from this data obtained,
 the poor cows may be eliminated and only the most profitable ones kept. Thus a strain of cows may be de- ! veloped which will produce large
 amount of milk rich in butter fat In every case where there have been 5 COW test associations started there has 1 been COW test asSOCia tions started there has been a surprising increase in production and also a surprising in- crease in net profits. The agricuI- 1 tural schools and colleges are training men to fill such positions. The com ) mon belief among farmers is that the l man who does the milking knows the best and poorest cows in the herd 2 but that COW test associations have proven that this is not so, many fac
 tors enter in, to lead the judgment as- l tray. The COW that gives a generous $ flow of milk in the last few weeks o1 7 her period of lactation is usually re- l garded as the best COW. she may soor
 go dry or nearly so. but this is not no l ticed, and only memory of the large l flow she gave when fresh fingers ir 9 the mind of the owner. Another COW ]. may give a small or average flow an6 l keep it up during the whole period = but she is not considered especially good although she may be far ahead t of the the other in reality. No milk ; CT can tell without weighing the mill I regularly, whether a COW gives 6,00( , or 9000 pounds of milk in a year; stil ! the difference between profit and loss = on that particular COW.
 \ The cow tester arrives at the home r | of the farmer in the afternoon and re. q mains there for "A hours, when he i!
 i carried by the farmer to the farm O. S the next member of the association Q On his arrival at the stable, the test y l CT enters in a book which he carrie! = for this purpose the name and tht q number of each COW in the hero q | whether she gives milk or not. As i = is the purpose of the work to aSCer n tain the actual status of the whole f herd as well as the individual, ever,
 | COW in the stable should be entered or
 the list It is obvious that if only thu
 cows with large yields were entered
 | into the list at the end of the yea A the herd would show higher aVerag U than the truth would warrant. Flo 5 this reason, and in hope of obtaining
 commercial advantages from such higl
 records, some dairymen have prefer
 red not to have the whole herd tested but it is rule of the cow testing as Sf sociation to obtain a record of ever, = animal in the herd which has had on = calf and no records are made Wher # such is not the case. The COW test , CT takes part in feeding the cows an = while doing so he weighs the amour
 of roughage and grain each COW re a ceives, and records this date in boo " which he carries with him at all tmefs a The milk yielded by each COW ,S weighed and samples of it are obtain ' | ed for testing, records of the feed an ~. yield for each individual are again ob "a tained and recorded next morning an ,o the fat determination is made. Dur - ing the forenoon calculations are mad n and entered in the record book whiC F. at all times remains in the possessio Y, of the farmer. the milking is done a IT, the usual milking time in order ,a avoid error.
 s; coMpENsnTIoN AGREEMENTS