The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-09-25
EFFICIENT COW
 DOUBLES YIELD
 IN FIFTY YEARS
Better Care and Breeding Largely Responsible for
 Greater Production.

Investigators have found that fifty years ago the average COW produced about 2500 pounds of milk per year. Now the average production in this state Is a little better than 5000 rounds. The COW in her natural state is not much different than most other animals. She freshened in the spring of the year and produced only enough milk to maintain her calf for a few months. Probably from 1900 to 1900 bounds was as much as she ever pro- duced.
 Not only has the modern dairy1nan by better breeding, selection and care developed a COW that averages over three times as much milk as she did in her natural condition, but he has trained that COW to do this out of season; for not only must the con- sumers have milk during the months in the year when the COW most nat IIrally produces that milk, but the consumers must also have 1t in other times of the year when the COW in her natural state would be dry.
 To do this the dairyr1an must keep the cows in better barns than many people have houses. They must feed ;he COWS rntions that are scientifically balanced to meet her exact needs, and great skill must be constantly used in breeding and selection to pre- vent the COW from revorting to her natural state. Even with the skill and years of attention that have been given to the problem 1t is impossible to exactly regulate the supply of milk. The COW is stin an animal not machine. She does the best and produces the most milk in May and June when conditions most nearly approach the natural. During this period she produces more milk than the people of the cities use in the whole state thereby causing the so- called surplus. But later in July and August when the pastures dry up and the heat and flies increase, her
 milk supply falls off and there is a scarcity.
 So in order that the consumer may
 have anywhere near enough during the scarce periods there must be at
 certain times more than enough in flush periods. This is a consumers problem as well as a farmers prob lem, for 1t Is to the consumers in terest to have an adequate supply at 1 all times.
 One of the questions constantly raised in milk investigations is whether or not milk is being pro- duced as cheapIy as possible. The point Is ofter made that formers pay no attention to increasing the average ! production per COW.
 | There is, of course. in dairying as i in any ether occupation, chance for ! improvement. No sympathy should be ] wasted on the man who keeps his [ barns full of bOar1er cows, and the next quarter of a century will show ! an increase in the average production per COW. But this increase is not ! clear gain, for the more the average production Is increased, the more skill 1 and care and to a certain extent feed, ! there must be used. That the dairy ! men of this country are inefficient i can very well be questioned.
 i It Is with general averages in any 1 line that we are concerned, not with 1 the high or the low extremes; and ! 1t is difficult, if not impossible, to i find in any other business especially l where animals are concerned a. one hundred per cent. improvement in the general average in fifty years.