DAIRY TEST.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1717, 25 January 1905, Page 63

DAIRY TEST.

JERSEYS ON TOP. We are indebted to Mr A. Buchanan, of Palmerston North, for copies of “T3io Jersey Bulletin, ” containing lengthy accounts of the St. Louis Exposition dairy tost, in which the Jerseys beat all other competitors. The test, extending over a period of 120 days, was in charge of a committee of Agricultural Experiment Station men, consisting of the late Major 11. E. Alvard, Professor EL H. Farrington, and Prof. C. F. Curtiss, Prof. Farrington having personal charge and being on the ground during the entire period. The rules as formulated by tho various breed representatives and the W orlds’ Fair management, were carried out in detail by the committee, having as assistants from nine to twelve instructors and students from the various agricultural colleges, who' acted as chemists, checkers, and the clerical force on the recrods. In each barn were two station men, who checked the weights of feed and milk, compiled the feed and milk sheets, which, under their supervision, were given to Prof. Farrington; took the samples for testing purposes, labelling them and locking them up for delivery under seal to the laboratory; saw that the feed, when weighed, was properly placed in th* individual feed boxes, and locked up until fed; and kept watch of the emptying of tie milk pails, and the milking.

A Jefferson guard was at all times on duty to assist the checkers in being sure that nothing out. of the ordinary routine took place, that no feed was given out irregularly; that strangers were kept out of the stalls, etc. The cows were fed while being milked, three times a day—the noon, night fend morning milking constituting a day’s yield. Each milking was weighed and sampled, and the composite sample of the three milkings was tested. The testing was done by the chem r ists in the laboratory of the Model Dairy in the Agricultural Building, and the results returned by them to Prof. Farrington. Thus every precaution was taken to insure honesty and accuracy of results.

Each stall in the Jersey barn was provided with a brick of salt. Each cow was watered twice daily and exercised in the late afternoon, and had only the ordinary care of the good dairyman. No butter was made, the average fat percentage of each cow being used as the factor by which butter was estimated on the basis of 83 per cent, fat, with an ever-run allowed for the richness of milk. The over-run table was compiled by Prof. Farrington, and recognised the difference in the churnabiiity of milks varying in richness.

Following i are the herd averages: — M M - 4-S 1 _ fi-S a O O 4-3 c<3 4-1 m Ifl f-» Ph 92 St JS O ft, o £ & pH c3 .ft o — < O «> u, W © c$ ft © b. y r P <D **"* © ©1 fcc © KJ ft f-t " O fc£i«+-i c3 O © > CU . > © <D ►> O t> <J p. <1 <4 Jersey 4981.0 41.5 4.7 232.43 Holstein . 64-11.3 53,4 3.4 219.89 Brown Swiss 5301.6 44.2 3.6 191.56 Shorthorn . 41.52.0 34.6 3.6 153.41 VALUE (In : Dollars.) Value A verage Value total net fat products profit per cow . per cow. per cow. Dol. Dol. Del. Jersey 69.73 82.81 53.91 Holstein 65.97 81.23 46.85 Brown Swiss 57.4-7 7 1.58 38.69 Shorthorn ... 46.02 56.74 30.18