AN IMPORTANT MUK RECOUP.

Otago Witness, Issue 2471, 24 July 1901, Page 6

AN IMPORTANT MUK RECOUP.

Tl:e seventeenth annual report of the Agricultural Experiment Station of the University of Wisconsin, which has bsen recently issued, contains one very important papar giving the record for the year of the dairy herd of the University, comprised of five shorthorns, or rather, shui thorn grades?, three Jerseys, two Guernseys. aVi two Hoisteins. The highest profit dunng the yen* in this herd of 12 cow? va- a: ado by the seven-year-old siunhmu. F.'^r. Her feed cost £8, wh'eh wa« the highest of the lot, but her total profit was £19, or about £4 better than tLe second highest, which also was a shortL .r;i. Rose gave 11,1511b of milk during 365 days, with an average percentage of 4.7 of butter fai ; Aland, with, the second-best rccoid, gkve 10.1001b of milk in 365 da;, s. with an average percenage of 4.15 burter f«it. The third most profitable was tl<3 Jersey, Goodrich, a five-year-old, which, in 347 days, gave 74731b of milk, with a percentage of 5 3 butter far. She ate £7 worth, and the profit fro3n the sale of milk and butter was £14. Pauline, another shorthorn, was fourth ; was six: years old, and in 365 d\vs she gave 7996'b milk, with an average percentage of 4.1 fat, and a profit of £12. The eleventh on the list was the two-year-old shorthorn heifer, Princess, which, in 316 days, gave 69731b milk, with a percentage of 4.! d butter fat, and left a profit of nearly £10. The lowest profit (of £9) was made by the shorthorn, Janesville Rose, which, at 12 years of age, gave, in 358 days, 78331b of milk, with 4 per cent, butter fat. Her food; owing to the bad quality of her teeth, cost naturally more than it would otherwise have done. The cow Rose, which stood at the top. is a high-grade shorthorn. Her fourth dam was a common scrub or native cow, with no pretensions to a high type of dairy form or performance. She stands fairly high, Ayith prominent hook bones, very deep behind, and with a finely female neck, tapering to a very intelligent-looking head. The second one, "Maud, vas bred in the same way as Ko.se, except t'idt the latter had one more cross of a shorthorn sire. She is a thickerlooking cow, of more masculine appearance than Rose, but with a fine neck and head. Pauline, again, is one of the heaviest and most beefy cows in the herd, and the pre r vious year was one of the poorest producers in the" herd, so that the record of one year I cannot bo taken as a test of a cow's milking powers. The lecords of the two years from this herd contain some surprising re* suits in favour of the grade shorthorn as profitable milkers. These representatives were bought from four herds widely se-

parated, and bred from a variety of different lines of breeding. Janesvil'.e Rose, the 12-year-old, shows the wonderful power and vitality of her class. Her record is one U>at any Jersey, Guernsey, or Holstein cow V'glit be proud of. Princess, with two top < --usses of Scotclibred beefing bulls in her pedigree, has shown a record as a two- } ear-old that very few purebred special purpose dairy animals can be expected to excel. Her udder is very small at times, but very symmetrical. It is a constant wonder .when milking her how so 'much milk is secreted by so small a vessel.